Under the Sun, You Can Cook Anything

In Africa, the sun is abundant, yet traditional energy sources mostly derived from the local ecosystem like firewood and charcoal are getting depleted daily by a large measure.

The devastating aftermath of this depletion and its toll on the environment should call for another cheaper, plentiful and vastly accessible source of energy on the continent.

Solar cooking is now taking root in Africa more than ever before. Solar cooking projects are springing up on the continent mostly spearheaded by local cooperatives and non-profits working with rural women to assemble cheap solar cookers. Which works for environment.

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One such non-profit is the Solar Household Energy Inc. that has been supporting solar cooking market initiatives by providing prototypes like the HotPot or CooKit. In Tanzania, Solar Circle, a Michigan non-profit, has partnered with Michigan State University to engage local artisans to manufacture solar box cookers from cypress wood, aluminum printing plates, glass, used rubber, and other materials available locally. These cookers cost $70 or more to build, and are heavily subsidized to be affordable.

Solar cookers are believed to address endemic fuel shortages, the health hazards of traditional cooking and the spread of water-borne diseases. The depletion of biodiversity and lack of any conservation efforts mostly fanned by poverty and lack of awareness has led many rural folk across Africa to seek a practical, local solution to the emerging ecological problems. But climate change and global warming too cannot escape blame here.

Deforestation in the countryside in many African countries have prompted the rise of waterborne diseases occasioned by arbitrary flooding as in the case of Kano Plains and Budalangi in western Kenya and recently in Uganda. Even traditional medicine men who use herbs for their trade have begun complaining of serious unavailability of medicinal trees and plants used traditionally to cure many diseases. Indigenous tree species have become extinct due to human interference - cut for firewood, charcoal making, cattle ranching and agriculture.

Fundamental to the solar cooker projects is the destruction of forests and availability of free sunshine throughout the year. Experts believe the solar cooking concept can easily be applicable in all of Africa save for Djibouti which is largely an urban city-state.

Solar Cookers International, a California non-profit that promotes the spread of solar cooking and solar water pasteurization lists 16 African nations led by Ethiopia out of 25 globally that have the highest potentials for solar cooking.

From Burkina Faso to Morocco to Senegal, from Uganda to Zimbabwe to Tanzania, simple and inexpensive solar cookers made out of locally available materials are revolutionizing lives in Africa. Solar cookers limit the health hazards of inhaling smoke and people can drink clean water by first pasteurizing using solar energy.

Food that used to be wasted during bumper harvests is now solar dried and kept for the rainy day. People have used solar drying for centuries but not in such a modern way, providing many rural poor with a cost effective, participatory and sustainable alternative.

People now do not only use solar cookers but are aware of the importance to rationally use forest resources so as to protect the environment and future generations.

The impact of solar cookers and dryers is that for more than a decade now, income levels and sanitation have noticeably risen in homesteads using solar cookers. Married women can work their fields while the sun does cooking. Social acceptance has been good and the cultural aftershocks associated with solar cookers are mostly minimal. And that is the beauty of the sun.

Photo Credit: Rogoyski via Flickr

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