"After using the last tree to cook food, what will we do?"
This is the question that continues to nag millions of Kenyan women in rural and urban areas, especially in the slums.
Their dilemma is due to the lack of access to clean and affordable energy. Fortunately, the solution to their problem is readily available. It lies in solar energy. Faustine Odaba, like the majority of Kenyan women, could not imagine that energy from the sun could be a solution to the perpetual problem of getting fuel for cooking. "I could not imagine that solar energy could cook until an American young woman working in Kenya as a volunteer and staying in the neighborhood introduced it to me," she said.
Curiosity
Odaba explained that after noticing her curiosity, her American neighbor instructed her on how to use the cooker. When she traveled back to the US, the lady left Odaba the cooker and introduced her to an American organization called Solar Cookers International (SCI). That was almost two decades ago.
The organization's headquarters lies in Sacramento, California, the US. It promotes the use of solar power for the benefit of both people and the environment. SCI trained Odaba on how to make and use simple, portable, lightweight solar cookers dubbed CooKits. She attended many events organized by SCI to promote solar energy cooking.
When the training was complete, the organization recruited and sent her to Kakuma Refugee Camp in north-western Kenya. The camp lies close to the borders of Sudan and Uganda. At that time, it was housing an estimated 100,000 refugees from the neighboring countries. The camp is located in a severely dry area. The refugees depend on wood fuel for cooking. However, wood is scarce in the area.
Practical Alternative
Odaba said the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) had to buy wood fuel from other parts of Kenya to supply the refugees. To tackle the problem of lack of wood fuel, SCI started promoting solar energy cooking by giving refugees the portable CooKits. Odaba was among the team that distributed them and taught people how to use them effectively. The cookers were constructed using locally available materials.
"It did not take long for the refugee families to learn that solar cooking was a practical alternative that would save both money and wood," she said.
Government Support
The Ministries of Energy and Agriculture in Kenya have become partners in the initiative to promote solar energy cooking. They have offered SCI support in its training and outreach programs countrywide.
Local companies also got involved in supporting the project as part of their social responsibility schemes. "We endeavor to create and increase awareness of solar cooking potential among policy makers and donors," said Odaba. Odaba has trained many women who in turn train others on making solar cookers. "I move across the country courtesy of SCI to train women on how to make and use solar cookers using simple technologies."
Odaba said the project has won countrywide acclaim, citing the large volume of inquiries from people from various parts of the country seeking information about solar cooking. In a recent solar energy exposition held in Kenya's capital Nairobi, many people were astonished at what the simple CooKits could do. As a demonstration, meat, beans, and rice were prepared using specially made cooking pots. The cooking pots were painted black to absorb heat. Then they were wrapped in plastic bags in order to retain the heat absorbed. They were inserted into the box-like CooKits, whose sides are made of shiny aluminum foil that reflected sun rays onto the pots, creating heat for cooking.
"I have lived with the sun since I was born but had never realized that it can do so much," said Angeline Anyango, a resident of Kibera slums in Nairobi. Savoring a piece of solar-cooked meat, the mother of four commented that it was just as delicious as meat cooked on a charcoal stove. A simple CooKit can prepare food to feed about six to eight people. It can also be used to pasteurize water to make it safe to drink.
Less Expenditure
Many households can afford CooKits. A single CooKit sells at a cost of US$3 to US$10. It can last up to two years if properly used and maintained. With a CooKit, a family would save on the expenditure for paraffin and charcoal during sunny days. "This technology can decrease one's spending and enable a household to cater to other pressing needs," said Anyango.
Unlike charcoal or wood fuel, CooKits cook food with no smoke. "We are often advised to use smoke-free methods of cooking by doctors to curb lung infections among children. But faced with no choice, we continue using paraffin, charcoal, and wood, which make the situation worse," noted Musa Mutinda, a Nairobi resident.
Indeed, according to SCI, smoke generated by wood and charcoal during cooking causes irritation to the eyes, nose, and throat and other breathing problems. In addition, in the slums where shacks are built close to one another, solar cookers do not pose the risk of fire accidents as other methods of cooking do.
Solar cookers can also free up time. They enable time normally used for cooking to be used to engage in other activities. Since the food cannot be burned, the cook does not need to stay close to the cooker all the time as in fire cooking. Urban and rural women can engage in small-scale businesses selling foodstuff. The solar CooKits can roast, bake, and stew foods, without lowering their nutritional value.
Boon for Conservation
The increase in use of solar cookers is bound to have a positive effect on the environmental conservation efforts. Kenya's forest cover has drastically declined due to wanton cutting down of trees to provide firewood, charcoal, and timber. According to government figures, 85 percent of Kenya's population of approximately 33 million lacks stable access to electricity or any other form of clean energy.
Forests have been stripped bare more so in water catchment areas, and the consequences include drying up of rivers. "We and our children walk for over four hours every day looking for firewood. Since it is our main source of fuel, we have no choice but to collect it in forests or even cut down any available tree to provide us with wood fuel," said Janet Sirinyi from western Kenya.
Poor Nutrition
She pointed out that the scarcity of firewood was compromising the health of children in many families. Some mothers are unable to cook nutritious food such as beans that require long hours of cooking and hence more firewood. "By using the sun for cooking, we will be able to save our trees and forests and ensure that our children eat a balanced diet," added the mother of five. Her only reservation is that she is used to cooking indoors. Solar cooking is an outdoor activity. "Solar cooking involves cooking outside, and in my community people detest cooking outside."
Her fears are part of cultural challenges to the adoption of solar cooking. Odaba recommends that this can only be countered by awareness and advocacy. Other challenges based on traditions include the belief that that there has to be fire for food to cook. "In some communities, men warn their wives that food cooked without fire is not tasty, hence food cooked by use of solar energy should not be eaten," added Odaba.
She also explained that solar cooking is heavily dependant on the weather. Thus when there is less sunshine, solar cooking is not feasible. Furthermore, simple solar cookers tend to cook slowly compared to wood or charcoal stoves. A solar cooker may take two hours to cook food that would take only one hour in a wood or charcoal stove.
Be as it may, however, solar cooking is gaining popularity. "Usage of solar cookers can profoundly save forests," said Mohamed Mohamoud, from the town of Bosaso in North Eastern Somalia. According to SCI, the CooKit saves more than four times its value in fuel wood each year. If used regularly for two years, a Cookit can reduce fuel wood consumption by 2 tons.
Mohamoud works with a local NGO called Sun Fire Cooking, in his home country. It promotes Cookits. He stressed that women groups trained in constructing simple solar cookers are earning income by selling them to others. "Being portable, the solar cooKits are handy for the pastoralist/nomadic communities," said Mohamoud.
Global Warming
Charles Oloo, a technical director at the Nairobi-based energy solution company Altener Solar Limited, thinks the wood fuel problem is serious. According to him, over 70 percent of households, schools, and institutions in Africa continue to rely on fuel wood as the primary cooking fuel. This large reliance comes with devastating health and environmental effects.
Oloo thinks that the smokeless solar cooking would be a boon to the environment. He explained that the burning of wood contributes significantly to air pollution and to global warming. "Every ton of wood that is burned releases about 3.7 tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Since a large number of people in the developing world use wood fuel, this is a major environmental problem," said Oloo. He noted that their aim is to address the problem of pollution directly by helping people convert to cooking with the prime renewable energy source: the power of the sun.
Solar CooKits are a true solution to cooking problems when the sun is shining, as it has for generations in Africa, he concluded.
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