The document calls for designs for an improved cooking stove for women in Pakistan to address health risks from open fires and deforestation. It provides criteria for the design, which must use local materials, have no cost, reduce smoke, be fuel efficient, and include mud or metal. Submissions are due by September 15th, 2012 and should be sent to the provided email.

1. Stove design competition
for women of Pakistan
• This is a call for help to design a better
way of cooking in Pakistan
• To avoid enormous health risks of open
fires
• And the gradual deforestation of a region
• Deadline for submission of designs: 15th
September, 2012
• Send to: waseem.solangi@hands.org.pk

2. The standard cooking stove in Pakistan: 3 stones with the pot on top

3. Very inefficient: most heat lost out the sides. Every family has to
find firewood locally – inevitably deforesting the area.

4. Also very unhealthy – this lady is constantly bothered by smoke. Evidence
shows serious health implications for women – especially when pregnant.

5. Whatever she does, she is constantly rubbing her eyes and coughing. And
this happens every day, in every village, and women bear this burden

6. It need not be this way. People said they were really keen to try
other methods. They said “just show us another design and we will
try it!”

7. Fiery debates about fuel. In this camp for displaced people they explain how
they have to pay a lot for firewood or dried dung. Smokey and seriously
inefficient, costly and unhealthy: the worst possible approach, yet the one
used by everyone!

8. When the trees are gone
people use dried animal
dung, also smokey. This
manure could be put to
much better use as
fertiliser for growing food
or reforestation.

9. Design Criteria
• Must be a design that people
can build using local materials
• It shouldn’t be a donated item
– but a design / idea so it can
be replicated
• It mustn’t cost anything or it
won’t take off
• It should reduce fire-smoke
completely (smokeless stove?)
• It should use local mud but can
also include old metal as tins
are available (see photo)
• It must be fuel efficient –
maximum heat extracted from
fuel used.

10. Some useful links to help with
design ideas
• Practical Action has a lot of experience in this field:
http://practicalaction.org/energy
• HEDON network – an excellent resource for cooking and related
designs: http://www.hedon.info/boilingpoint
• Initiated by an international working group, this fuel network has
some useful links: http://www.fuelnetwork.org/index.php/Formal-Launch-
of-IASC-Task-Force-SAFE-Outputs
• Worldstove.org has done a lot of research and projects, some of which may
be relevant: http://worldstove.org/
• Clean-cook-stoves: yet another site with a lot of resources:
http://www.cleancookstoves.org/