プロジェクト概要

This improved cooking-stoves project services marginalized Dalits and the Janajatis indigenous minority living in Central Tarai, a region of Nepal below the southern Himalayan foothills where populations rely heavily on solid biomass fuel for cooking. The improved cooking stoves follow the Aprovecho Institute's mud-brick rocket stove design, with an L-shaped combustion chamber and a pot skirt that improves both heat transfer and combustion efficiency. Wood is fed horizontally into the fuel chamber where an internal chimney creates a draft that accelerates combustion. Gases are then forced through the skirt surrounding the cook pot. As the rocket stoves allow for complete fuel combustion, air pollution is minimized for a smoke-free kitchen. 
Thanks to their improved efficient, the stoves require up to 50% less wood fuel, which alleviates deforestation pressures on nearby ecosystems. The project also creates employment for local men and women, who are trained on stove installation and construction.
Nepal is a mountainous country with challenging topographical and socio-economic conditions. A quarter of its population live below the poverty line, with Dalits or untouchables—the lowest social strata in Nepal's prevailing centuries-old caste system—being particularly disenfranchised. Besides economic poverty, these groups lack modern energy services for household cooking and rely on inefficient, health-harming open fire stoves.