It is estimated that 90% of rural Namibian households do not have access to electricity, and rely on wood as the main cooking fuel. However, the majority of rural households are located in the northern regions where wood fuel resources are becoming ever scarcer. The problem of dwindling wood resources in the northern regions is widely known. Evidence of the problem is the fact that people are walking increasingly longer distances to collect their daily ration of wood.
The wide-scale dependence on wood fuel creates two problems:
? There is localised deforestation in the vicinity of the project areas.
? Most households must purchase their daily wood fuel from local vendors. The cost of wood fuel is relatively high and places an additional financial burden on families that are already living below the poverty line.

Uukumwe stove project is a community initiative established in Onangombe village ?Onayena constituency. The project seeks for sustainable use of biomass energy resources through the promotion of fuel efficient stoves to reduce the costly and non-sustainable consumption of wood fuel in Namibia . The production and selling of the fuel efficiency stove will enable the community to reduce unemployment, train community member to manufacture energy efficient stoves, and promote the products throughout Namibia. Overall the projec will conserve the limited wood resources and focus on less wood consumption thereforeand conserving the natural resources.

The project is located 50km north-east of Ondangwa in the Oshikoto region.