1. Public Health Perspective
the first online public health newsletter of Nepal
www.bmhall.yolasite.com/publications.php Vol. 1 Issue 10 Oct/Nov 2011
Editorial: Traditional Cooking Stoves (Chula): Experience
from Rural Nepal
Inside this issue:
National News
2
National News Cont...
3
PHP Special
4
Global Health
5
Journal Watch
6
WHO Publications
7
Being Healthy
8
Featured Article
9
Public Health Important Day
(Oct/Nov)
10 October: World Mental
Health Day
13 October: World Sight Day
14 November: World Diabetes Day
16 November: World Chronic
Obstructive Pulmonary Disease Day
20 November: World Day of
The Government of Nepal
(GoN) has taken a major step
forward by initiating Improved
Cook Stove (ICS) development
and dissemination activities
from early 1950s with the introduction of some Indian
models such as Hyderabad and
Magan stoves. (CRT/N) I was
surprised to see that 61 years
after the initiation of ICS, traditional cooking stoves (Chula)
are still being used in rural
areas like the Chidipani community. Chidipani is a beautiful
Magar village, with uneven
geography, 24 km east of
Palpa, a city famous for Nepali
„dhaka‟ (a typical Nepali cloth).
Thus I was interested to know
more about this traditional
cooking stove/chula and the
associated problems. I had
seen these stoves and found
that they are inefficient and
environmentally unfriendly. I
have been to Chidipani, Palpa,
a month before, for my community health need assessment student field assignment.
pod, or a mud chula while in
some houses there were biogas fuel stoves (gover gas or
LPG). However, the usual type
of cooking stove was a rustic
chula as most of the people
here in Chidipani have poor
economic status.
transfer of heat from the flame
to the cooking pots.
During my one month stay in
this community, I learned
more about the Chula. It was
easy for me to learn about this
traditional stove as I was living
with a family that was using it
for cooking. This article is the
result of my experience with
the rustic Chulas, their use and
their effects on the health of
the family.
Every morning, Didi (the
housewife) spent around two
hours just on cooking meals.
Altogether she used to spend 5
hours a day in the kitchen. She
was using the traditional tripod
type stove. She often had
problems lighting the Chula.
Due to the poor housing conditions, her chula used to get
wet by dew drops falling from
the roof of kitchen and it took
a lot of time to relight the wet
chula. Once she lighted the
Chula, the smoke soon occupied the whole kitchen leading
to excessive levels of indoor air
pollution. After burning for
some time, the fire needs to be
gutted and the burned wood
needs to be replaced with a
fresh supply. There was no
ventilation to divert the smoke
out of the kitchen. Very dangerous situation! The situation
even gets worse when it rains
because the firewood gets wet
and is very difficult to burn.
The housewife didn‟t know that
not diverting the smoke out of
the kitchen is harmful to the
families‟ health.
Remembrance for Road Traffic
Victims
25 November: International
Day for the Elimination of
Violence against Women
To help her understand this
danger, I tried to explain that
she needs to provide adequate ventilation to allow the
smoke to escape from the
kitchen. Unfortunately, this is
an example of the everyday
situation of many housewives
in their daily routine in Chidipani.
In this community, types of
stoves depend on local availability and on the economic
status of the households. In
some houses there were
“agenu” (open fireplace),
simple three-stones or a tri-
In my time in the village, I
used to ask the residents,
what kinds of problems they
were facing with the use of
primitive cooking stoves. They
replied that their chulas are
allergic, consume more time,
the cooking pots get black,
and produce excessive smoke.
They have difficulty breathing
and lighting the firewood is
difficult. Moreover, there is a
significant loss of heat from
the stove and pots into the
environment, with a minimum
When I asked for the reasons
for using the traditional chulo,
Damanti replied, “We do not
have enough money to install
the improved cooking stoves”.
Usha, Damanti‟s friend had a
different answer. She told,
“traditional chula are easy to
construct and cheap to install.
Moreover, we do have enough
firewood available in the village
without having to pay for it”.
These people are eager to install the smokeless chula only
when the government and the
related partner organization
provides incentives (financial or
logistics). Thus, there is urgent
need for government to focus
its improved cook stove devel-
opment and dissemination
activities in this community.
There is limited awareness
among the people about the
use of smokeless chula and
the health as well as economic
effects traditional chulas creates on long run. Awareness
through the use of mass media, focus group discussion
with mother groups should
thus be strengthen and promoted. In addition, operation
research should be conducted
to observe more reliable findings on problems of traditional
chula.
Until the next issue!
Amrit Banstola