Valuing interventions to reduce indoor air pollution-fuelwood, deforestation, and health in rural Nepal

Abstract

Poor people in developing countries use dirty fuels like fuelwood, because they find it easier to collect and cheaper to buy than modern fuels. The environmental consequences of the fuelwood harvesting from common property resources are much discussed in the literature. But limited studies are available on the health costs of the biomass fuel use and indoor air pollution. In addition, the health conditions of the household members may also affect fuel choice, in turn creating a condition of endogeneity bias on the estimates. The study attempts to estimate the health effects and resulting costs of indoor air pollution from biomass fuel after adjusting for the problem of endogeneity by employing a survey of 600 rural households. The survey has generated household information about energy use and respiratory health status of 2,739 adults and 301 children. Based on the data, the paper investigates the effects of interventions like biogas and improved cooking stoves on health benefits. The respiratory diseases affected by the intervention are chronic bronchitis and asthma among adults and acute respiratory infections among the children. Instrumental variable probit regression is used for the health effects, and the cost of illness approach for health costs. The study concludes that if the health costs are counted, the biomass fuels are much more expensive than the modern fuels; and the traditional chula is more expensive than the improved chula. Making the poor understand the private health costs from biomass fuel can help to protect the forest by reducing fuelwood harvesting. © The Pakistan Development Review.