A total of 14,000 energy efficient cooking stoves, able to save 80 per cent of firewood, will be distributed to refugee camps in the country.

The "Save80 steel stoves” are produced by the Integrated Polytechnic Regional Centre- Kigali (IPRC Kigali) on the request of the Ministry of Disaster Management and Refugee Affairs (MIDIMAR).

According to Veneranda Ingabire, Programme Manager for Disaster Project at MIDIMAR, the stoves are part of Rwf1.5 billion two-year project dubbed; "Environment Protection in and around Refugee Camps”, that started in May 2015 and ends May 2017.

The project funded by Rwanda Environment and Climate Change Fund (FONERWA).

In an interview with The New Times last week, Paulin Ruzibiza, the Manager of the Production Unit at IPRC Kigali, said the cooking stoves are intended to reduce the amount of firewood used for cooking or other heating activities in the refugee camps.

Ruzibiza noted that one stove costs Rwf17,800 and 6,000 have already been distributed in refugee camps of Gihembe, Gicumbi District, Nyabiheke in Gatsibo District and Mahama in Kirehe District.

He noted that they started with the refugees as they often need firewood, thus the need for an efficient firewood consumption policy.

"We decided to give them the stoves to reduce firewood consumption and to plant trees to restore forest cover,’ said Ingabire.

The project will also see 200 hectares of trees planted in and around the four refugee camps.

There are about 160,000 refugees in six refugee camps in the country, namely; Kiziba in Karongi District, Nyabiheke, Gihembe, Kigeme in Nyamagabe District, Mugombwa in Gisagara District and Mahama.

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