Improved Cooking Stoves

People in rural districts in Central-Asia are mostly cooking their food outdoors, on big and inefficient clay stoves. Through this project the the region will build competence that will reduce regional CO2 emissions and at the same time prevent further deforestation. This will also help preventing desertification, which is a huge problem in this region. With the traditional stoves people are spending much time on collection of firewood. More efficient stoves will reduce the firewood need, which will improve the quality of life.

Nepalese expert
In his home country our Nepalese expert Madhav Pokharel has build more than 10 000 stoves and held many workshops with building instructions. His main work in Tajikistan focuses on workshops in rural communities, teaching people in villages to build improved cooking stoves them self and explaining advantages of these simple solutions. Local host and partner organisation for the project is Little Earth, Tajikistan, who will also build their own expertise in ICS during the stay of Mr. Pokharel in Tajikistan.

Project goal
The projects goal is to transfer Nepalese knowhow on efficient stoves to Tajikistan and Central-Asia, using expertise exchange between Nepal and Tajikistan. In February 2008 ICS expert Madhav Pokharel from Nepal started on his one year mission in Tajikistan, while Tajik NGO expert Jonona Bakieva has a one year assignment in Nepal that started from March 2008.

The main aim of the exchange is to apply new methods and technology in energy supply to decentralized areas. The central issue is to provide rural areas in Central-Asia with experience and knowledge in construction and dissemination of improved cooking stoves (ICS), which are more energy efficient and environment-friendly than the existing ones. We wish to weave this particular issue into a broader context of environmental and climate related activities that are part of our work.

Women
A vast majority of women, especially in densely populated areas, are experiencing an ever increasing shortage of firewood. They find they have to spend more and more time gathering enough firewood, or agricultural wastes such as coffee or tea braches, maize cobs, cottonwood and stalks etc.

Meeting the daily needs for fuel to cook the meals for the family is often a struggle for women. As more and more land is cleared for agriculture, the problem increases. Few trees remain. Planting more trees is vital, but conserving firewood or fuel is also essential.