This investigation concludes that ecological cookers visibly contribute to the reduction of greenhouse gases in Bolivia. The proven results on median fuel savings of 65% could be applied to any source of fuel as measurable evidence of the reduction of emissions and this should be the basis for a clean mechanism of development that would establish a relative value.
Certainly, the methodology developed by the conductors of the project has contributed to the impressive results that have been established with this study, which also clearly recognized that the diffusion of the use of ecological kitchens is a concrete step towards certifiable responsible development.
In the survey documented before the course, total collection of firewood was 195 times per week between the 373 participants compared to only 31 times on the week at the end of the course. It is worth observing that 39% of participants (144) used firewood before the course; whereas only 8% (31 people) continued to use after the follow-up.
The report concludes that solar cookers can be assimilated in Bolivian culture, given the results of a high rate of use.
" 97% of those surveyed used the cookers three times or more per week.
" 89% used the cookers five or seven days a week. (In 2001, 77% were found in this category).
" 46% used the cookers seven days a week.
" 81% used the solar cookers to prepare two or more meals per day.
" 14% cooked three meals a day in their solar cookers.
" 95% heated water in their solar cooker to wash dishes or bathe their children.
" 54% pasteurized water.
" The participants developed a significant variety of applications for their solar cookers apart from cooking.
" These applications were spread to other participants in the follow-up meetings where they reunited (each 15 days during the six month period).
" The results validate the methodology used throughout the course.
The information collected during the execution of the project from June 2002 to April 2003 demonstrates interesting patterns about the use of ecological kitchens. The instrument: How many days do they use the solar cooker?, illustrates an increasing use since beginning until the end of the period of six months. This seems to indicate the acceptance of the user and an evolution; while cooking with these environmentally-friendly devices they are assimilated into their culture.
Another indication of the regularity of the use could be an analysis of which meals are prepared with solar cookers. The surveys asked to the participants: What meals do you prepare daily in your solar cooker? Their responses give evidence that a significant portion of those who participated used their cookers to make lunch and dinner (26% at the beginning of the course, growing to 56% at the end of six months). While those who prepared only lunch, at the beginning was at 46%. This percentage has fallen to 22% during the six months. This has documented that 81% used their solar cookers to prepare two or more meals per day. Within this group, it is worth noting that between 13 and 14% used the cooker for three meals a day!
An important indicator that is added to this category refers to the regularity that could be derived to observe the additional applications that the new owners developed for these alternative devices with the objective of cooking. The calibre of entertainment received by the participants is demonstrated by the variety of the shown uses.
Those who heated water (95%) and those who pasteurized (54%), arranged to meet de forma aplastante as additional ways in which they could use their solar cookers. Preserved fruits, home-made soft drinks, cakes, mote (dry cooked rice) were made, and it is worth mentioning that it is proven that one can wash or launder clothes in the solar cookers. One person revealed that she melted tar in her solar cooker to fix a leak in her roof. Several participants cooked food for their dogs (lawa) in their solar cookers.
Before this course the participants were taking an average of 2.02 hours for lunch and 1.45 hours for dinner, a total of 3.47 hours per day per person or 24.29 hours weekly. This equals 1,267 hours per year and climbs to nearly 53 days per year per person doing the food preparation. Nevertheless, after the course these same participants needed only 0.92 hours to watch their lunch and .88 hours for dinner, with a new daily average of only 1.8 hours, around 12.6 hours per week. This means that the participants saved around 11.7 hours per week, time that could potentially be used in productive activities.
The results of the use of the solar cookers in this project are perceptibly greater than early projects in other parts of the world, for example in southern Africa a total of 38% was achieved. According to what was previously indicated, health improved and better nutrition was obtained, along with a greater quality of life. These are important advantages of the use of ecological kitchens than also make impacts on sustainable development.
One of the positive elements of the methodology is the reproducibility of this technology. In most cases, the devices are constructed using locally available materials and built with unskilled labor. The theory is explained using common ends and examples related to the reality of each group. The food that is prepared during the courses is the most common in accordance with the customs of each place.
After teaching the methodology to a Peruvian city-dweller in the year 2001, he could execute six courses in the south of Peru. This year he expects to build 200 cookers. David and Ruth Whitfield have employed French techniques in Bolivia and since then these people have personally taught French and African NGO's in France to use their methodology. Last year they awarded certificates of achievement to five Bolivians based on their capacity to teach the same methodology. This year, they will teach the courses without the intervention of the creators of the methodology. The teaching materials can be adapted for any language. Most developing countries are situated in adequate climates for the use of ecological kitchens. The methodology fosters capacities in the participants to make their own decisions and solve their problems, constructing small yet progressive victories.
LESSONS LEARNED
Numerous studies clearly demonstrate a direct relationship between traditional food preparation practices and proven health problems, such as: respiratory diseases, cataracts, carbon monoxide in the blood of pregnant women, lung cancer, burns, contaminated water and poor nutrition, due to the shortage of cooking fuel, excessive work for women and children who must search for firewood and who breathe particles in the contaminated indoor air.
Acute respiratory illness (ARI) is the number one assassin of children younger than five years of age in Central America. For centuries millions of people, the earnings used for the purchase of fuel reduce the ability to acquire food, affecting their nutrition and their general wellbeing. Death and powerlessness are the results of the continuing practice of traditional food preparation.
The global community has united behind a flag in order to institute clear minimal standards of living, established as the Millennium Development Goals. Improved cooker programs contribute greatly to the success of these goals:
1. Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger.
2. Reach universal primary education.
3. Reduce mortality in children.
4. Promote gender equality and women's empowerment.
5. Improve the health of pregnant women.
6. Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases.
7. Assure environmental sustainability.
8. Develop a global alliance for a better path to development.
In this discussion we have seen that improved cooking technology alleviate serious problems that must be seen with: HEALTH, ENVIRONMENT, ECONOMY, as well as ADDING VALUE TO THE LIVES OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN in the developing world.
Improved cookers are devices that vary from chimneys with channels to extract smoke to sophisticated satellite-dish design solar cookers. Scientists, social workers and business owners have advanced this technology to a point where there exist many models that are ready for mass diffusion. It has been demonstrated that these methodologies have facilitated the incorporation of solar cookers into the populations of the Third World.
Improved cooker programs are the most important and most necessary systems for presenting available energy for the home. To have safe air and sufficient fuel for cooking is more vital than possessing electricity in the home.
Decision makers must recognize their complicity in the perpetuation of these problems if immediate actions are not taken to change intervening political action.
Alternative technologies for food preparation are the most important tools that we have to reduce the suffering of human beings and halt the despoiling of the environment.
" Improved Health
" Better Nutrition
" More Productive Hours in the Day
" Reduced Rate of Desertification
" Considerable savings on fuel costs
" Reduced Greenhouse Gas Emissions =
Great Rate of Return on Investment and this means a Greater QUALITY OF LIFE
1 Darwin Curtis, President of Solar Household Energy, a non profit organization dedicated to dissemination of alternative technologies through entrepreneurs; extracted from an email communication with the author, 05/23/2003 - http://www.she-inc.org/.
BALANCING THE SCALES, http://www.who.int/environmental_information/Women/womfuel.htm; http://solarcooking.org/cookingsmoke.htm; http://solarcooking.org/balance.htm.
ETHOS organization, Proleña, Nicaragua http://quickplace.udayton.edu/ETHOS.
Dr. MR. R. Panadey, HEALTH EFFECTS OF INDOOR AIR POLLUTION, Glow Magazine, February 2003, Vol. 29, pages 5 - 7. Published by the ASIA REGIONAL COOKSTOVE PROGRAM.
Imelda D. Soriano, Md, Mch, Rodolfo J. Soriano Jr. Md, Mph, INDOOR AIR POLLUTION AND TUBERCULOSIS: A RETROSPECTIVE STUDY, Glow, Vol. 29, pages 14-18.
Auke Koopmans, BIOMASS ENERGY, INDOOR AIR POLLUTION AND HEALTH, Glow, Vol. 29, pages 3 - 4.
PROF. S.K. Sharm, Director of the Energy Research Center and Honorary Dean of the Chemical Engineering College of Punjab University; IMPROVED SOLID BIOMASS BURNING COOKSTOVES, A DEVELOPMENT MANUAL. Published by The Regional Wood Energy Development Programme in Asia - GCP/RAS/154/NET - Field Document No. 44 (pdf), September 1993, email- rwedp@Fao.org.
WHO, World Health Report: Reducing Risk, Promoting Healthy Life; WHO, Geneva, Switzerland, 2002.
Ashok J. Gadgil, TO DRINK WITHOUT RISK, Berkley California, February 1995, ajgadgil@lbl.gov.
Dale Andreatta, Ph. D., P. E., A SUMMARY OF WATER PASTURIZATION TECHNIQUES, http://www.accessone.com/~sbcn/solarwat.htm.
http://www.fni.com/%7edononeal/Safety.htm.
An Anthology of Women, Health and Environment: Domestic Fuel Shortage and Indoor Air Pollution. From www.who.int/enviornment_informaction/Women/womfuel.htm.
Anita Khuller, Program Officer Winrock International India, IMPROVED COOKSTOVES DISSEMINATION: LESSONS FROM THREE STATES; Email: akhuller@winrockindia.org Web: www.winrockindia.org/www.renewingindia.org.
Hellen Owala, Development and Marketing of Rural Domestic Stoves in West Kenya. From an email communication - 6/25/2003 - itkisumu@africaonline.co.ke.
Swedi Elongo, CADIC cadic@cbinf.com.
Winifred Mandhlazi, ProBEC, Winifred.Mandhlazi@gtz.de.
Rina King, Vesto Stove, New Dawn Engineering, rking@infodoor.co.za.
Dr. A. D. Karve, adkarve@pn2.vsnl.net.in.
Robert Van Buskirk, robert@punchdown.org.
Proleña Rogério de Miranda, rmiranda@inet.com.br.
Dean Still, Aprovecho Institute, dstill@epud.net.
Stuart Conway, www.treeswaterpeople.org.
Pat Manley, Masons on a Mission, jpmanley@midcoast.com.
Helps International, http://www.fni.com/%7edononeal/.
Michael Port, sos@solarovens.org.
David and Ruth Whitfield, Sobre la Roca: Energía Solar para el Desarrollo are the originators and developers of this methodolgy. http://www.solarcooking.org/media/broadcast/whitfield/bio-whitfield.htm.
Algunas fuentes importantes:
http://www.repp.org/discussiongroups/resources/stoves/ - Biomass cooking Stoves.
www.solarcooking.org.
Gasnet: http://www.gasnet.uk.net.
DTU: http://bgg.mek.dtu.dk/research/twostage/.
Biomass Engineering: http://biomass-uk.com
Stirling: http://bgg.mek.dtu.dk/publications/pdf/amst02_v2_99.pdf.
http://ecoharmony.net/hedon.
http://www.efn.org/~apro/attitlepage.html.
