| Main knowledge bank page |
Recent additions |
Recent changes |
What links here |
Categories |
Category cloud How-to guides | Organisation profiles | Project profiles | |
HEDON newsletter (09/09/2004)
[top] [end]In this issue
[top] [end]IntroductionWe welcome you to this issue of the HEDON Newsletter. In this month's feature article, we revisit the Improved Cook Stove and discuss some implementation issues for Africa. The full article can be accessed onwww.hedon.info/goto.php/DisseminatingImprovedStovesInAfrica Do not forget to browse the "Knowledge Base" and add fresh articles relating to household energy issues - HEDON is a voluntary organisation and we depend on the contributions of community members. We also extend a warm welcome to our newest members and as usual, urge new and old HEDON members to update their userpages. We would also like to remind both old and new members that Sparknet is holding an e-conference on future energy-poverty scenarios in Southern and Eastern Africa between 27 September and 7 October 2004. We warmly invite you to take part in the discussions. To sign up as a conference participant, go to: www.sparknet.info/goto.php/conf/contact.htm All inquiries about the conference should be directed to Liz Bates on lizb@... or Grant Ballard-Tremeer on grant@... For HEDON Newsletter articles, comments, events, email HEDON Associate on email: magi@... Please, don't forget to browse our website www.hedon.info as well as our sister websites the Breathe Easy Network on http://india.shellfoundation.net and Sparknet on www.sparknet.info. Please feel free to forward this email to others that may be interested. Please feel free to forward this email to others that may be interested. [top] [end]Feature of the month: Revisiting the Improved Cook Stoves - Some thoughts for Africa by Maggie MatingaSee www.hedon.info/goto.php/DisseminatingImprovedStovesInAfrica - as always comments, suggestions and improvements are welcomed to articles in our Knowledge Base. Please visit the online document, click on 'Edit this page' and leave your comments there.Author www.hedon.info/goto.php/User:MargaretMatinga [top] [end]Revisiting the Improved Cook Stoves - some thoughts for AfricaThe management of natural resources such as forests and water remain a critical issue in development debate. This is more pronounced in where natural resources are under increasing strain due to growing population and inadequate access to improved technologies that can improve natural resource use efficiency. Although land clearing for agricultural activities and lumbering contribute to the bulk of deforestation, the demand for energy for domestic activities such as cooking and home-based micro-enterprises are also an important contributor to deforestation. In Africa as in most of the poor parts of the least developed world, fuelwood is often burnt in open three stone fires or inefficient stoves. This practice not only contributes to deforestation, but has adverse impacts on the health of the solid biomass users, especially women and young children who spend a lot of their time in kitchen environments polluted by wood smoke.The recognition of the impacts of wood stoves on the environment led to the Improves Cook Stoves (ICS) which started in the late 1970's, peaked in the 1980s and continues to the present day. In the 1990's, health as well as energy researchers became increasingly aware of the health dimension of the use burning solid biomass and the indoor air pollution (IAP) debate gained impetus, giving the ICS a new 'desirability' level. Studies in Kenya, Sudan, Nepal, Guatemala and elsewhere have shown decreased IAP as well as decreased incidences of Acute Respiratory Infections (ARI) and Acute Lower Respiratory Infections (ALRI) in households using ICS compared to households using open fires, implying improved health status for household members, especially women and children in user households. Although there doesn't seem to be studies quantifying time saving in firewood collection due to transitions from traditional biomass stoves to ICS, the available evidence in fuel savings suggests decreased fuelwood collection times and trips, hence a decrease in work burden for the fuel wood collectors, who are mostly women. Current ICS designs provide estimated fuel savings of between 25% and 40% of the wood fuel normally consumed in traditional stoves and open fires, with more savings being realised by the transition from open fires to ICS due to the lower baselines of open fires. ICS programs have also had income generating as well as cash savings components to them. Stove manufacturers are often locals who earn some income from stove sales. On the other hand, for users, ICS have an attractive pay-back period of one to three months, as well as cash savings from reduced fuel use for ICS users, particularly those that buy their fuelwood. Furthermore, a cultural benefit improves the prospects of ICS programs. Unlike solar cookers, hay-box cookers and other pro-poor cooking technologies, cook stoves do not require (drastic) changes in cooking methods or food types and hence are more culturally acceptable in most poor countries and easily adopted compared to the aforementioned technologies. Despite the diverse benefits of the ICS, not all stove programs have been a resounding success. Whilst in China and India an impressive number has been disseminated, in Africa, only Kenya claims a stove dissemination level that exceeds a million. Researchers, policy makers and development practioners therefore need to continuously look for ways of improving dissemination of ICS to millions of households who are unlikely to acquire access to more sophisticated energy services and products such as electricity in the next 10-30 years. In Africa for example, the fact that most fuel is gathered free of monetary costs has hampered dissemination of ICS. Furthermore, due to the fact that smoky environments have been around for so long and due to low literacy levels, few households make linkages between household smoke and ARIs. In cases where this linkage is made, household members do not consider smoke a major health risk and hence, have lesser motivation to change. Another issue is the issue of gender and empowerment. Since most of cooking is generally undertaken by women whilst income expenditures are often dictated by men, there is little appreciation on the side of men, of the dangers of polluted indoor environments and hence less motivation to facilitate transitions by buying ICS. Furthermore in patriarchal Africa, hardships experienced by women in undertaking their productive activities are often considered part of womanhood. Indeed, a young girl who coughs and whose eyes water when blowing upon smoky fires is often told that 'she will come back' implying that her future husband will send her back to the parents for not being a good wife. It is therefore important that gender issues be taken into consideration when planning and designing stove programs. Another major problem is that few programs in Africa provide options that enable users to diversify their stove use beyond household cooking. For example, whilst in China, cook stoves have also been designed to provide indoor heating in winter, the focus is Africa has been on cooking only, under the assumption that African winters are warm. This assumption is likely to have been by researchers from the north who consider Africa warmer compared to the north. Whilst this comparison may be true in most cases, the question of whether an area or day is cold enough to warrant space heating is subjective and is often based on one's lifetime conditioning. Furthermore, in certain parts of Africa such as the highlands of South Africa, sub-zero temperatures in winter (and sometimes spring), which are cold by any standards are not uncommon. Thus in winter, most household revert to inefficient stoves and open fires to enable simultaneous cooking and space heating. For some of these households, this reversion becomes permanent. Improving the income benefit of ICS is another way of working towards improved adoption. To date, few stove programs have integrated use of ICS for food related income generating activities such as baking. Yet in most rural areas, baked products are 'imported' from far away town centres. In addition, in poor urban areas, the poor working class of urban areas have created a large demand for cooked lunch, leading to a proliferation of food vendors. Improved Cook Stove programs have however failed to utilise these opportunities to disseminate ICS that would be used by food vendors. The health benefits of ICS are also leanly exploited in ICS programs. While most ICS alone do not bring the IAP levels to the acceptable levels for indoor environments, the decreases in IAP resulting from ICS use do have positive impacts, making ICS better than open fires. There is however need for energy and health practioners to work towards raising awareness of IAP among both biomass users and policy makers. The step taken by few programs, notably in Kenya to combine ICS dissemination efforts with kitchen management skills to combat IAP is also a step in the right direction as it raises IAP awareness whilst improving the IAP reduction potential of ICS programs. The reality of adverse poverty in most African countries make the ICS a 'solution' for domestic cooking in the short to medium term. It is therefore important that ICS outcomes be continually improved through integrative efforts that address the various challenges faced by the poor. [top] [end]Latest news and announcementsContains 7 new documents.
More details online at: http://www.hedon.info/goto.php/417/news.htm
More details online at: http://www.hedon.info/goto.php/416/news.htm
More details online at: http://www.hedon.info/goto.php/409/news.htm
More details online at: http://www.hedon.info/goto.php/408/news.htm
More details online at: http://www.hedon.info/goto.php/406/news.htm Do you have relevant household energy news? Please send your household energy news items us by return email! [top] [end]Publication libraryContains 2 new documents.
Do you have relevant household energy publications? We are happy to include your papers and reports on our database. Please email them to us! [top] [end]LinksContains 2 new documents.
Online link at: http://www.hedon.info/goto.php/535/links.htm
Online link at: http://www.hedon.info/goto.php/534/links.htm Do you have relevant household energy links? Please send details to us by return email! -- This newsletter was brought to you by the HEDON Household Energy Network. For further information please visit our website at http://www.hedon.info/goto.php/index.htm or email us with your contributions, comments and suggestions. | |
Page created:
02 April 2007; Last edited:
02 April 2007; Version: 2 | |
Pagename: HEDONNewsletter(09092004) @HEDON: NFEA | |
