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CASE STORY
Building Capacity and Health:
The Improved Chulhas of ApTibet
Appropriate Technology for Tibetans -ApTibet - is an environmental non government organisation (NGO) working at the grassroots level with the Tibetans in India, saving lives and helping them to build a sustainable future through the use of appropriate technologies.
Cooking is one of the most time-consuming activities in Tibetan daily life and is often undertaken by women and the elderly. However, continued cooking on a traditional chulha (cookstove) has many further drawbacks:
- High fuel consumption, leading to excessive deforestation
- Low fuel efficiency
- Fire risk
- Numerous health impacts
- Severe smoke pollution, meaning that walls and kitchen utensils blacken.
The old stoves were dirty and smoky, often causing severe eye and respiratory disorders. Seventy per cent of Tibetan females suffer from chronic coughs as a direct result of cooking for three hours over smoking flames as it is equivalent to smoking 20 packets of cigarettes.
During the last 10 years, ApTibet has built over 3,550 smokeless cookstoves in Tibetan settlements. The masons are trained in construction of the chulhas using locally available materials.
The exercise has a strong emphasis on self help and capacity building and the community has even produced a manual to aid other settlers in making their own stoves a true dispersal of knowledge.
Source: www.aptibet.org/"
techno/chulas.htm
Dolanji Settlement Breathes Easy
In Dolanji, 700 people live at an altitude of 5,000 feet. The nearest town is 11 miles away. The residents were formerly dependent on fuelwood. As wood became scarce they could not afford this source of fuel. The aim of ApTibet's project was to develop a smokeless stove, where the whole family could be involved in its production.
The results achieved by the project are as follows:
- The improved chulhas are efficient and clean, and the kitchen stays free from smoke
- Women, who often make the decision to build the new stoves, save time when cooking
- The cost reduction means that the money formerly spent on wood can be used for other needs
- As there is less risk of fire, the elderly and blind are safer, as are children. Health among the Tibetans is much improved, as is awareness of the beneficial environmental impact of the new cookstoves
Source: www.aptibet.org/
techno/chulas.htm
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POLICY
Global Wind Energy Conference
The following is an excerpt from the speech made by the Minister of State, Non-Conventional Energy Sources, M. Kannappan, at the Global Wind Energy Conference in Paris, held in April 2002.
"The world is witnessing a surge in the use of environmentally benign sources and Wind Energy is now being considered a mainstream technology for power generation. Globally, there has been a 40 per cent increase in the wind energy capacity per year.
India has achieved substantial progress in the area of wind power development. The government sponsored wind farms and the identification of windy locations through wind surveys have spurred interest of the industry, utilities and private sector developers. While there is an estimated wind power potential of 45,000 MW, the present installed capacity is only about 1,627 MW and therefore offers much potential for investment."
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