As soon as you pass Jamal Street downtown the city of Taiz (southwest of Yemen), you will see piles of firewood (tree trunks) on either side of you in front of steam laundries shops, ovens, restaurants and sweets manufacturers.
The high prices and shortages of gas and diesel, due to the crisis in the country, led the owners of steam laundries to use wood (tree trunks), which they consider the appropriate alternative that they were forced to use as a result of the previous reasons.
Shawqi Saif, a worker in a steam laundromat in Taiz, told Khuyut that, due to the high prices of gas and diesel, he had to use firewood, because firewood - as he asserts - is the only alternative source of energy, whether in terms of cost or due to its availability.
Shawqi added that the cost of the firewood that is used in the laundry to generate steam in the process of ironing clothes per day is 35,000 Yemeni riyals (33 US dollars).
Use firewood to iron clothes!
The firewood is used to generate steam from what is called the "boiler", the steam boiler, as the heat resulting from the combustion of firewood causes the water in the boiler tank to boil and evaporate, and the steam passes through pipes and tubes to the place where it is used, then work begins in ironing and folding clothes.
The logging process must be regulated in the country if it is necessary, especially since Yemen, according to the Global Adaptation Index of the University of "Notre Dame", is among the countries most at risk of climate change and amongst the countries least able to confront these changes.
According to Shawqi, the use of firewood in the laundry began more than two years ago, when the price of a diesel tank (20 liters) rose to 30 thousand, while the price of a household gas cylinder at that time (20 liters) reached 17 thousand riyals. The boiler requires about 60 liters of gas per day, and 40 liters of diesel, and this is a burden that Shawqi described as “heavy and exhausting” for the owners of the laundries, so firewood was the alternative source.
According to Shawqi, one load - the load of a truck carrying firewood - which costs between (250-300) thousand riyals, is used within 8 days as a minimum or 12 days as a maximum.
The high price of cooking gas led to the reluctance of the owners of laundries, restaurants, pastry shops, and bakeries, in various Yemeni regions, to purchase and provide it. Instead, they resorted to a solution that they considered the most cost-effective alternative for them, which is "firewood"; in order to continue their commercial activity at a lower cost, and the advantage of being easier to obtain.
However, the boiler consumes large quantities of firewood, due to the need for continuous heat availability in it so as not to lose the stored heat; This leads to the rise of large amounts of smoke, which puts workers and citizens at serious health risks as a result of inhaling polluted air.
A worker at a wood-fired steam laundromat in Taiz city
Health effects
While he was talking to us, Shawqi barely finished when he was interrupted by a cough, due to the impacts of smoke from burning wood in the laundry where he works.
Engineer Jamil Al-Shuja’a, Director of Environmental Health in Taiz Governorate, says that the burning of wood in laundries, ovens, bakeries, and other activities, and businesses in which wood is used leads to air pollution, and thus spreads respiratory diseases in humans, such as: asthma, lung diseases, shortness of breath, and allergies.
Al-Shuja'a added, during his interview with "Khuyut: " "We notice that these diseases spread in places where wood-burning operations are increasing, as well as car smoke and factory fumes rising into the air."
Mansour Al-Hayani, a resident of the city of Taiz, complains of his suffering with firewood smoke, as he told "Khuyut": "As a result of my house being near a store that uses firewood, my family and I are exposed from time to time to chest infections due to the smoke that is generated from the burning of wood." This forces Al-Hayani to keep the windows of his house closed most of the time.
In the context, Engineer Jamil confirmed that his department receives plenty of complaints from citizens in the houses near some ovens or places where firewood is used, due to smoke and air pollution. Accordingly, the Environmental Health Department is taking some necessary and possible measures to alleviate the citizen's sufferings as he said.
Among the environmental damages resulting from the burning of firewood: smoke rises to the atmosphere surrounding the place, and leads to air pollution because it contains carbon dioxide, which in turn occurs with long-range and widespread use, in interaction with water vapor in the atmosphere. As a result, carbonic acid is formed, which descends into the soil, and leads to acidity and pollution of the soil, as well as damage to soil erosion, desertification and many environmental problems.
One of the wood-fired steam laundries
Environmental Risks
The phenomenon of excessive logging threatens the vegetation cover in various Yemeni governorates, as the war, its economic consequences and the deterioration of services exacerbated environmental crises and climate change.
Social activist Hilal Abdullah - interested in environmental issues and climate change, said that excessive deforestation works to increase the proportion of carbon dioxide, which is a greenhouse gas whose concentration causes global warming, which in turn causes climate changes whose main source is human activities and the use of energy sources.
Hilal added during his interview with "Khuyut", that the logging process must be regulated in the country if it is necessary, especially since Yemen, according to the Global Adaptation Index of the University of "Notre Dame", is among the countries most at risk of climate change and amongst the countries least able to confront these changes.
Moreover, the Director General of the Environmental Protection Agency in Taiz, Hamoud Al-Sofi, talked to "Khuyut" about the importance of vegetation cover in the environment, saying: "Vegetation cover is of great significance in preserving the environment, its vitality, and human health, because it supplies oxygen. Besides, it maintains the temperature and it works to prevent it from rising, softening the atmosphere, absorbing carbon dioxide, and preventing desertification.
Among the key solutions to mitigate the effects of wood burning on the environment and health: the provision of gas and diesel by government agencies and institutions, so that their price is suitable for use by the normal citizens, and owners of utilities such as owners of laundries, ovens, restaurants and sweets, in addition to raising the level of environmental awareness among members of society of the importance Trees and vegetation preservation.
Al-Sufi attributes the reasons for the poor official control of the phenomenon of logging operations and its expansion across the various Yemeni governorates, which increased significantly during the war, to the fact that there is no law that protects plants and trees in Yemen, because they are considered private property, with the exception of the tree of the blood of the two brothers on the island of Socotra.
Possible Solutions
On the other hand, Al-Shuja'a’ agrees with Al-Sufi that there should be legislation to limit logging and the destruction of the vegetation cover in Yemen, and that these environmental damages are somewhat difficult to stop in light of the war, since domestic gas does not meet the purpose required for its uses, so people are forced to resort to alternatives, such as the use of firewood.
Concerning the reason for people cutting down trees and excessive logging, Al-Sofi confirms that this is the result of the deterioration of the economic and living conditions, and the crisis of domestic gas and oil derivatives. He pointed out that the wise logging of dead and dried-up trees will not be of direct effect on the vegetation cover in the environment, but the continuous cutting of healthy green trees is where the problem lies.
Among the key solutions to mitigate the effects of wood burning on the environment and health: the provision of gas and diesel by government agencies and institutions, so that their price is suitable for use by the normal citizens, and owners of utilities such as owners of laundries, ovens, restaurants and sweets, in addition to raising the level of environmental awareness among members of society of the importance Trees and vegetation preservation.
Al-Shuja concluded his speech by saying that preserving the environment in general should be one of the tasks of the Ministry of Environment, which is concerned with preserving the marine, terrestrial and animal environment, and natural reserves, while the Ministry of Agriculture must preserve green areas and not allow excessive logging by cutting green trees.
It is worth noting that the sixth national report of the Convention on Biological Diversity issued by the Environmental Protection Authority in Yemen for the year 2019 revealed an increase in the number of families that rely on firewood as fuel from 6% in 2014 to 8% in 2017, using 1,335,744 tons in 2014, and rising to 1 million and 888 thousand and 232 tons in 2017.
