Challenging Indoor Air Pollution in Nepal Design & Innovation Signe Pedersen s032385 Rikke Premer Petersen s032357 A Master Thesis Project Completed at the Technical University of Denmark (DTU) DTU Management DTU Civil Engineering (ICIEE) Project conducted from August 2008 to May 2009 Danish title: "Kampen mod Indendørs Luftforurening i Nepal" Main supervisor: Per Boelskifte Supplementary supervisors: Hanne Lindegaard Geo Clausen Challenging Indoor Air Pollution in Nepal I Preface This report tells the story of all the work we have put into our master thesis of 40 ECTS points “Challenging Indoor Air Pollution In Nepal”, as the conclusion of the MSc programme at the Design & Innovation engineering education. The project has been conducted from August 2008 to May 2009 at the Technical University of Denmark. During our entire project we have received guidance and feedback from our 3 thesis supervisors all of whom are experts in their respective fields; anthropology, product development and indoor climate. Needless to say that they come from very different worlds, which has given us a great advantage as the constellation of the 3 offers a very wide palette of guidance. Challenging Indoor Air Pollution in Nepal III Acknowledgements The completion of this master thesis has received essential support from a num- ber of people, whom we would like to thank. First and foremost thanks to our thesis supervisors Per Boelskifte, Hanne Linde- gaard and Geo Clausen for continuous advice, guidance and support. Thanks to Practical Action Nepal for their help and hospitality, a special thanks to Min Bikram Malla. Also thank you to the Energy Sector Assistance Programme (ESAP) for their assistance with a special thanks to Niels Juhl Thomsen. A special thanks also to the Pariyar family for their never-ending hospitality and for giving us a true feel of the Nepali life. Also we would like to thank the Otto Mønsted foundation, the Oticon foundation and the DTU Principals travelling scholarship fund for making the field trips to Nepal possible. Also thanks to Ph.d students Anders Solgaard and Kim Hansen for guidance within their respective fields. Last but not least thanks to our families for assistance and support throughout the process. Challenging Indoor Air Pollution in Nepal V Table of Contents PREFACE I ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS III LIST OF FIGURES VIII LIST OF NOTIONS AND ABBREVIATIONS XI ABSTRACT 1 READING GUIDE 3 PROJECT PROCESS 3 REPORT STRUCTURE 4 INTRODUCTION 7 DESIGNING FOR THE WORLD'S POOR 7 THE INDOOR AIR POLLUTION PROBLEM 8 NEPAL AS THE TARGET AREA 10 THESIS STATEMENT 11 Results 11 PART 1: THE NEPALI CONTEXT 13 STRUCTURE OF PART 1 15 INTRODUCTION TO NEPAL 16 TARGETING CHITWAN 21 PRESENT COOKING SITUATION IN CHITWAN 25 ANALYSING THE CONTEXT 28 THE CURRENT STRATEGIES FOR CHANGE 28 Solution Strategies 28 Dissemination 34 Promotion 35 WHY IS IAP STILL A PROBLEM IN NEPAL TODAY? 36 Lack of Development 36 Limited Success of Previous Interventions 37 CREATING PERSONAS 38 COOKING IN PRACTICE 43 Correlations in Practice 44 Doing Cooking 50 REQUIREMENTS TO FINAL CONCEPT 56 VI Challenging Indoor Air Pollution in Nepal PART 2: THE FINAL CONCEPT 59 STRUCTURE OF PART 2 61 INTRODUCING THE SAPANA STOVE 62 THE ELEMENTS OF THE SAPANA STOVE 63 A SPHERE-TOUR 67 Stove Sphere 67 Workspace Sphere 69 Socio Technical Sphere 71 LOOKING INSIDE 76 GETTING RID OF THE GASES 76 STRUCTURAL CONSIDERATIONS 79 MATERIAL CONSIDERATIONS FOR THE STOVE BODY 82 EVALUATION & PERSPECTIVE 85 REQUIREMENT FULFILMENT 85 Design Challenges 87 NEW CONCEPT IN CONTEXT 92 Base Scenario 92 Scenario 1: The First Steps 92 Scenario 2: Taking it Further 93 Scenario 3: Festival Time 94 CHANGES IN PRACTICE 98 MARKET SHARE 101 THE PATH TO SAPANA 105 STRUCTURE OF PART 3 107 ANALYTICAL PHASE 108 DATA COLLECTION 109 Gathering Secondary Knowledge 109 Gathering Primary Knowledge in Nepal 111 ANALYSIS 116 Structuring Gathered Knowledge 116 CREATIVE PHASE 120 SYNTHESIS 120 Idea Generation 121 Structuring Ideas 124 Fuel Evaluation 126 Designing 7 Concepts 130 Challenging Indoor Air Pollution in Nepal VII User Evaluation in Nepal 135 From 7 to 3 Concepts 140 Evaluation and Selection 145 DEVELOPMENT 148 Materials and Production Considerations 152 NEXT STEP: EXECUTIVE PHASE 154 FURTHER DEVELOPMENT 154 COMMUNICATION 157 EXPERIENCES GAINED FROM ANALYTICAL PHASE 159 EXPERIENCES GAINED FROM CREATIVE PHASE 160 CONCLUSION 163 BIBLIOGRAPHY 165 VIII Challenging Indoor Air Pollution in Nepal List of Figures Figure 1 – Adapted version of Archers design process (Cross, 2000). 3 Figure 2 – The overall structure of this report with 3 main parts. 4 Figure 3 – Location of Nepal (map adapted from Wikipedia). 10 Figure 4 – Structure of Part 1. 15 Figure 5 – Map of Nepal indicating the approximate location of the 3 natural zones (modified from Wikimedia Commons). 17 Figure 6 – UN map of the Chitwan district (www.un.org). 21 Figure 7 – Primitive roads found in Chitwan. 22 Figure 8 – Political structure with DDCs and VDCs. 23 Figure 9 – Layout of a rural kitchen in Chitwan. 25 Figure 10 – Traditional three-stone-fire and U-shaped fireplace. 26 Figure 11 – Spoons stored under the roof. 27 Figure 12 – Mud-brick stove developed by ESAP. 30 Figure 13 – HELPS's ONIL plancha stove (www.onilstove.com). 31 Figure 14 – Philips Sampoorna and Saral stoves (from Philips' presentation "Designing together with users"). 32 Figure 15 – Smoke hoods seen in the Middle Hill districts Dhading and Gorkha. The chimney leads the smoke under the roof of the house. 34 Figure 16 – Correlations in a practice (Christensen & Røpke, 2008). 45 Figure 17 – The yard behind the Pariyar house. 46 Figure 18 – A festival meal with many different dishes. 49 Figure 19 – 3 sub-practices. 50 Figure 20 – Combustible wastes are arranged for next cooking session and firewood prepared. 51 Figure 21 – Traditional rice sorting with a flat tray. 51 Figure 22 – Ingredients are prepared by hand. 52 Figure 23 – Starting the fire and preparing the pot. 52 Figure 24 – Lentil soup and rice being prepared over the fire. 53 Figure 25 – Cooking the curry in a wok. 53 Figure 26 – Arranging the meal. 54 Figure 27 – Nepali tea prepared on a gas stove. 55 Figure 28 – The overlapping nature of the 3 spheres. 57 Figure 29 – Structure of Part 2. 61 Figure 30 – Isometric illustration of the simple and the full version of the Sapana Stove. 62 Figure 31 – Semi-exploded view of the full Sapana Stove. 63 Figure 32 – Chimney sections with metal collar. 64 Figure 33 – Chimney top. 65 Figure 34 – Pothole with pots of different size. 66 Challenging Indoor Air Pollution in Nepal IX Figure 35 – Water tank with tap. 66 Figure 36 – Simple version of the Sapana Stove in context. 68 Figure 37 – Height and cooking position for the simple and full version (the grey box indicates the height when elevated). 69 Figure 38 – Mirrored version of the Sapana Stove (seen from the back). 70 Figure 39 – Actor-Network revolving around the formworks of the Sapana Stove. 73 Figure 40 – Applying for micro credit loans for buying formworks. 74 Figure 41 – Basic structure of the simple version. 76 Figure 42 – Basic structure of the full version. 78 Figure 43 – The approximate heat balance in the stove. 79 Figure 44 – The simplified model used for calculations. Heat flow is estimated for every 10 cm. 81 Figure 45 – Design challenges discussed below. 87 Figure 46 – Simplified beam with the load applied. 90 Figure 47 - Cross section of the beam 90 Figure 48 – Prachi moving leftover charcoal to the charcoal drawer. 95 Figure 49 – Preparing the curry over the primary pothole. 96 Figure 50 – The curry is placed in the hay box. 97 Figure 51 – Structure of Part 3. 107 Figure 52 – The sub-phases of the Analytical Phase and some of the tools used. 108 Figure 53 – Speaker-session at the Indoor Air conference 2008. 109 Figure 54 – Observations from Lejre the Land of Legends. 110 Figure 55 – Smoke filling the kitchen space observed. 111 Figure 56 – From the left: Min Bikram Malla and Niels Juhl Thomsen 112 Figure 57 – Our hosts, the Pariyar family. 113 Figure 58 - Conducting measurements in Nepal. 114 Figure 59 – Kishor in relaxed settings. 115 Figure 60 – Our own personal workspace at DTU, Denmark. 116 Figure 61 – Visual impressions from West Rampur, Chitwan. 117 Figure 62 – Actor-Network for the current cooking practice in Chitwan. 118 Figure 63 – The sub-phases of the Creative Phase and some of the tools used 120 Figure 64 – Workshop setup and result. 122 Figure 65 – Mood-board brainstorms. 124 Figure 66 – Function-mean diagram. 125 Figure 67 – Examples of quantified structures. 125 Figure 68 – Result of fuel evaluation, the fuels scoring above the line are all considered. 129 Figure 69 – Performing a 3D brainstorm with clay. 130 Figure 70 – Interviewees in Nepal. 136 Figure 71 – Sumi and her husband looking at the 7 concepts. 136 Figure 72 – Min and Sanu Babu in the hills of Gorkha. 138 Figure 73 – Local smoke hood manufacturer in Dadhing. 139 Figure 74 – Stakeholder comments on post-it notes. 141 X Challenging Indoor Air Pollution in Nepal Figure 75 – Moving from 7 to 3 concepts. 142 Figure 76 – Set-up for the mock-up tests. 150 Figure 77 – The sub-phases to be focussed on in the further development. 154 Challenging Indoor Air Pollution in Nepal XI List of Notions and Abbreviations AEPC Alternative Energy Promotion Centre. Working under the Nepali government. ALRI Acute Lower Respiratory Infection. Blow-pipe Typically a pipe-fragment used to ventilate the fire. BoP Base of the Pyramid. Overall term for the largest, but poorest socio-economic population group in the world, that is the around four billion people living for less than $2 per day.