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WEEK THREE POSTINGS ON 'IMPROVED COOKING STOVES'

1. From: ics@crt.wlink.com.np
Subject: [RETs] Week 3: Moderator's Welcome and Introduction
Date: Thu, 6 Dec 2001 15:19:55 +0530

Dear Participants,

Very warm welcome to you all in the second part of week three of the e-conference on 'Renewable energy Technologies for Mountain Areas'.

Our discussion for next couple of days will be on the sub topic 'Improved Cooking Stove (ICS)'. Despite considerable promotional and dissemination efforts by the Government agencies, I/NGOs and other donor supported programs, majority of rural households still use traditional cooking stove which is not only inefficient
use but also causes excessive indoor pollution risking the health of many women and children in rural areas of most developing countries in this region. Thus how can all these households (who cannot really afford to other renewable energy technologies) gain access to Improved Cooking Stoves in the near future is the
issue for discussion. I would like to invite you all to share your valuable experiences/expertise.

Below is a brief note for initiating discussion:

Forest resources and other biomass (primarily fuel wood) are important sources of household energy in rural and even semi-urban areas all over the developing countries. The demand for biomass energy is rapidly growing as a result of both population increase and an increase in the various types of economic activity in rural communities. This has led to overexploitation of biomass (wood) resources for fuel and other uses and clearing of forests for agricultural land causing a serious problem in fuelwood supply and environmental degradation. Alternatives to wood and biomass-based energy are not feasible for the vast majority of households in rural areas in the foreseeable future.

In the last decade considerable research efforts have been directed towards the development of the ways and means of efficient and emission free use of biomass fuels. Accordingly, different models/ designs of cooking stoves are available today for using biomass in various forms. Furthermore, over the years, research has been initiated for conversion of different forms of biomass into superior fuels (like charcoal, wood gas etc).

Despite these, the use of biomass fuels in cooking and heating is still very inefficient and unhealthy for most of the rural population in developing countries. Exposure to indoor pollution is a serious health risk for women and children, and this can be mitigated by wider dissemination of fuel efficient and smokeless, improved cooking stoves.

Notwithstanding the efforts and initiatives undertaken by various governments and NGOs in many countries in the last 20 years, the improved cooking stove programme has been a limited success because of supply-oriented, top-down, target-oriented, subsidised and inappropriate dissemination approaches.

His Majesty's Government of Nepal (HMG/N) has accorded high priority to the development and promotion of Improved Cooking stoves in the mid-hills and mountain areas.

Since the early 1990s new initiatives for ICS dissemination have been undertaken by various organisations with new stove designs that can be built completely from cheap, readily available materials and with different financial arrangements such as partial subsidies or without subsidies, equity participation by users etc. This has brought about some positive outcomes, however, not on the larger scale or to the desirable extent.

Thus there is a need to change approaches from top-down, target-oriented, subsidized approach to bottom-up, cost-effective, demand-driven, self-construction approach in order to attain wider dissemination of ICS across the majority of the rural population in the Asia and Pacific region for reduced biomass consumption, improvement of kitchen, indoor environment and health, reduction in women's workload and improvement of food and nutrition.

The relevant issues for discussions are:

* What could be the various appropriate ICS dissemination approaches (popularization and commercialization) for attaining wider dissemination in the different socio-cultural contexts of various countries?
* Are there sufficient designs and models of ICS to address the different needs and preferences of different people?
* Has there been sufficient level of awareness and information on advantages linked to ICS created among the potential users in the rural areas?
* How can a sustainable, cost effective scaling up and spread effect of ICS be achieved in the present and future ICS promotion activities/scenarios?
* How can the capacity of local institutions to disseminate ICS without external support be enhanced?
* Is the subsidy still necessary for ICS dissemination? Does it help the spontaneous spread of sustainable ICS?

The issues may not be limited to the above only, so please feel free to raise any other relevant issues in this domain.

With warm regards,

Mr. Rajan Thapa
Moderator for Week 3, Sub Topic 'ICS'

2. From: "Nienhuys" <s.nienhuys@chello.nl>
Subject: Re: [RETs] Week 3: 'Improved Cooking Stoves'
Date: Thu, 6 Dec 2001 10:42:53 +0100

Concerning ICS, a clear distinction has to be made between stoves for cooking alone and stoves for the combination of cooking and room-heating.

A lot of (necessary) attention has been given to the cooking in hot-climate-areas in order to reduce firewood consumption and make cooking a less hot and smoky business. The improved mud-stoves that were developed reduced firewood but, however, did not always have the correct status appeal for the cook.

The firewood is saved by a variety of ICS in warm to hot low-land areas all over the world. Hence plenty experiences are available. From many sources it can be learned that ICS with shielding sides indeed save substantial amount of firewood as compared to open three-stone hearts, however, the smoke remains detrimental to health, furniture and house. In hot climates cooking is done outside the house. On the other hand, other options to reduce firewood consumption such as changing eating/food habits and changing cooking methods such as the use of pressure vessels have been undervalued.

The domestic needs for the Cold Mountain Areas are quit different; while the food is cooked, the room is heated. This also leads traditionally to food products that require (or are based on) long cooking times. Changing ovens and stoves imply the changing of eating and cooking methods.

In the Northern Areas of Pakistan where BACIP insulated the houses, the use of firewood was halved and with that the cooking time. Some environmental development agents in the Northern Areas focused originally their project on ICS to reduce firewood consumption. Later they included thermal insulation of houses. BACIP demonstrated that improving thermal insulation in mountain houses reduces drastically firewood consumption and with that smoke emissions. Due to those two conditions the insulation did improve the time management of the people and health situation within the houses, being specifically beneficial for the women and children.

In the NA, mud-based stoves were rejected in the entire area. All improved stoves were of sheet metal. BACIP improved the manufacturing quality. Only on a fifth or sixth position the ICS would also reduce some firewood in three ways.

1. In an insulated house the need for side-heat radiation of the cooking stove was diminished. Therefore internal ceramic tiles were placed inside the stove to reduce side radiation and reflect heat upwards to the metallic cooking surface. Cooking times were reduced.

2. For the summer period, when the stove was ONLY used for cooking, these tiles were kept inside the stove thus extending the firewood saving during the summer time period.

3. The stove was fitted with internal GI piping that is connected to a warm water storage barrel. This way warm water is produced while cooking, reducing the drudgery work of the women and increase domestic efficiency, as well as comfort.

We had a lot of success with the incorporated water heater, as comfort is a major decision making argument for people to buy a product. The latest improvement was an insulating hood (top-oven) that could be placed over the stove to make it function as an oven.

ICS with chimneys have been promoted already for more than 15 years in the Northern Areas and were further improved by BACIP.

BACIP effectively demonstrated in many houses of the NA that firewood conservation is PRIMARILY realised (over 50%-60% on annual basis) by thermal insulation of the house and controlling ventilation and smoke, rather than further improving the cooking/room-heating stoves.

Detailed information about the thermal insulation for houses in the NA (Himalayas) and ICS can be obtained from <bacip1@glt.comsats.net.pk>

The full publication list of BACIP includes some of the following relevant titles:

- Research Report on BACIP Wood Stoves for High Mountain Areas
- Wall Insulation Techniques for Houses in High Mountain areas.
- Fuel Wood Consumption Practices etc. etc.
- Impact of BACIP House Improvements on Women.

A CD-ROM with documents can be made available to ICIMOD for wider distribution.

Regards,

Sjoerd Nienhuys
Programme Director BACIP '99-'01
EPA Consultant
---

Moderator's Comments
I fully agree with Mr.Nienhuys views on making a distinction between cooking (should also include practices of animal feed cooking as is true in many places) and heating, considering health aspects and options to reduce fuelwood consumption by changing eating /food habits and cooking practices.

Furthermore, the improvements made on the metallic ICS as well as the cost-effective/user friendly house insulation practices would be worth replicating in the region.

We believe the dissemination of this kind of ICS along with house insulation measures should go out with enormous information and awareness campaign along with test demonstrations. This has to be inter alia, cost-effective, if it is to gain acceptance.

- Rajan Thapa

3. From: "Bikash Pandey" <bpandey@winrock.org.np>
Subject: [RETs] Week 3: ICS for firewood savings or health?
Date: Thu, 6 Dec 2001 19:21:22 +0545

Before we talk about the best way to disseminate the ICS technology, it may be useful to think about whether we are doing it for the right reasons. The dominant reason for improving biomass stoves continues to be more efficient use of fuel. I find this is a difficult message to get through to rural people, particularly in mountain areas where firewood is still relatively plentiful. There is also anecdotal evidence that fuel efficiency is more related to cooking habits (does the cook have all her vegetables chopped up before she starts the fire, and does she put out the fire once cooking is done) than the stove design that is used.

It seems that the major benefit of the ICS is that it transports smoke out of the kitchen area where rural people, particularly women and children, spend much of their indoor time. Reducing indoor air pollution has substantial proven health benefits. Would it not be more effective to promote ICS on the health platform, rather than on fuel savings? The strategy would then change from proving to cooks that ICS uses less firewood to a public education campaign on the health impacts of indoor air pollution. The latter would be done in a manner similar to anti-smoking (cigarettes), anti-alcohol, AIDS awareness kinds of campaigns that the government regularly carries out with some effectiveness. The concerned Ministry for ICS promotion would shift from Forestry to Health if this change in thinking happened.

I will assert that it is the lack of health awareness that is responsible for lack of demand for ICS and the very few examples of successful promotion programs, which because of lack of effective demand creation tend to be supply driven. Very interested in alternative view points.

Bikash Pandey

4. From: ics@crt.wlink.com.np
Subject: [RETs] Week 3: Re: ICS for firewood savings or health?
Date: Fri, 7 Dec 2001 15:33:29 +0530

Dear Mr. Pandey,

The points you made regarding ICS dissemination are for right reasons. Efficient use of fuel is still seen as the main reason for ICS promotion. Sensitizing
people on negative health impacts of indoor pollution, in a manner similar to anti-smoking, anti-alcohol campaigns etc., is highly relevant.

There has been a significant change in approaches over the years and ICS are increasingly promoted with health awareness messages along with its fuel-economy property. I agree fully that health should be the overriding factor along with fuelwood savings ICS incurs. They should go together rather combined as there is still
a lot of demand for ICS in hills and mountain areas in this region for saving fuel wood, indicating that not all areas have fuelwood in abundance.

Thank you and regards,

Rajan Thapa, Moderator- 'ICS'
-------------------------------

Bikash Pandey wrote:

...I will assert that it is the lack of health awareness that is responsible for lack of demand for ICS and the very few examples of successful promotion programs, which because of effective demand creation tend to besupply driven. Very interested in alternative view points...

5. From: "Xia Zuzhang" <xiazh@public.km.yn.cn>
Subject: [RETs] Week 3: Fireplace/Stove for Cold Mountainous Areas
Date: Fri, 7 Dec 2001 22:03:01 +0800

Regarding the stoves for both cooking and room-heating in cold mountainous areas, I could not agree more with Nienhuys.

In TNC's project areas of SW China's Yunnan province, we tried to cut down firewood consumption by project intervention, and therefore selected relatively high fuel-efficient fireplace/stoves for pilot households at high elevation for both cooking and room heating, but later on found that, although firewood consumption was reduced significantly, local people did not really like this very first fuel-efficient innovation because of the following reasons:

1. The new fireplace/stove, although with openings on both sides, was not hot enough. Elderly people much prefer their traditional open fire as that provided them more comfortable warmth. With the traditional smoky and dusty open fire, openings on the roof and walls of sitting rooms ensures smoke going out of the room but on the other hand could not block the very cold outside air coming in, so people have to burn more wood to warm up, which resulted in incredible amount of firewood consumption during winter. With all the openings on the roof and walls, it is understandable that the new fireplace/stove was not big enough to meet the heating load of the very poorly insulated room;
2. As the chimney of the new fireplace/stove helps channel smoke away, so it is not so smoky inside, we were trying to persuade villagers to close the openings of the room and insulate the roof. But some people were worrying that better insulation would result in poor ventilation and therefore a humid and hot sitting room during summer;
3. The chimney might be another problem. Without proper precautions, the hot chimney, whether metal or non-metal, might scald kids or drunken men;
4. Open fire has its deep-rooted socio-cultural origins. Sitting and chatting around an open fire has been the way of hosting guest during cold season years after years; baking potatoes inside the red-hot ash of the open fire is also a very popular local practice. Some people, particularly elderly people, do not feel good with the new installation as they could only see the fire partially open and baking potatoes is not as convenient as before.

Three months after the first-batch installation, a meeting was held for villagers' comments and suggestions, of which the aforementioned are just some of the feedback. With all those in mind, a new model fireplace/stove is developed to suit the specific villages. The new model is featured with

1) A much larger removable fire blocker on each side of the cast-iron fireplace/stove body, which people could easily take away for larger open-fire area after starting-up the fire;
2) A removable inner insulation layer, so that people could mounted during summer when the fireplace/stove is used for cooking only, and take it out during winter for better spacing heating effect;
3) A chimney damper to control over-draught and a reserved recoverable opening for taking chimney ash out;
4) A convenient space for baking potatoes;
5) Two drawers for keeping leftover hot;
6) Several fitting parts to adapt to a variety of cooking utensils (different size pot, pan, kettle, etc);
7) A protection boot for the hottest part of the chimney, but allows airflow between the inner surface of the boot and the outer surface of the chimney;
8) A mobile support frame

The new model with relatively higher price (around US$50) is well accepted by villagers. Three-month-later a follow-up showed that local villagers were quite satisfactory with this new installation, and people of neighboring villages are influenced. One negative comment on this new fireplace/stove is that the firewood gate of the new model (25cm X 30cm) is not big enough to put into large wood trunk.

The boiling-water efficiency of the new model is not as high as that of the very first model, but significantly better than the three-stone open fire in terms of cooking efficiency and indoor air pollution improvement. We believe that the compromise between higher (boiling-water) efficiency and better acceptance is worthwhile based on the consideration that heat released into the room shall be considered as useful energy. As people buy-in the new innovative, the project objective
of cutting down firewood consumption could be approached at less extent but larger scale.

The next step under consideration would be house insulation to enhance the impact.

Xia Zuzhang
TNC Yunnan Representative Office
Kunming, Yunnan Province, China
-----------------------------------

Moderator's comment
Dear Mr.Zuzhang,

Certainly there may be different needs and preferences of mountain communities with regard to ICS, based on their socio-cultural settings, cooking practices/eating habits and available various technological options as well as information and awareness level besides prevailing economic situation. For this reason any particular model that is accepted in Northern Areas in Pakistan may not be accepted in some other Himalayan regions. Thus any model promoted should be versatile and if required should be modified according to the local needs and preferences of the community for larger acceptance and adoption like the TNC'S project approach in SW China's Yunan province. Thank you so much for your interesting and successful case in SW China.

With regards,

Rajan Thapa.

6. From: "SauShrestha" <saushrestha@aepc.gov.np>
Subject: [RETs] Week 3: The ICS Scenario in Nepal
Date: Sat, 8 Dec 2001 11:08:52 -0600

I would like to inform the present status of ICS in Nepal in brief and Policies and Strategies adopted by HMG/N for sustainability of this programme in the middle hills of Nepal.

The Present Status of ICS in Nepal
Despite more than forty years of ICS programme development implementation and research, ICS programmes in rural Nepal have been of limited success. Presently, some national and international organizations are still rather reluctant to enhance ICS programmes, and ICS related activities are given relatively low priority by development planners, managers and practitioners as well as by the rural communities themselves.

However, ICS development have had a come back on the development agenda among NGOs in Nepal, and there is now consensus abut the importance of ICS and the need of a new innovative approach to ICS dissemination, among potential stakeholders. Generally, the attitude and approach to ICS implementation has changed over the years from a supply-oriented, quantitative 'hardware' oriented approach, to a more demand-oriented, qualitative 'software'-oriented approach.

HMG gives priority to a national ICS programme, although in the current fiscal year, today, in Nepal, various INGO/NGOs are involved in ICS dissemination in different areas and there is a felt need from a national body being overall responsible for ICS co-ordination and dissemination. AEPC (Alternate Energy
Promotion Center/Ministry of Science and Technology) with the support from ESAP (Energy Sector Assistance Programme/DANIDA) will fulfill that role.

Policies and Strategies

* No direct subsidy
* The ICS technology is the cost effective, based on local material and could be installed with simple technical knowledge and training. So HMG/N has taken the policy not to provide subsidy in order to create household ownership in the programme there by ensuring sustainability of the programme. To discourage the subsidy the emphasis would be given to the Information Campaign, which would go together with the social mobilization by the women workers of DWD.
* Local institutional and capacity building
* The programme will be based on local capacity building and the primary owners of the programme will be local communities, represented by the ICS installers and the ICS users.
* Partnership and Co-ordination
* Information and Awareness Campaign
* A women 's programme primarily

Mr. Saurav K. Shrestha
Energy Officer, Alternative Energy Promotion Centre/MoST

7. From: "Stewart Craine" <Stewart.Craine@hydro.com.au>
Subject: [RETs] Week 3: RE: ICS for firewood savings or health?
Date: Sat, 8 Dec 2001 12:26:06 -0600

Just on a technical note -

From my limited exposure to ICS design and literature, there seems to be a trade off between reducing smoke by using a chimney and reducing fuelwood consumption. The chimney creates more of a draught, and the fuelwood consumption seems to be similar, in most cases, to normal cooking practices. An ICS
without a chimney reduces fuelwood consumption, but there is still the smoke problem.

Therefore, if you have a program that concentrates on health benefits, it is likely that this will not lead to decreased fuelwood consumption. And vice versa....

Obviously, cooking habits and insulation are other variable to consider, but I just wanted to point out this relationship. One small effort to rectify this problem is the use of electric exhaust fans, which only need 10-25W. Placed above a stove in the wall, or in a hood above a stove, the fan could remove the smoke without causing as much of a draught, resulting in health benefits and reduced fuelwood consumption.

Bikash's argument could also hold true for the RET for electrification that was discussed before - health benefits could drive more interest in electrification if they were promoted more strongly.

On a slightly separate note, ICS can also be used for making electricity, which could run LED lamps. Less light is often a problem associated with ICS. The ICS could be used to charge Nicad batteries for lighting or radio. Having access to electricity could make ICS's very popular. An expert in converting waste heat to electricity has estimated that the cost could be similar to solar panels, and would not need much development.

-Stewart Craine
----------------

Moderator's Comment
Dear Mr.Craine,

The use of electric exhaust fan is worth sharing. Experiences on Improved Cooking Stove activities in the past have shown that there is fuel saving between 20%-40% compared to its traditional counterpart even focussing on health benefits.

Moderator, Rajan Thapa

8. From: "Stewart Craine" <Stewart.Craine@hydro.com.au>
Subject: [RETs] Week 3: Reducing Costs for Large Scale ICS
Date: Sat, 8 Dec 2001 12:45:17 -0600

One idea with potential has been suggested by the Regional Wood Energy Development Programme (RWEDP). Considering an ICS can cost US$5-10, and can reduce carbon emissions a good deal in its lifetime, a national ICS program could be fully funded by multinational company seeking to earn emission reduction credits. This is not just theory - companies have already invested millions in the Prototype Carbon Fund, set up by the World Bank, and will purchase emission reduction credits from companies undertaking clean energy projects in developing countries. The suggested cost of purchasing credits is US$3-5 per tonne of CO2. A RWEDP paper calculates the cost of a large ICS program, based on real numbers from past projects, at under US$2 per tonne of CO2.

The ICS paper can be found at <http://www.rwedp.org/p_carbon.html>, and Carbon Fund at <http:// www.prototypecarbonfund.org>.

A free ICS program could lead to reduced fuelwood consumption, and jobs for rural people in verifying savings. Even for more expensive stoves, costs could reduce by 10-50%. This could be based on laboratory results backed up with sample surveys of woodfuel consumption, or actual measurements of fuel wood using scales. Even school children could help weigh how much fuelwood they use each month. Perhaps in Nepal, the Energy Sector Assistance Program could look into this opportunity, as it is promoting large scale ICS, and will need to look at different sources of finance once the project is complete.

- Stewart Craine
-----------------

Moderator's Comment
This is an wonderful idea and needs further exploration of the possibility as this is no more a theory now.

Thanks a lot and with regards,

Mr. Rajan Thapa.

9. From: "Ajay Sharma" <a.sharma@cqu.edu.au>
Subject: [RETs] Week 3: Paving way for ICs and biomass technologies
Date: Sat, 8 Dec 2001 14:39:32 -0600

Through the third week of this e-conference, once again the usual issues of poor awareness level, un-suitable designs, lack of maintenance and subsidies are coming to the forefront of the problems that hamper expansion of RETs and fuel saving devices. I am sorry but it is a typical tactics of planners and promoters to build all management of the promotion schemes around these empirical problems. There is no denial to these bottlenecks and the need for handling these issues. But I intend to contest the acceptance of these issues as the foundation for the dissemination programs. Assessing the local demands and then offering solution should be the right approach.

I have two submissions here before proceeding further. Now the repair shops for kerosene stoves are common in village and even the stove are commonly visible in houses. Which agency is promoting the stove? Or the repair / maintenance shops? May be none. People have money to buy them. People have gathered knowledge about their source, fuel and use. It is true also for the Meso lights in Nepal.

In Indian forestry sector, the empirical problems related to socio-economics and biotic pressure of the forest dwellers have only increased in spite of various magnanimous poverty eradication and forest management programs. And the most professionally trained and dedicated forest departments, after more than 100 years of planned management have realised that beating the bush related to empirical problems is not going to lead anywhere. Now micro-planning as well as forest certifications are being promoted. In the name of these tools, basically local priorities are being identified and efforts/ solutions required are being quantified. Are we going to wait for such a long time to see the biomass technologies in use.

In an exercise of developing 25 village level biomass plans, we realised that after 20 years under the business as usual scenario, only four villages would be sustainable in meeting their fuel as well fodder demands. I believe the scenario is going to be more or less same in other parts of the hills also. It implies that in next two decades, we might see more than 80% population living in resource negative situation.

If some growth rates can be modified (including conservation of fuels, introduction of RETs, increasing supply of commercial fuels, improved agriculture, and population control in human as well as livestock), it is possible to make 17 villages clearly sustainable. Another 6 will also be sustainable but if growth rates are not modified to the extent required, then there could be a threat of either fuel or fodder unsustainability. Still there will be two villages, which have drastically consumed their resources and may be the villages will be un-inhabitated in next two decades.

First step towards modifying the growth rates is to quantify the stress on the natural resources so that endues-wise carrying capacity may be determined. If the
stress is 0.8 – 1.2, i.e., the sustainability is threatened, extensive extension and conservation techniques (introduction of ICs) will get an attention. If the stress is between 1.2 - 1.6, it is essential for all families to adopt fuel conservation strategies (suitable intensity of extension is required); large part of cow-dung has to processed through bio-gas plants (to get manure for agriculture fields & higher productivity); fuel and fodder production programs have to be implemented (to support stall-fed livestock as well as domestic consumption). If stress further grows high, introduction of commercial fuels become important (and that has to
accompany with commercial activities so that purchasing power of villagers may be increased otherwise migration is inevitable). If stress is further high (say more than 2.2), reversal is very difficult as interventions like population control, change in livestock become essential.

So if your target village is having a higher stress factor, there are fair chances that people may not pay attention to your ICs program as wood conservation has probably lost meaning for the village. And latest alternative to IC is dung cake. Sound strange!!! But people find it easy to gather dung from common land than to pay for IC, drill a whole in their kitchen wall to provide space for flume pipe (U remember their thick walls) and then buy or make a new flume pipe every five or six months. Dung is the next common resource for which they do not have to pay.

In highly stressed villages, the scope of introducing fuel saving devices or RETs is defined by the local priority. If people want a school, the PV lighting for the school is something which will catch their attention. If irrigation water is the priority, may be the hydram will be accepted. If economy is to be boosted, a fruit or food-processing unit is the choice and solar water heater, large community biogas or wood kiln are the solutions. Thus, assessing the field reality and priority would define the course of adoption for various biomass technologies.

In response to Andy Tyson, who was interested in feasible areas for RETs' expansion, I suggested that though the technologies are broadly feasible in all the hills and should be adopted but real adoption is possible in a few pockets which are characterised by a presence of well informed and/ or wealthy communities. Also the pockets have some more characteristics that have to be judged for successful implementation of the biomass technology schemes.

Note: the stress computing exercise was computerised based on the 25 village data and the half developed software, which is capable of estimating end-use-wise stress, is probably available with TERI office (New Delhi).

Ajay Sharma
Doctoral Fellow
PSG, Central Queensland University
Rockhampton 4702, Queensland, Australia
-------------------------

Moderator's Comment
Dear Mr. Sharma,

Absolutely true that assessing local demands and then offering solutions is the straight and right approach. This certainly involves an enormous effort, time and
resources. The commercialization of kerosene stoves in urban, semi-urban and rural market areas took place over a considerable long time and I think partly from the demonstration effect and the marketing mechanism. There are still quite a lot of rural households without kerosene stoves and use traditional stoves using fuelwood and other biomass including dung cake. The issue here is how can we achieve a sustainable broad coverage with ICS as the most common stove so that there is some kind of a real improvement in the quality of life of these people.

Thank you so much for other valuable insights geared toward planners and policy-makers. - Rajan Thapa

10. From: "Centre for Rural Technology, Nepal" <ics@crt.wlink.com.np>
Subject: [RETs] Week 3: Thanks from the Moderator
Date sent: Sun, 09 Dec 2001 16:31:02 +0500

Dear all participants,

I believe we've had quite fruitful and informative discussions on the week 3 subtopic 'Improved Cooking Stoves'. There were certainly some pertinent issues raised which would provide basis to formulate guidelines, approaches and strategies in the future ICS promotion initiatives to be undertaken by GOs, I/NGOs and others for the rural mountain communities in this region.

No matter how best a technology (here ICS model) is, it may not be suitable to all the rural mountain communities due to the different energy needs and priorities based on their socio-cultural context, cooking practices/ food habits and living (economic) condition including stress factor etc.

We had the opportunity to share different success case stories (e.g TERI experience in Northern India, BACIP experience in NA, Pakistan and TNC's project experience in SW China Yunan Province etc). Let this kind of experience sharing gets continuity even after the e-conference.

In the past and even now less attention has been given to: 1) the health issues related to ICS, 2)proper assessment of the demand and 3)integrated and demand driven approach etc. which needs to be duly addressed for wider acceptability and adoption of ICS by the rural communities.

I think we, would more or less agree that commercialization and marketing through entrepreneurship development mechanism supported by strong information and awareness campaign could be among the more desirable solutions to achieve a broad coverage of ICS and this to be seen as the most common stove in remote mountain areas in the near future, like the kerosene stoves and repair shop in many villages in South Asia as cited by Mr.Ajaya Sharma in his note "paving ways for ICs and biomass technologies (Dec.8,2001).

I would like to thank you very much for your valuable participation and contribution in sharing on ICS experiences. We look forward to share this kind of experiences from time to time even after the e-conference which will certainly benefit the people in the mountain areas of the region.

With this let us move to the week 4 topic of the conference- policies. Lastly thanks to ICIMOD/APMN for providing the opportunity to moderate the discussion.

Thank you all once again for the wonderful discussion.

Rajan Thapa,

ICS Component Coordinator,
AEPC/ESAP ICS Program
Centre for Rural Technology(CRT/N),Tripureshor, Kathmandu.
Tel: 977-1-256819 Fax:977-1-257922
e-mail: crt@wlink.com.np

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