Charcoal, wood and cook-stoves- best fit for Maasai women?

Undoubtedly charcoal burning is a major problem across the semi arid and arid lands. The destruction of trees and vegetation leads to erosion, land degradation and a reduced water table, decreasing grazing land and increasing the cycle of poverty.   Without a licence of course it is illegal to burn charcoal but the only people with a vested interest in enforcing this are the landowners themselves. The local Group Ranches that are involved in conservation all have a good understanding that charcoal burning is not in their interests. The picture shows a charcoal operation carried out by local Chiefs and Ol Lentille rangers, with the backing of the police, to confiscate sacks of illegal charcoal. Such operations have to be ongoing to keep on top of the problem, and these operations need excellent organisation to be successful and are expensive to perform. The vast majority of illegal  charcoal is sent out on trucks to towns where the money obtained is ten times what is given to the local charcoal burner. 

Some charcoal is sold locally and used by ‘wealthier’ women on cook-stoves, where it is more efficient and less smoky than the traditional open wood fires.  These women will be those  in employment who  have less time to collect wood. In the last few months there has been something of a technology shift: the price of charcoal has rocketed and women are finding it harder to purchase. The wealthiest of these women are now buying 6kg gas cylinders and the trucks coming up to the two weekly market are bringing refills. So far the number of women buying is very small, but this seems to be something very much market driven and, with access to small ‘development’ loans from the local micro-finance project odds are on that 2012 -13 will see a larger shift. All forms of development are, for better or worse, aspirational: the more women who have these gas stoves the more will want one.

Still, this is going to be well outside the budget for poorer families- especially since it is likely to be these families with more children and greater fuel needs.

We have been working over the last year with selling subsidised low smoke stoves to households. But undoubtedly there are very real challenges with the current stove designs. Still too much wood is required for the busiest employed women and the stoves are too slow to get hot. For each mealtime or tea time the cook-stove has to be re lit- whereas the traditional open fire will stay hot all day, and adding another piece of wood and a pan is a quick process . In addition the stoves are too small to cook meals for the larger family sizes. Additionally the stoves give off a fair amount of smoke whilst lighting- leading many ladies to consider that the health benefits we are so keen on touting ‘less smoke- less smoke’... are not quite realistic.

So for those families who are unlikely to be moving to the gas generation any time soon we are looking for some ways forward.

Taking lessons from the pit latrine building programme – behaviour can be adapted only when the benefits can be clearly seen. And of course then there is the critical mass phenomenon - once enough latrines have been erected the ball takes on its own momentum. But the fit has to be the right one. Our health campaign work  badly needs to help enable  women to find less smoky cooking solutions. The younger educated women know this and are concerned but the design of the stove has to be the right fit for the community. Only when the younger women have a stove design they can work well with will the older women jump onto the bandwagon too.