BoilingPoint52/Inside 8/22/06 9:48 AM Page 2 1111 We would like to extend our thanks to the World This edition is my last . 2 Health Organization for financial and editorial This edition is my last as Boiling Point editor, and I want to thank 3 support toward this edition of Boiling Point many people for all they have done for the journal over the past 4 few years. Firstly, thank you to Practical Action for supporting the TECHNICAL ENQUIRY SERVICE journal, and for making it possible for you to receive it. Secondly, 5 to GTZ, who have so loyally shared in both content and funding, 6 Technical Enquiry Service bringing a real strength to the journal. Thanks too, to the other 7 Do you have a practical problem? We may have an answer. organizations which have part-funded individual editions, we 8 could not have functioned without them. A big thank you to all Drawing on our international experience of working with 9 who have provided material to create such a useful resource. small-scale technologies we provide practical information Finally, a special thank you to the theme editors who have 10 and advice. Our service is free of charge to individuals, busi- ensured quality and accuracy. The good news is that you will all 1 nesses and development practitioners working in the South. continue to receive Boiling Point – it is now formally joining the 2 HEDON Household Energy Network (www.hedon.info), with We aim to supply useful information directly relevant to your 3 which it has been associated for some years. The journal will be needs so please be clear and specific when making your 4 co-ordinated by Eco Ltd, collaborating with both Practical Action enquiry. We have access to expertise in energy, agro- and GTZ to continue bringing you the latest household energy 5 processing, food production, building materials and shelter, information and news. 6 transport and small-scale manufacturing. 7 Contributions to Boiling Point 8 If you can use the internet then you can access a range of Technical Briefs – http://www.practicalaction.org/ NEW ADDRESS FOR ALL BOILING POINT 9 CORRESPONDENCE 20111 technicalinformationservice or send your enquiry by email to [email protected] otherwise please contact us Boiling Point – HEDON Household Energy Network 1 at: c/o Eco Ltd 2 402 Southborough Lane, London, Bromley Technical Information Service (Boiling Point) 3 BR2 8BH Practical Action 4 United Kingdom Schumacher Centre for Technology Development 5 Tel +44-(0)20 84674347 6 Bourton Hall Bourton on Dunsmore Fax +44-(0)870 137 2360 and +44-(0)70 9236 7695 7 Email: [email protected]; Web: www.hedon.info 8 Warwickshire CV23 9QZ G Tel: +44 (0) 1926 634468 BP53: Technologies that really work 9 In the last five years, many effective new technologies have been 30 +44 (0) 1926 634400 developed. This edition is the first for some time that is 1 Fax: +44 (0) 1926 634401 unashamedly technology-oriented. Ideally, we would like to 2 include a wide range of proven technologies for cooking, light- Editorial Team 3 ing, institutional use, which have been used in households suc- cessfully for at least several months/years, and also tested to 4 Elizabeth Bates – Editor ensure that they do what they are intended to do – reducing fuel 5 Agnes Klingshirn – GTZ Editor use, reducing smoke, costing less etc. Ideally, each article should 6 Colleen Phillips – Administrator include: a good description; how and where it has been tested; 7 the cost of the technology; the level of complexity for construc- 8 tion and maintenance; a couple of photographs; information on 9 Back issues of Boiling Point where people can get more details – drawings, support, further information, and permission to use the design. For those without 40111 access to the web, please include non-web ways of accessing 1 In this edition . technical drawings (if at all possible). 2 51 – Sharing information and 42 – Household energy and G BP54: Improved energy access for local institutions 3 communicating the environment Where groups of people find themselves gathered, institutional stoves and lighting can be important to their well-being. Clean 4 knowledge 41 – Household energy; the and efficient institutional stoves can provide food for schools, 5 50 – Scaling up and commer- urban dimension hospitals, prisons and can assist where communal facilities are 6 cialisation of household 40 – Household energy needed in emergency situations. Bread and other staple foods 7 energy initiatives and health can be cooked on a community basis. Street lighting can allow 8 49 – Forests, fuel and food 39 – Using biomass markets to trade for longer and for people to feel safe. 9 48 – Promoting household residues for energy Generators owned by the community can allow people to light their homes. Hospitals and clinics need a 'cold chain' to keep 50 energy for poverty 38 – Household energy in reduction high cold regions vaccines in good order. This edition is not only interested in the 1 technologies, but also in the infrastructure to make them work: 47 – Household energy 37 – Household energy in 2 tariffs, energy efficiency, impacts, communal responsibilities and enterprise emergency situations 3 and maintenance etc. If you have experience of these issues, 46 – Household energy 36 – Solar energy in the home HEDON would love to hear about them. 4 and the vulnerable 35 – How much can 5 Articles should be no more than 1500 words in length. 45 – Low cost electrification NGOs achieve? Illustrations, such as drawings, photographs, graphs and bar 6 for household energy 34 – Smoke removal charts are essential. Articles can be submitted on disc, email or 7 44 – Linking household 33 – Household energy typescript. 8 energy with other developments in Opinions expressed in contributory articles are those of the 9 development objectives Asia authors and not necessarily those of Practical Action. We do not 60 43 – Fuel options for house- 32 – Energy for the charge a subscription to Boiling Point, but welcome donations 6111 hold energy household to cover the cost of production and dispatch. Cover photo: Woman and child cooking over open fire in street, Nairobi, Kenya (photo Practical Action/Nigel Bruce) Boiling Point 52/correx 9/27/06 11:29 AM Page 1 1111 2 3 THEME EDITORIAL 4 5 6 Household energy for life 7 8 1 2 9 Eva Rehfuess and Nigel Bruce 1 10 Public Health and Environment, World Health Organization, 1211 Geneva 27, Switzerland 1 Website: http://www.who.int/indoorair 2 2 Department of Public Health, University of Liverpool, Whelan Building, Quadrangle, Liverpool L69 3GB, UK. 3 Tel.: +44-(0)151–794–5582; Fax: +44-(0)151–794–5582; E-mail: [email protected] 4 5 Up to 4000 deaths a day may be pre- 6 vented by providing the world’s poor Non-solid fuel users 7 with access to modern household Solid fuel users 8 energy. Yet, in the year 2003, 52 per- 9 cent of the world’s population – more 20111 than three billion people – used solid 1 fuels for cooking. The United Nations 2 Millennium Project highlights the role 3 of energy services as a prerequisite for 4 development, and calls on countries to Population (millions) 5 adopt the following additional Millen- 6 nium Development Goal (MDG) tar- 7 get to pave the way for achieving all 8 of the MDGs: Figure 1 Trends in solid fuel use 9 By 2015, to reduce the number of 30 between 1990 and 2015, the num- As described by Nathan Johnson people without effective access 1 ber of people without access to and Mark Bryden, burns and scalds to modern cooking fuels by 50 2 modern cooking fuels. resulting from use of open fires or percent, and make improved Theme 3 unsafe stoves represent another impor- cookstoves widely available. Cooking with solid fuels has many 4 tant threat to health, resulting in deaths direct and indirect impacts on health. 5 For this target to become a reality, and life-long disfigurement and handi- Respiratory diseases, as illustrated in 6 1.7 billion people will need to gain cap. Hospital records, however, do not Davidzo Muchawaya’s overview of 7 access to liquefied petroleum gas, bio- habitually report the underlying causes the situation in rural Zimbabwe, con- 8 gas, and other modern fuels – as indi- of such injuries, and there is an urgent tinue to be of greatest public health 9 cated by the arrows in Figure 1 need to document the links between concern, as is the lack of awareness 40111 (Source: WHO, 2006). The challenge household energy use and burns and about the health implications of tradi- 1 is enormous: Every day between now scalds. Finally, there is an increasing tional cooking practices reported from 2 and 2015, access to cleaner fuels will recognition of the special risks associ- this study. Pneumonia among children 3 need to be extended to 485000 peo- ated with fuel collection in circum- under five, chronic bronchitis and 4 ple. And, reaching the target would stances of social instability. Cheryl other chronic respiratory diseases 5 still leave 1.5 billion people cooking O’Brien’s interviews with women liv- among adults and lung cancer (where 6 with solid fuels and exposed to harm- ing in the Kebrebeyah refugee camp in coal is used) formed the basis for 7 ful pollutants in ten years’ time. These Ethiopia provide sad testimony of girls WHO’s first comparative assessment 8 numbers illustrate the urgent need for and women being assaulted when they of health risks conducted for the year 9 action to address this neglected public leave the relative safety of their 2000.