Improved Cooking Stove - a Case in Nepal

The photo shows a happy poor woman in Nepal, who got an improved cooking stove. Photo by Saurab K. Shrestha, Alternative Energy Promotion Centre, Nepal.

An improved cooking stove has an immediate impact on poverty reduction:

· it decreases respiratory diseases, and as a result it decreases mortality in women and children,

· it reduces drudgery as the stoves reduce by half the consumption of fuel wood,

· it generates income at the local level as the local stove promoters and stove technicians are paid, and

· it builds up both institutional and technical capacity at the local level, as local structures are used as a basis for social mobilisation.

The stoves also have positive environmental impact, as the reduced fuel wood consumption reduces the pressure on scarce forest resources, and as a well built and maintained stove has a better combustion and thus reduces the emission of dangerous gasses.

In Nepal, DANIDA (Danish International Development Assistance) started up a project promoting improved cooking stoves.

The users are supposed to pay the stove builder a fixed price, which has been decided by the community. The prices vary from location to location from 50 rps (0.6 USD) to 350 rps (4.2 USD), reflecting, among other factors, the fuel scarcity and relative affluence in a given area.

Even with these low prices, it is still a challenge to reach the poorest part of the population. The support of the project is primarily being spent on building up a critical mass of skilled stove promoters and on creation of institutional capacity both at the local and central levels.

More information: Saurab K. Shrestha, Alternative Energy Promotion Centre, Krishna Galli, Pulchowk, Lalitpur Nepal, Ph: +977 1 522520, or CRT, e-mail: crt@wlink.com.np.