Since the independence of Namibia in 1990, logging of trees is restricted due to the sensitivity of ecosystems and woodlands. Trees are harder and harder to find, people are spending hours to find wood for the day and they even have to dig for root systems to burn. Trees are important providers of food, shelter, housing, medicine, and energy. As many as 74% of the rural households and 40% of the urban households still rely primarily on wood as fuel for cooking. The cutting of trees has reached alarming situations of deforestation resulting in widespread desertification. Furthermore, the widespread use of wood for open fire cooking is polluting the atmosphere, and the smoke of the open fires create dangerous soot and gases during cooking in the huts. This is contributing vastly to ill health amongst households and high emissions of CO2 and other greenhouse gases.
Ergonomidesign set out to create the “easiest to make” stove. Ever. It comes from the factory as five flat sheet metal panels, a few bent steel rods and some rivets. Basically any small local workshop can put it together without any complicated manuals. And they are fast to make. Really fast.
Both the centralized production and the distributed local mounting create work opportunities for people, and it also creates a local incentive model and involvement unusual of in traditional aid programs. The manufacturing of the stove encourages local entrepreneurship. By a super simple construction the local entrepreneur assembles the stove with very basic tools and then makes a living by selling it to a price that is affordable to even the poorest households.
Comments by our Users
Be the first to write a comment for this item.