Determinants of household cooking fuels and their impact on women's health in rural Pakistan.

Use of biomass with traditional cooking technologies causes indoor air pollution and is responsible for 3.5 million deaths globally. Women play the main role in biomass-based energy systems in developing countries. The current study attempted to estimate determinants of household cooking fuels and impacts of fuels on women's health in rural Pakistan. The results of the study show that 75.5% of the households in the study area use fuelwood, 44.4% use LPG, and 27.9% use crop residues for cooking. Households with LPG spend on average 3.02 h/day for cooking while households with biomass spend almost 4 h. Health expenditures of households using biomass are almost 25% higher than those using LPG. Use of traditional biomass with traditional devices was found to be having negative impacts on rural women's life. Household composition, education, income, access to electricity and LPG, and distance from the market were found to be significant factors affecting the choice of fuels for cooking. Clean energy and technologies and empowerment through education and awareness will help minimize the negative impacts of biomass fuels on women.

Rural household preferences for cleaner energy sources in Pakistan.

Dependence of rural population on traditional fuel sources namely biomass has increased because of easy accessibility and affordability. The use of biomass fuels results in many environmental and health-related hazards. Rural households have little awareness about the ill effects of using biomass energy sources. This study investigated the patterns of rural household energy use and identified the role of information on the effects of biomasses on human health, in addition to other factors influencing households' choices of energy sources. For this purpose, primary data from 196 households were collected from four districts of the Punjab province in Pakistan. Results showed that use of clean energy sources was limited to basic appliances and 90% of the respondents depended on biomass fuels. Estimates of the multivariate probit model showed that awareness about adverse impacts of biomass fuels as energy sources were significantly related with the choice of energy sources. Further, household head's education level, household income, landholding, children under the age of 5 years and higher number of adult females were significantly related with the cleaner energy source choices. Distance to market increased the probability of the use of biomass energy sources. The study concluded that awareness campaigns regarding the benefits of using clean energy sources should be launched through print and electronic media while targeting rural women.