Kitchens

In rural Tanzania everyone depends on firewood to cook their food.

For those chopping down the trees, transporting and selling them it is a way to make money. (although on average it might only be £0.10 per day)

In Waangwaray alone, each of the 178 households cuts down 4 trees a year, Sinai has 258 households, there are 1000's of other households in the area.

This stack of wood will last a month at the secondary school and cost the school money that could/should be spent elsewhere. School cooks often suffer from respiratory problems because of working in a smokey environment.

It will not be long before the forests are depleted the soil that the trees hold together is washed away and the landscape is barren and the people all moved to the urban areas to seek survival. 

3 simple solutions, all running at the same time, can stop this environmental tragedy unfolding.

1. Education

By teaching the students we can teach the community. Simple tricks to start with.

Put a lid on the pan. Covering food when it is cooking means less water and fuel is needed to cook the food because less energy is lost into the air. By putting a stone on top of the lid will further improve it's performance. Fuel savings of up to 20%

Prepare food for quick cooking. Pre-soak maize, beans and other dry foods over night or for at least 5 hours. cut your meat and vegetables into smaller pieces so that the heat can get to the middle quicker. Fuel Savings of up to 40%F

Use Dry Wood. Dry wood burns better. You will need to burn less each time you cook and your kitchen will be less smokey, less dirty and more comfortable to work in. Fuel savings of up to 23%

Chop Wood Small. Thin pieces of wood dry more quickly and burn better than larger pieces, producing more energy.

Simmer. When food is simmering it is cooking as fast as it possibly can, any more heat is wasted 

Have the fire burning only when you need it. Start the fire when you have everything you need to start cooking. Put the fire out when you have finished using sand or soil not water. Fuel savings of up to 18% 

2.  New Cooker

 So much of the heat of open fire cooking is lost around the edge of the pan that it is a really inefficient way of using wood. We have bow built 2 industrial cookers that enclose the fire and focus the heat out of circles at the top, circles that are the same size as the pans which are used, so all the heat is focused up and out. On the far end of the cooker is a chimney which funnels away the smoke and creates a far safer working environment for the cook. Connected to the fire by a copper pipe is a barrel of water. The fire heats the pot and the pipe which in turn heats the water. It is a simple back boiler system, and the water can either be used to cooking, washing up or washing hands before meal times. 

This is a very simple concept and a domestic version has been designed that can be used at home. Fuel savings of up to 80%

We have trained the ladies who collect the firewood to make the domestic cookers so that they might move from being part of the problem to being part of the solution. They will make considerably more money selling cookers that collecting wood. This is money that could help their children through their education. A double bonus

3. Plant more trees

 For communities who have to date always gone to the forest to help themselves to resources, the concept of sustainability does not really exist. But with more people moving into the area placing greater demands on the common land, it will not be long before the resources become scarce. 

We have already talked with the Waangwaray Village Committee about sustainability and they are aware of the problems that they will face. We have agreed to start a tree planting programme. 

The programme is designed to teach the primary school students to grow and nurture from seed new trees and then to plant them on their shambas. In the first year each will take home two trees to plant. One must be a tree suitable for firewood and one must be a fruit tree. The fruit tree is purely to help the household improve their diet and their health. In the second and every other year they will plant one firewood tree. In years to come this will become their very own source of firewood and they will be self sustaining. This will reduce the need to chop down the forest and allow it to self seed and regrow.  

The training to make the cookers is complete and the cookers are being sold.

We have built 2 kitchens at schools and want to build 30 more. Each kitchen costs £850 and will save the school that in the first 18 months.

 This project, which will be a great success, can be copied across all of Tanzania and sub Saharan Africa and have a fantastic impact in preventing environmental disasters.