Inventory of Innovative Indoor Smoke
Alleviating Technologies in Nepal
1
Chapter one
BACKGROUND
1.1 Energy scenario of Nepal
Nepal is a landlocked country – East, West and South
bordered by India and the Northern side bordered by
China. Nepal is predominantly mountainous, a total area
of 147,181 sq. km with tropical plains in the South (Terai)
and the Himalayas in the North having a mean width of
193 km. The mountainous region, which is sparsely
populated covers about one third (35 per cent) of the
total land area of which only two per cent is suitable for
cultivation. The hilly region makes up 42 per cent of
total land of which one-tenth is suitable for cultivation.
Terai, densely populated region accommodates 47 per
cent of total population with 23 per cent of total land
area including fertile land and dense forest (CBS 2001).
Nepal is the highest traditional fuel consuming country
in Asia because of its high dependency on traditional
biomass fuels, mostly firewood, limited extent of charcoal
and crops and animal residues (Bhattarai 2003). These
biomasses are used in preparing food, animal feed,
processing of livestock products, agricultural and forest
product processing, pottery, building materials, smiths
and foundries, and various other rural industries and
services along with space heating (Thapa 2006).
Worldwide total energy consumption is around 451 EJ
out of which 10.6 per cent is based on traditional biomass
(Godfrey Boyle 2004). Global estimation of biomass users
is more than two billion who use wood, charcoal, crop
residues and dung as their primary source of energy.
Majority of people in developing countries use traditional
biomass for their cooking, space heating and preparing
animal food. However, the global use of biomass is
declining but its use is increasing amongst the poorest
segments of the world’s population (Reddy et al. 1997
and Bruce et al. 2000 cited by Saldiva and Miraglia
2004). About one billion people in Asia depend on
biomass as their main source of energy (Thapa 2006).
In Nepal, overall energy resources can be categorised
into three types viz. traditional, commercial and renewable.
The total primary energy consumption of Nepal in Fiscal
Year 2005/06 was 8,478 Tons of Oil Equivalent (TOE).
Out of total consumption, traditional energy resources
alone contributed 85.5 per cent of total primary energy
consumption; which clearly depicts the dependency of
the country on traditional resources for energy. Traditional
energy resources include fuelwood, agricultural residues
and animal residues sharing 89.41, 6.66 and 3.93 per
cent respectively (WECS 2006). Of the rest, commercial
energy resources which include petroleum fuel, coal and
electricity shared 13.54 per cent. Contribution of renewable
energy resources is only 0.61 per cent compared to
traditional and commercial resources. Another noticeable
factor to consider during sector wise consumption is that
the major fraction of total energy consumed by HHs is
89.21 per cent. Other sectors viz. industries, commercial
use, transportation, agriculture and others consumed 4.51,
1.51, 3.71 and 0.81 per cent respectively (Economic Survey,
FY 2006/07).
The national population growth is 2.25 per cent however;
the growth rate in urban and rural areas of Nepal is
2.30 and 1.70 per cent respectively. The main source of
energy for 94.1 per cent rural HHs is firewood. In urban