NGO "ANOTHER WAY" (STICHTING BAKENS VERZET), NETHERLANDS, SUSTAINABLE INTEGRATED SELF-FINANCING DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS AND ADVANCED DEVELOPMENT TECHNOLOGIES

The service for the elimination of smoke in and around homes is closed linked with the productive services discussed in Section 4: Productive structures of this fourth block. The improved stoves can be manufactured in the production units for the manufacture of items from gypsum composites. The fuels for the stoves can be made in the mini-briquette production units. Biomass for the mini-briquettes is supplied under the structures pour la production of biomass.

Elimination of smoke in and around homes is, on the other hand, treated as a general service for the benefit of the populations. The use of improved cooking stoves implies both financial and ecological advantages to the populations.

Smoke in and around homes is one of the most important problems in developing countries. Eliminating it brings a rapid improvement in the quality of life of the people. The smoke problem receives little attention, because it is a section with little attraction for the business people of the development industry.

“The biggest threats to children’s health lurk in the very places that should be safest – home, school and community. Every year over 5 million children ages 0 to 14 die, mainly in the developing world, from diseases related to their environments - the places where they live, learn and play. These diseases include diarrhoea, malaria as well as other vector-borne diseases, acute respiratory infections and unintentional injuries (accidents).” Brochure of World Health Day. Part I: Message from Dr Gro Harlem Brundtland, President of WHO , WHO, Geneva, 2002.

Get acquainted with the document Healthy Environments for Children (HECA) Alliance by the World Health Organisation

Read the ITDG Practical Action Smoke – The Killer in the Kitchen”, Rugby, 2003 very carefully. Practical Action cites the relationship between the elimination of smoke and the millennium goals as follows:

« Reducing exposure to indoor air pollution will help meet seven of the goal

MDG 1 - Healthier families mean a healthier workforce, and therefore a greater potential for undertaking income-generating activities from farming to small industry.

MDG 2 - Girls often have to spend considerable time collecting fuel for cooking - time that could be better spent in school.

MDG 3 - Women are the primary targets of intervention. Any improvement in the conditions in which women live and work promotes gender equality and empowerment. Interventions that have reduced indoor air pollution have been shown to increase women’s social capital and provide opportunities to develop new skills and increase income levels.

MDGs 4 and 5 - The two groups of people most affected by indoor smoke are women and children under the age of five. Interventions that reduce exposure will improve the health of mothers and children.

MDG 6 - The improved conditions within the home provided by interventions to reduce indoor air pollution would help to mitigate the effects of HIV/AIDS and other illness. More efficient use of fuel means that less needs to be collected, reducing the work burden. Also, the reduction of exposure to smoke will reduce the more vulnerable person’s risk of illness.

MDG 7 - Some of the interventions to reduce indoor air pollution can result in the more efficient use of wood fuel and therefore contribute to a lessening in greenhouse gas emissions and the conservation of forest areas - thereby contributing to environmental sustainability. Surprisingly, even switching from inefficient use of biomass to fossil fuel (kerosene or LPG) can reduce climate impact, as it can conserve forestry and emit less greenhouse gas than inefficiently burned biofuels. »

In some poor countries, especially in Africa, the most commonly used energy source for the kitchen is bio-mass, being wood, charcoal, agricultural residues, and animal wastes. 2.4 billion people use these fuel sources for cooking purposes. If coal is added to the list, the number is 3 billion. Use of these fuels sources causes 1.6 million deaths each year, including one million children. The level of air pollution inside the homes of the poorest in developing countries can reach 100 times the maximum acceptable for the safeguard of the health of the people there.

An article in “The Lancet”, edition 6 December 2003, “Report highlights hazard of smoke from indoor fires” states that an extensive and prolonged exposure to combustion products in closed environments is one of the main causes of disease, and that it is a priority problem both for research and for measures of prevention

It is not only a question of pollution inside individual homes. Many villages are as a whole open to risks from smoke two or three times a day when food is being prepared.

Integrated development projects introduce high efficiency cookers to reduce and if possible eliminate the risks to health caused by smoke in homes and villages.

1. Research.

Make a one-page analysis of the problems caused by smoke in your project area. What are your conclusions ?

2. Opinion.

In principle, the service relating to the elimination of smoke in integrated development project areas sets itself up, automatically, without any formal money costs. On one page prepare a manifesto directed to the populations in your chosen area, in which you explain these concepts to them.

3. Opinion.

On the basis of the Practical Action citation above, make a realistic calculation of the benefits the elimination of smoke in your project area would bring with it. Assume, as a basis for your calculations, a value of Euro 3 for each 8-hour working day For example, one of the items relating to MDG1 might be :

« Productivity increase due to reduction in the rate of disease caused by air pollution: 50% of the adult population (30.000), being 100% of the female population (50% of 30.000) ten days per year x revenue Euro 3 par jour = 15000 x 10 x 3 = Euro 450.000. »

4. Research.

Kitchen habits in many poor countries carry other risks with them too .For example loss of homes and personal property and bodily disfiguration caused by fire. On one page make a report on fires in your project area due to cooking activities and their consequences. What are your conclusions ?

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◄ Fourth block : Section 5: Services structures.

◄ Fourth block : The structures to be created.

◄ Main index for the Diploma in Integrated Development (Dip. Int. Dev.)

◄ List of key words.

◄ List of references.

◄ Course chart.

◄ Technical aspects.

◄ Courses available.

◄ Homepage Bakens Verzet

"Money is not the key that opens the gates of the market but the bolt that bars them."

Gesell, Silvio, The Natural Economic Order, revised English edition, Peter Owen, London 1958, page 228.

“Poverty is created scarcity”

Wahu Kaara, point 8 of the Global Call to Action Against Poverty, 58^th annual NGO Conference, United Nations, New York 7^th September 2005.

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