Sarala cook stove - on site constructed mud stoves with chimney
Background:
It is now understood that emissions from traditional cook stoves pose a threat bigger than previously thought. The newest health data from WHO estimates that 4.3 million people die annually from household air pollution caused by cooking with biomass and coal. It is the greatest health risk in the world after high blood pressure, tobacco and alcohol. More people are dying from the incremental, ongoing inhalation of smoke from fires they ignite in their homes than from malaria, tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS combined.
For over two decades, the Government of India, many State Government departments, Science & Technology Institutes, many public &private enterprises, multi-national energy majors and several NGOs in India have been working independently and also collaborating on various ‘Clean Cook Stove / Smokeless stove Initiatives’, trying to create a positive impact on environmental and social issues.
Smokeless household stoves are more fuel efficient than the conventional stoves with fuel efficiency up to 30%. Annually 500 kg of fuel wood can be saved from each stove. Smokeless household stoves typically consist of 2 pan with 1 fuel feeding port. This requires less space of 2.5 ft x 1.5 feet.
Construction and maintenance is also very easy and any agro waste can be used as fuel.
Our approach:
TIDE has taken an organic approach to the ‘Clean Cook Stove initiatives’ in the rural segment, taking into consideration the social & environmental impact versus business opportunities. TIDE has been engaged in training rural women to build fuel efficient smokeless stoves for themselves and in their neighbourhoods and to create smoke free kitchens in rural Karnataka for the last 12-15 years. It has been popularising the Sarala stove as a fuel-efficient smokeless wood burning stove.
The Sarala stove is built using a mould (made of MS) and uses locally available materials like mud, bricks and an AC chimney pipe.The cost of the stove including grate and chimney is less than Rs 1000 (less than USD 15) and this includes the amount paid to the woman stove builder for stove construction.
Recently, TIDE has developed a larger version of the Sarala stove, ideal for use in mid day meal cooking and institutional cooking.
TIDE has developed a comprehensive Awareness cum training program on Sarala stove construction. We have also come out with a short video version of the same. We are happy to partner with other grass root agencies and communities to adopt these stoves for different regions and to ensure wider dissemination of these stoves to different communities across India. However we suggest that such dissemination / requests are routed through us to ensure that the stoves meet the local needs appropriately, in terms of technology. TIDE can also facilitate construction of stoves through women trained by us already.
Watch videos on Sarala stoves HERE
We can also facilitate Smokeless villages using these stoves. Read about the program HERE
Please get in touch with us at [email protected] if you are interested in training or the stoves themselves.