Clean cookstove workshop

Wood and charcoal are the prevailing fuels used for cooking in Malawi. Most meals are cooked on open fires, often inside the houses. This way of cooking is both a health issue and an environmental issue. Many Malawians suffer from lung disease due to indoor pollution; some claim that indoor air pollution is even more damaging to health in Malawi than diseases as malaria and aids. Deforestation has for long been a problem in this densely populated country, mainly due to cutting for trees for making firewood and charcoal.

Malawian authorities have now recognized that this is a serious problem, and as a response to this there is now a widespread campaign to make people use cookstoves for cooking instead of open fires. Usage of cookstoves greatly reduces the fuel consumption, and also limits the pollution due to a more complete combustion of the fuel. The villagers therefore reduce health risks, but also spend less money on firewood and charcoal. At the same time the environment benefits, as less trees have to be cut to sustain the cooking needs of the population.

A typical cookstove is a simple tool that helps in controlling the flow of air and heat from the fire and directs the heat to the cookpot. The stoves can be made locally from clay and sand, using almost only locally obtainable materials in most places in Malawi. But even so, people in Malawi do not have the necessary knowledge to do this. In Nkhotakota we have this week held a training course for villagers in the Mbewa village close to Nkhotakota Game Reserve. The training is the result of a collaboration between Nkhotakota Youth Organization, Kumudzi Kuwale, The Ministry of Environment and Energy, and the villagers themselves. The training shows the villagers how to make the stoves using local materials. The stoves when made, can serve the villagers themselves, but most importantly they can use their skills to make even more stoves, selling and distributing to nearby areas.

Cooking by using firewood on an open fireplace – the mainstream method for cooking in Malawi presently.

The training officer demarcating what will be the furnace used to cure the cookstoves.

In the foreground; The furnace has been constructed. In the background the villagers are learning how to use a mold to form the cookstoves.

Cookstoves after the molding resting in a room in a nearby village house.

The cookstove has now got an opening for fuel and handles, as the training officer shows how to put the pieces of clay that will allow hot air to flow around the cookpot.

The final touch on the cookstove.

The villagers are singing to celebrate the opportunities that the cookstoves will give them.