continuing war in afghanistan intensifies demand for solar cookers

a january, 1996 interview with steven brown of serve

solar cooker review: how long have you been involved with the project?

steven brown: i first came to work with serve in february 1991 following completion of a research project in england on solar ovens for the "two thirds world" and some time working in india. i spent eight months here on practical development of the portable ovens and worked on making production more efficient. in 1992, i was invited back to head up the project and have been doing that since january 1993.

scr: how has your project changed since the "hot war" in afghanistan over now?

sb: first of all i must make it clear that the war in afghanistan is not over! there is still civil war and the fighting in the capital, kabul, is probably worse than ever before. the withdrawal of russian forces in 1989 led to the setting up of an interim government still supported from russia. this fell in april 1992 and the civil war has escalated since then. however, the downfall of najibullah's government in '92 has meant that it is now possible for us to work inside afghanistan, whereas before we were restricted to working with afghan refugees in the camps in pakistan.

the project was set up in 1985 as a relief project to help refugees. the opening of afghanistan is giving us the opportunity to make it into a sustainable development project inside the country. whereas solar ovens were made by refugees in our own workshop and sold at a subsidized price, we are now endeavouring to get local businesses in afghanistan to take on production of ovens and make a profit from them. we are still in the early stages of this process, but we know the market is there, and the manufacturing skills required and materials are now completely "appropriate" for the situation we are in.

we have been concentrating our work since 1993 on afghanistan itself. many refugees have returned anyway, although there are often new influxes depending on the situation in kabul. we have tended to manufacture the ovens in peshawar, pakistan, which is relatively stable, and transport them into afghanistan by truck. our sales and education teams accompany the trucks and carry out the distributions.

the majority of sales of portable ovens have been in kabul, where in many ways the need is greatest. there has been no electricity or gas in kabul for over 2 years now, diesel and fuel wood are very expensive, and there is little access to wood, unlike the rural areas. we have huge demand in kabul, and people accept the ovens and learn to use them very quickly.

scr: how are the cookers received by the afghanis?

sb: each time we go to kabul we come back with a waiting list of families wanting solar ovens. on our last trip in january we took 780 ovens with us. they were sold out in five days! we sold them all from our office compound to people who had previously put their names on a list, and one day the rush of people wanting ovens was so great that they broke down the gate to the compound!

i was encouraged to hear of a blind lady using her solar oven to scratch out a living baking bread to sell. i have heard of several families in the refugee camps using their solar ovens in the same way.

last year we carried out a project in a camp for internally displaced families in afghanistan. this was in a rock desert with very little other fuel, and the land around was heavily mined resulting in many injuries and deaths of those foraging for fuel. we used a low cost design of oven that required construction to be carried out by the families themselves using traditional mud brick building techniques. the cooperation of the familes was excellent and 5700 ovens were installed and training in their use completed in seven weeks. these proved to work well throughout the summer, although many familes had little food to cook anyway and relied on "naan" from a camp bakery. many families used the ovens for boiling water for tea. we also saw these ovens being improved and turned into portable ovens by local carpenters.

scr: what sort of changes have you made in construction materials since your project has been in progress?

sb: the basic materials have remained the same for the portable ovens, i.e., timber frame, sheet steel outer casing, scrap aluminium printing plates for inside liner, 3mm window glass. fiberglass casing was tried and proved too expensive and difficult to maintain quality. we built 1000 ovens from imported polypropelene fluteboard but this proved extremely difficult to assemble with the tooling we have available, and was stuck in customs for a long time. these experiences have convinced us that we must use locally available materials that only require local tooling and skills.

we have tried several other materials to check their performance, particularly with glazings, but the advantages of availability and price of the simple materials we use always outweigh the slight improvements in efficiency.

we have developed the fixed low cost oven i mentioned earlier, with mud brick casing and straw as an insulator, and proved that it works well in the envionment we operate in. most of the changes we have made to improve efficiency of operation have been in design (shape) and construction techniques rather than materials.

scr: do you have statistics on oven usage and attitudes?

sb: we try to keep statistics, but working with a predominantly refugee population does not make this easy. it is very difficult to do follow-up on sales, as people move so frequently and camps do not have logical addressing systems! we have sold approximately 8900 portable solar ovens and 5700 fixed ovens to date. we sold 6500 of the portable ovens to refugees in pakistan, but many of these will have been taken back by returning refugee families.

our educated guess using what information we can get from teams visiting the camps is that about 50 to 60% of ovens are used regularly. in kabul the figure is almost certainly higher purely due to the economic and fuel situation the people face there.

scr: what are your plans for the future?

sb: already for 1996 we've sold over 780 portable ovens! we just heard yesterday that we have got $50,000 from the un to use in kabul for making 2800 intermediate-level ovens. this is a cross between the hole in the ground low cost oven and the portable oven. the team tested one in kabul last week and were very pleased with its performance.

scr: how can interested readers help your project?

sb: we are interested in hearing about similar projects in other parts of the world. we don't want to be re-inventing the wheel! any information about materials, particularly training and educational materials which are relevant to our situation and that could be used with our afghan workers, would be useful.

the project does rely to an extent on outside funding still. our aim is to become a resource to local businesses by developing new appropriate solar products, and providing training. this requires outside funding for the moment, so any donations would be gratefully received.

in the usa checks can be sent earmarked for the serve solar project, payable to operation mobilization, pob 444, tyrone, ga 30290-0444.

in britain make checks payable to christian international refugee mission, p.o.box 694, rhyl, clwyd ll18 1ju, north wales.

or, transfer funds directly to serve, account no. 113-13-65126-051, grindlays bank, mall road, peshawar cantt. 25000, nwfp, pakistan.

the key to the success according to steven brown

solar products that we or others produce must be appropriate (i.e., using local materials, local skills, and be culturally appropriate [ovens must cook local food!]).

ongoing education and awareness raising running parallel to production and distribution of solar products. people must be made aware of issues like energy resources, deforestation, health and nutrition, the economic sense of using solar, as well as being taught thoroughly how to use and maintain the products they buy. we start education with school children where we have a regular curriculum in the schools in jalalabad.

well-trained, responsible, committed, well-motivated and enthusiastic local staff who are the front line and face of the project.

good long term technical advisors to the project while it is in the phase of not yet being fully sustainable within its own culture. these people should be culturally aware and sensitive, and if possible learn the language in which the project operates.

steven brown can be contacted at

serve solar project
p.o. box 477
peshawar, n.w.f.p.
pakistan

solar@serve.pwr.sdnpk.undp.org