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Pharmaceutical firm AstraZeneca has partnered with Biogas International Ltd to introduce the technology in Dunga Beach, Kisumu County.
The Anglo — Swedish multinational will provide 50 domestic digesters to enable the local community to process waste into clean energy and improve respiratory health by reducing exposure to smoke from the use of wood-burning fuels.
AstraZeneca said the machines, that provide enough energy to meet the needs of a typical home for a day, will also help children and women in the community to spend more time on education and income-generating activities by reducing the time taken to collect firewood.
The financial details remained scanty in the deal that will also bring on board the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership in efforts to create a clean environment and cut down on respiratory diseases.
“Over 14,000 people are reported to die in Kenya every year due to health conditions traceable to indoor pollution. Considering that chronic respiratory diseases are a main therapy area for AstraZeneca, we felt compelled by that statistic to intervene, hence the Dunga Beach project,” AstraZeneca AB President Katarina Ageborg said.
The move will help the country in its efforts to reduce the number of Kenyans dying from non-communicable diseases, a key threat to the country’s efforts to achieve its development goals.
Health Cabinet Secretary Sicily Kariuki said non-communicable diseases account for over 55 per cent of deaths and more than half of hospital admissions in the country every year.
Data by the United Nations in 2016 shows that non-communicable diseases account for at least 14,300 deaths in Kenya every year due to a variety of issue including indoor air pollution.
The data further cited pneumonia as one of the biggest killers associated with air pollution. According to the last national census in 2009, nearly 64.6 per cent of Kenyans or 5.7 million households mainly in the rural parts use firewood as the main source of cooking fuel followed by charcoal.
Medical experts have said the use of open fire for cooking and heating contributes to respiratory diseases such as pneumonia and lung cancer as well as triggering asthma attacks.
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