Household Energy Consumption Pattern and Its Implication on Socio-economic and Environment in Nekemte Town

Abstract

In many developing countries, household energy consumption causes tremendous damage to the environment and human health. The main energy source in urban communities in Ethiopia and elsewhere in developing countries is biomass fuel consisting of wood, charcoal, leaves, and agricultural residues. The variation on their consumption pattern may have significant environmental and socio-economic impacts. Hence, the aim of the current study is to determine the household energy consumption pattern and its socio-economic and environmental implication in Nekemte town. A cross sectional survey was conducted from July 8–14, 2013 on 415 households systematically selected from 6 sub-cities of the Town. A questionnaire involving households‘ fuel use, conversion facilities and socio-demographic factors were used to collect the information. The study revealed that the common household energy sources used for cooking were biomass fuels, kerosene and electricity. About 61% of the household uses biomass energy for basic cooking Injera services and almost all households use electrical energy for lighting except during the blackout. Availability of firewood, lack of own electric connection, assumption that firewood is less costly were identified as factors affecting the level electricity of cooking. Annually about 20 thousand tons of biomass of which 10128 tons firewood and 3527tons charcoal) are used in the town, implies that about 1200 hectares of forest is lost and 25483 tons of CO2-e is emitted to the atmosphere. It can be concluded that availability of electricity does not guarantee the availability for cooking and other factors needs to be considered