ENERGIA NEWS vol. 4 nr 4 • 2001 1 ENERGIA News The energy supply and use system has many implications for health through its links with the household economy, the indoor environment (e.g. indoor air pollution), women’s activities, education, child safety, and other aspects including the local and global environment. Until now, the principal health issue that has been addressed in the energy sector in developing countries is indoor air pollution due to smoke from cooking using traditional biomass fuels. WHO estimates that around three million deaths occur each year in developing countries related to indoor air pollution from domestic fuels used for cooking and heating. Combustion of traditional biomass fuels (wood, charcoal, animal dung, crop wastes) and coal exposes the rural and urban poor in developing countries to serious health hazards. Typically burned on open fires or in low efficiency stoves with inadequate ventilation, large numbers of people are exposed on a daily basis to GENDER AND SUSTAINABLE ENERGY News from the Editors VOLUME 4 ➤ ISSUE 4 ➤ DECEMBER 2001 Contents News from the Editors 1 Letter to ENERGIA 3 News from the Secretariat 4 Networking Around the World 5 Internet Resources 6 Meeting ENERGIA members 7 Shri Ram Naik International Programmes: Focus on... WHO Initiative on Household Energy, Fuel Poverty and the Indoor Environment 8 Gender Differences in the Impact of Biomass Fuel on Health 10 Prepared by Yasmin von Schirnding Gendered Sights and Health Issues in the Paradigm of Biofuel in Sri Lanka 12 Anoja Wickramasinghe Health Implications for Women and Children of Wood Fuel Use in Cambodia 14 Dara Moeung Solar Disinfection of Water in Latin America Benefits Women and their Families 16 Ana Choque Salas and Xiomara del Rosario Torres Rural Electrification Benefits Women’s Health, Income and Status in Tunisia 18 Sawsen Chaieb and Ahmed Ounalli Rural Electrification in South Africa: Implications for the Health and Quality of Life of Women 20 Angela Mathee and Thea de Wet Bulletin Board 22 Next Issue 24 Gender, Energy and Health A wide range of interventions such as improved stoves and cleaner fuels can reduce the impacts on health. The photograph shows a mother and her child tending a fire in the Northern Province of South Africa. (Photo: Courtesy of Angela Mathee) N EWSLETTER OF THE NETWORK FOR GENDER AND SUSTAINABLE ENERGY