In
poor rural homes in Sri Lanka, cooking is done on “open” hearths with three
stones supporting the pan with the fire underneath. Fed with strips of wood,
dried coconut leaves or coconut husks, the fire emits thick smoke, the cooking
takes long and the health hazards of inhaling wood smoke and air pollution
within cramped and crowded shanties are silent killers.
According
to a report published by the Intermediate Technology Development Group (ITDG),
nearly 2.4 billion people in poor countries such as Sri Lanka, Nepal and several
other South Asian and African countries are still mainly reliant on biomass fuel
sources such as dung, crop residue, wood and charcoal for cooking. These fuels
generate a noxious mixture of particulate matter, carbon monoxide and other
gases that produce pollution levels that have alarming effects on human health
killing at least 1.6 million people a year worldwide.
Several
efforts have been made to reduce these ill effects by introducing alternatives
to this form of cooking. ITDG has had some success in Kenya where the use of
smoke hoods is said to reduce smoke and carbon monoxide levels by about 80
percent.
These projects are still, however, on a very small scale.
Harnessing
the Sun in Sri Lanka
Biomass
fuel sources generate a noxious mixture of particulate matter, carbon
monoxide and other gases killing at least 1.6 million people a year
worldwide |
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A
Sri Lankan Non Governmental Organization (NGO) has come up with the innovative
idea of cooking with sunlight using energy from solar power. The process is
simple. It needs a wooden box called a solar box cooker. This simple
contraption is exposed to the sun with uncooked food placed inside it for two to
four hours and the food is ready!
“Cooking
food in a box is not an idea that people find easy to accept,” says E.M.
Abeyratne, Director the NGO, EMACE (Environment and science, Manpower and
skills, Adult parenthood assistance, Childcare and women’s rights, Education
and culture).
The
initial stages of the project and the testing took place at Hambantota, a
township in the south of the country with plenty of sunlight. Several workshops
and demonstrations later, the solar box cooker is now being accepted in many
areas.
EMACE
helps the most marginalized people in the country with projects in income
generation, health care and education. The need to find alternative methods of
cooking was linked to health care, science and women. Abeyratne contacted a
global company, Solar Cookers International, for information on how the idea of
harnessing the sun for cooking could be put into actual practice.
“About
the same time, two Canadian volunteers, Lee Sentes and Kathleen Manion, had
completed a solar cooking project in Madagascar and Solar Cookers International
requested them to contact me,” says Abeyratne.
The
link was made, and in 2000 EMACE began their project in Katubedda, a town about
fifteen miles to the south of Colombo, the capital of Sri Lanka.
Five
models were tested before it was decided that the box was the most suitable for
the country’s homes. Six skilled staff were trained to produce, manufacture
and maintain the box cookers. Workshops were then set up and training was given
to villagers from other areas of the country, Anuradhapura in the north central
region of the country, Kurunegala and Puttalam on the fringe of the Dry Zone.
The
Makeup
Explaining
the actual construction of the cooker, Abeyratne says that the prototype box is
60 x 41 centimeters in size and 14 cm in height. This can be altered to suit
individual requests. The box is lined with coir fiber (obtained after soaking
the outer hard green husk of the coconut and beating it to obtain the fibre,
which is then molded into compressed sheets). A reflective material is attached
to the outer surface of the lid and the base of the box. Uncooked food, in
covered, black-painted aluminum pans, is placed inside the base of the box and
allowed to rest on a thin metal sheet balanced on small objects to allow the
heat to circulate, thus making the cooking process quite fast.
“There
is no big science involved,” says Abeyratne, explaining that the box is
positioned facing the sun with its reflector lid kept open. Sunlight reflected
on the lid falls directly onto a transparent sheet of glass beneath which is
located the food in the covered aluminum pots. The well-insulated base
containing the trapped hot air begins the cooking at 85°C
almost immediately. As long as the lid is kept open, the food stays warm.
“My
wife has been using one for about two years and her cooking, especially of fish
in the box cooker, is delicious,” says an appreciative Abeyratne.
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The
cooker can be used to cook two meals of rice and curry
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The
cooker can be used to cook two meals of rice and curry, the Sri Lankan staple
food, for a day. It is also capable of turning out pastries and cakes.
“One
must remember that there can be no cooking at night, nor when it rains or when
the skies are threatening with clouds. The best times are between 9 a.m. and 3
p.m. on a bright sunny day of which we in Sri Lanka have plenty!” says
Abeyratne.
The
cooker must be kept in an open place in direct sunlight where the sun will fall
unhindered for about four hours. The cooking pans will not be covered with soot
as in wood fired cooking, and as the cooking is automatic, the housewife can
attend to other chores while the box does her cooking.
There
are no running costs other than the initial cost of 2,100 Sri Lankan rupees
(approx. 22 US dollars) for a completely fitted box. There are no health hazards
from smoke, no germs and after the rice is washed and the vegetables are
chopped, cooking time is at a minimum. Maintenance of the cooker is at a minimum
and as it is durable, the cooker is cost effective.
Abeyratne
says that EMACE has now produced over 300 cookers and the organization is
compelled to sell them to generate funds for the project. A larger, industrial
type of cooker costs Rs. 16,500 (approx. US $180).
A
women’s group in a refugee camp in the North where employment opportunities
are scarce bought two of the larger cookers and several families have come
together and started a bakery business.
Safer
Water
Boiling
water to make it safe for drinking is almost impossible in poor households
due
to high costs of firewood. UNICEF Sri Lanka has pointed out that unsafe drinking
water is the reason for the majority of deaths of children under five, who die
of diarrhea and other water-related diseases. The solar cooker will be a boon
once it gets popular for easy and cost free boiling of water for drinking.
Despite
initial doubts due to the novelty of cooking with sunlight, Abeyratne is
convinced that he is making a breakthrough in popularizing the advantages of
harnessing the sun – so free, so plentiful and so inviting – to cook one’s
food.
After
so many years of cooking in smoke filled kitchens and struggling with firewood,
women, he says will soon begin to look upon cooking with sunlight as a blessing!
1/72
Rahula Mawatha, Katubedda, Moratuwa.
Tel:
94-11-2625422
Email:
emace@slt.lk
Web
site: www.emacesrilanka.org
*
Vijita
Fernando
is a freelance Sri Lankan journalist with
more than 25 years of experience. She is a member of the Sri Lanka Federation of
University Women, Chairperson of the Centre for Family Services, which works
with women and children victimized in local conflicts and is a Board Member of a
consortium of NGOs working in water and sanitation in poor rural communities.
Your emails will be forwarded to her by contacting the editor at: ScienceTech@islam-online.net
