What makes a perfect stove and fuel combination?
Traditional and three-stone stoves, using woodfuel, have been used for generations to cook food, and not without good reason; the stove is free (just three stones or made of mud), fuel is gathered for free, and an experienced cook can cook food quickly. So why not leave “well enough” alone? Because it’s not.
• Cooking this way is polluting and dangerous—nearly two million people die annually because of kitchen smoke, mainly children; and many suffer horrific burns and scalds.
• Worldwide, woodfuel is scarce—women search for hours, and often in desperation they use low-grade fuels such as dung, twigs, roots, leaves, sometimes even plastic bottles.
• Fuel may be gathered for no money, but valuable time is lost: gathering fuel, scouring soot-encrusted pots, and washing kitchens, sooty children and clothes; these activities stop women from doing productive work, study, or having leisure time.
Cooking with a highly efficient stove and fuel makes all the difference in the kitchen. This stove is ideally suited to cook this type of the traditional injera (bread) which is made throughout the Horn of Africa. Give the gift they will use every day.
An ideal technology is where the stove and fuel work together in harmony to provide benefits that far outweigh any disadvantages, or the woman will not use it. A fuel alcohol stove provides such a technology:
• It is clean-burning—similar to using bottled gas
• It is quick—food cooks quickly, fuel does not have to be gathered
• The stove must be safe and stable, with the flames are directed straight at the pot—which sits firmly on top of the stove
• Fuel can be made locally and affordably. Countries where the stove is being introduced grow the raw feedstock—much of it residues that would otherwise be dumped in the rivers
People with low incomes cannot always afford to buy a quality stove. Gaia is currently working to make the CleanCook stove affordable by:
• Examining how fuel can be sold for a few more cents a liter, to pay for the stove over time
• Working with agencies to provide it to those with no money, such as refugees
• Developing ways to use carbon finance to subsidize stoves
• Manufacturing it affordably in the country where the stove is used
The good news is that the stove will last up to ten years—so per year it is cheaper to buy than many improved stoves which cost less, but only last a year or two.