Nyambaria High School in Nyamira County has fully embraced clean energy for their cooking needs at the institution to combat the detrimental effects of climate change in the region.
The institution’s Chief Principal, Charles Onyari, told KNA during an interview that the institution has fully embraced the use of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) for all their school’s cooking needs, which has combated several harmful effects on the environment, health, and climate.
“We readily embraced the use of LPG for our school’s cooking needs because the use of firewood over time had brought about several challenges both to the school and the surrounding environment,” he said.
Mr. Onyari said the use of firewood emitted a lot of smoke in the whole school compound, making the kitchen and its environs very untidy due to wood litter all over the place, and sometimes the food could have traces of smoke smell. Further, it took too long to cook food, especially during the rainy seasons, because the firewood was always wet.
“Moreover, rampant cutting down of trees as a source of firewood for the school’s large population was directly contributing to deforestation, thus accelerating drought, which affects regular climate patterns,” he noted.
“Our cooks who were overexposed to smoke had started developing health complications with their eyes, which is why we readily embraced the use of clean energy, which to date we do not regret,” he added.
He said the use of clean energy in the school was operationalised in 2021, and their consumption has been increasing because the student population has increased.
The school cateress Divina Ongeri, said on a regular day, they operationalise 18 boilers to cook food for a student population of 3500 and a teaching and non-teaching staff of 200 at the institution.
Ms. Ongeri confirmed that cooking with gas is very efficient because all the food cooks well at the same time and there are no delays in serving students.
“Initially, firewood suppliers could bring freshly cut trees, which instead of lighting to produce sufficient heat for well-cooked food, emitted a lot of smoke and left the food smelly. We served students late because food took long to cook and the smoke had affected the eyes of the cooks,” she said.
The head cook in the school, David Osumo, who has served in the institution for 24 years, said that with the use of firewood for a long time, his eyes had started failing because of overexposure to smoke, but when the use of clean energy was introduced, working has been very enjoyable.
“When we used firewood as a source of fuel, cooks used to wake up at 3 a.m. to start lighting the boilers and still could sometimes be late to serve breakfast at the appropriate time. Further, the smoke was detrimental to my eyes and those of my colleagues, and we were afraid to lose sight before our retirement age,” Mr. Osumo said.
He said that since the school initiated the use of clean energy, working is enjoyable because they wake up at 5:00 a.m. and still serve breakfast as scheduled because gas is lit instantly.
“We cook for a very short time because constant heat is supplied to all the boilers during the cooking time, and our eyes have naturally started recovering,” he added.
The school bursar, Alice Nyatichi, said the school procures 4000kg of LPG every month and serves them perfectly.
“We have never had any mechanical hitches so far ever since we started using it, and our LPG suppliers have been doing regular servicing of the pipes that supply the gas to the boilers in the kitchen,” said Ms. Nyatichi.
Onyari said the initial installation was done courtesy of Equity Bank, and he is encouraging institutions with large populations to embrace the use of clean energy or even biogas in family settings because this will combat the effects of climate change, which have surely affected economic growth because a huge chunk of resources are used in reclaiming the lost natural environment.
By Deborah Bochere
