A Neglected Environmental Amelioration and

Socioeconomic Rehabilitation Technology

By Dawit Tadesse, Ph.D. Sacramento, California

The causes of environmental degradation in Ethiopia are many. One that stands out most but difficult to effectively deal with is the increasing cutting of sparsely planted or surviving trees around villages or deforestation of remnant of old forests for household and commercial uses. The household uses of woods are primarily for cooking and construction while the commercial use of woods is for a cash source to many poor households.

We need to recognize that both the household and commercial uses of woods are paramount importance for survival of millions of poor people. The convoy of wood carriers and the chasing of wood carriers by forest guards scenes around outskirts of cities are the living testimonial for two competing interests. That is, between the survival need of the poor communities to utilize trees on one hand against the larger interest of government agencies to implement stop cutting-trees policies on the other. Therefore, we should not be surprised by failure of the past and present policies put in place to stop-cutting sparsely planted or surviving trees or deforestation of remnant forests. The policies hinge on policing communities rather than getting consent of communities. For sure, this long-standing show down between the two conflicting interests will continue unresolved unless viable alternatives that can even out the showdown is put in place.

The city dwellers that purchase woods from the poor wood sellers cannot be out of the equations of these showdowns since they are one of the major stakeholders and lucrative markets for wood traders. Statistics that substantiate these conflicts of interest are published elsewhere. The interest of this article is not to corroborate the widely recognized devastation of forest and trees in Ethiopia. Rather, it is to draw attention of interested parties to alternative solutions to these quagmires. Alternatives that have been neglected in the past but that have tremendous potential to deal with some of formidable environmental, socioeconomic and health problems.

Any alternatives that should be implemented to minimize the various conflicts of interests in utilization of woods, should fulfill the interest of (1) city dwellers that purchase woods to meet household needs, (2) the poor people that try to make a living from selling woods, and (3) the government agencies that have a larger goal of protecting the deteriorating environment through various regulatory policies.

Ethiopia is endowed with natural resources. Unfortunately, Ethiopia has not been successful in utilizing its natural resources in a sustainable way-. Solar energy is one of the natural resources that have not been utilized to date. The sunshine we get in our celebrated 13 months is actually a resource that can be successfully used to address some of our chronic problems of fire wood supply shortage, can improve human health and can abate environmental degradation.

Solar energy is one of the alternative energy sources that can take the place of wood and charcoal (product of wood) for household cooking needs. Solar cooking is practiced in many other countries including in Africa. Unfortunately, it has not been practiced in Ethiopia. Solar cookers are cookstoves technologies that convert solar energy to heat for cooking food and make solar cooking possible. The advantages of using solar cookers for household cooking needs, improving human health, and protecting environment is tremendous. At a household level, besides reducing woodcutting, solar cooking will free highly needed human labor that is tied up in searching, collecting, and cutting woods in rural as well as in poor urban communities. It saves tremendous amount of time, human energy, and hardship that the rural community and urban poor put to collect firewood. The freed up human labor will be effectively used in other areas of household needs. Particularly, women and children that spend much of their time in acquiring wood will accrue a direct benefit- i.e., women can redirect their energy to much needed household chores and children could attend school instead of helping out seek for woodcuttings. Compared to other cooking stoves such as charcoal, kerosene, woods, electricity or gas stoves, solar cookers are cheap and have no hazardous consequences to the environment and human health. Most of all, solar cookers can be produced by small-scale industries and local artisans with minimum cost.

According to the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) report, three-quarters of Ethiopia's 71 million people do not have access to clean water. Four out of five drink polluted water and milk without sanitizing and pasteurizing. The lack of sanitizing polluted water and pasteurizing milk attributed to unawareness of the rural community and urban poor about the importance of drinking sanitized water or pasteurized milk. Nevertheless, the unavailability of firewood to boil water or pasteurize milk is partly responsible for not sanitizing polluted water or pasteurizing milk. The availability of solar cooker will help rural community and urban poor to sanitize and control easily contracted bacterial diseases by boiling water or pasteurizing milk with out to worry for scarce firewood and at almost no human energy and financial cost.

Just to list some advantages of the solar cooker:

• the construction is simple, and the wooden ones are strong and durable;
• it is easy and safe to use, even around small children;
• the food cannot burn or overcook;
• the food does not need stirring or turning, reducing supervision time;
• the foods' nutrients are preserved;
• the use of the cooker does not cause health problems;
• it does not produce smoke or otherwise pollute air quality and the environment;
• it saves money and time on fuel and water costs;
• cooking pots are easily cleaned without scrubbing.

The challenges are the following:

• The solar cooker cannot work indoors or at night
• It does not work as well in the early morning, evening, or on cloudy days
• It cooks slower than traditional stoves (three stone or “midija”)
• It cannot be used for deep frying.

A solar cooker may not cook all traditional food. As a result, people may be required to modify their traditional food in some cases. The available technologies of solar cookers are simple, efficient, and can easily be taught to both rural community and uneducated urban poor.

Considering the environmental, health and chronic firewood shortages Ethiopia will benefit from spreading solar cooker technologies. Despite its great promise the spread of solar cooker technologies has been slow over the last 30 years in many countries. The major reason for this is the lack of economic reward for big industries.

Many of the NGOs that work to promote solar cooking, rely on individual philanthropists to support their efforts, and therefore do not have the economic resources to support a broader and large scale implementation plan. International funding institutions such as International Monetary Fund, World Bank, including the United Nations do not have a good track record in supporting such kind of appropriate and small scale technologies that otherwise won’t be picked up by big companies.

In the absence of external support, such kind of beneficial technologies are overlooked, and the benefit they offer will not be realized for long time to come. In the mean time, however, the environmental degradation and hardship of poor people will continue. Under these circumstances, it is the responsibility of both the government and its citizens to initiate viable self made programs.

The cost for spreading solar cookers is not substantial for the government or NGOs involved in development work. The initial cost for a foreign (expatriate) trainer and solar equipment for single household to learn, acquire and use solar cooker is approximately $26. After the expatriate trainer trained a local trainer, the cost will be only for importing solar cooker equipment, which will be only $12 for a solar cooker. This cost will be substantially reduced when local artisans or small-scale industries start producing solar cookers locally. Local production of solar cookers will be possible in a matter of few years because most of the materials needed for making solar cookers are available within Ethiopia.

The solar cookers should not be freely distributed to communities/farmers or who ever is willing to use solar cookers for cooking. Those who can afford it will buy while those who cannot afford should provide environmental rehabilitation services in exchange of solar cooker. They should be in contract with solar cooker provider to improve vegetation in their highly denuded villages by planting tree seedlings and maintaining the seedlings by watering and weeding until trees mature. With this arrangement and synergetic cooperation among farmers, NGOs and government agencies, the long-term benefits of environmental rehabilitation will be realized.