Fifteen female participants of the project Clean Energy and Women on the Roof of the World from the most vulnerable families living in the highland village of Bopasor received sets of energy efficient equipment in late October 2018.
Delivery and distribution of the equipment was handled by staff of the environmental organization the Little Earth. Every set consisted of a parabolic solar cooker, pressure pan and an energy saving stove for cooking and heating.
The solar cookers have become rather popular with residents of the Bartang valley where The Little Earth is operating. They have become indispensable in dozens of Bartang households. Local residents used them to boil water, cook meals and even to bake bread. During the warm season when the weather is clear, the solar cookers enable to considerably reduce firewood consumption in daytime.
Pressure pans have also proved themselves quite useful in Bartang under previous projects. They are a perfect choice for people needing to cook their meals quickly and preserve many healthful vitamins and minerals thereat. Pressure pans enable to reduce time spent on cooking and thus cut down the use of firewood. In the context of extreme scarcity of energy resources in mountainous villages, this proves a great help for housewives.
"We grow and eat peas in this village. In the past, when we had no pressure pans, we used to spend a lot of time and fuel for cooking peas. Now that we have pressure pans meals are cooked faster and we consume less teresken (a local shrub)" -says Savrigul Kushkorova, a project participant who has been using the pressure pan on a daily basis.
The energy saving stoves received by the women were made by a local craftsman (from the village of Barchadiv) from parts ordered and procured from Zindagi cooperative. When assembling the stoves the craftsman took into account local conditions in Bartang where teresken shrubs are used as the main source of fuel. The stoves are expected to reduce consumption of firewood by 25-30% while reducing emissions of harmful gases."We have long wanted to acquire a stove like this. We saw similar stoves in the neighboring houses but we had no money to buy one of those. Our family used an old cast-iron stove. It consumed lots of fuel. We hope that the new stove will save us firewood and money. The new stove can be used for heating, cooking meals and baking bread. This is very convenient", says Zuvornigul Davlatyorova, a project participant from Bopasor village."All donated devices are affordable, reliable and easy to operate. Their use will help the project participants and their family members to save fuel and money, reduce emissions of harmful gases and improve sanitary conditions as well as alleviate pressure on the limited natural resources" - says Anton Timoshenko, Executive Director of the Little Earth.
It will be recalled that the project Clean Energy and Women on the Roof of the World is implemented by the environmental organization the Little Earth with support from the US Forestry Service.
Timur Idrisov, Little Earth