Household Air Is the Health Risk Nobody Schedules a Clinic For
Three-stone fires remain the default kitchen in most of the country, and the respiratory bill lands on women and small children.
By Sylvia Namutebi..Central Uganda.5 min read
Central Uganda. 2 June 2026.
MixedPublic Health
Smoke exposure is measured in hours a day, and the exposure is not evenly distributed. It concentrates on whoever is at the fire and whoever is strapped to her back.
Why stoves stall
Improved stoves are cheap and widely available, and uptake still plateaus. The reasons given are practical: pot size, cooking speed for the local staple, and durability of the liner over a rainy season.
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A stove that cannot boil matooke fast enough goes back to the corner within a month.
Community health worker, central Uganda
Where distribution has been paired with a repair service and locally made liners, retention after a year is markedly higher than under one-off giveaways.
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Distribution is easy. Retention is the real test
Improved cookstove distribution programmes in central Uganda have reached large numbers of households through one-off giveaways, but follow-up surveys conducted by implementing organisations show a share of those stoves falling out of use within a year, typically after a crack in the liner or a mismatch with the pot sizes and cooking speed households need for local staples.
Programmes that pair distribution with a repair service and locally produced replacement liners report markedly better retention than one-off distribution models, according to community health workers who track stove use during routine household visits.
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A stove that cannot cook matooke fast enough for a big family gets pushed to the corner. People go back to what works, even if it is worse for them.
Community health worker, central Uganda
Respiratory illness linked to household smoke exposure disproportionately affects women, who spend the most hours near the fire. Young children strapped to their backs during cooking, a pattern public health officials say has not shifted meaningfully despite years of stove distribution activity.
The Ministry of Energy and Mineral Development has signalled interest in shifting clean cooking programmes towards a maintenance-inclusive model, following evidence that first-day distribution figures have consistently overstated long-term impact once retention is properly measured a year later.
Evidence & documents
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