How volcanic stones can save Uganda’s forests and environment

Volcanicity is usually known to cause danger to mankind and environment because of the associated hot lava, gas and ash from the earth crust that often destroy human, animal and plant life on the earth surface. Thus volcanicity often strikes fear among people because of the aforementioned dangers.

However, volcanicity is turning into a blessing in disguise in modern era. With emerging technology, volcanic stones can save human life and environment by providing renewable clean energy that relieves people of exposure to the poisonous carbon monoxide generated by burning biofuels such as firewood and charcoal.

Carbon monoxide does not affect environment directly as it does to human life. But the mass cutting of trees and other plants in search of firewood and charcoal for energy destroys or hurts the environment and escalates climate change impact. Wood and charcoal are the biggest source of energy in the developing world. More than 90 per cent of Ugandans depend on charcoal and wood for their energy needs. This exposes majority Ugandans to the toxic gas.

In Uganda women are the most at risk because they do the most cooking, often in kitchens with poor ventilation.

The hitherto dreaded volcanic creations are now proving friendly to man and environment in a manner that has never been thought of before.

A home-grown technology called Eco Stove,   developed by an indigenous Ugandan woman, uses volcanic stones to produce clean energy for cooking and other related uses. The smokeless stove was innovated by Rose Twine in 2010 and went on the market in 2012.

Twine is a renewable energy engineer and says she was inspired by the passion to help majority rural women to access clean energy that would save them from exposure to carbon monoxide from firewood and charcoal and moving long distances looking for firewood in the bush.

She also says she loves environment and wanted to develop a technology for alternative source of energy to stop or reduce destruction of trees for firewood and charcoal.   “As an African girl child I grew up looking for firewood in my rural village in Rukungiri district. We suffered looking for firewood in the bushes. When I went to university, this inspired me to develop a product that could save the African girl child and women from such suffering. I love environment too. I was always thinking of something that can save our environment by people using clean energy that does not require firewood and charcoal for cooking needs,” Twine told the writer at her workshop in Mengo, Kampala.
The stove provides smokeless energy using volcanic stones which substitute biofuels — charcoal and firewood. The stones only need little wood dust or charcoal dust to light them. They catch fire within about five minutes and become red hot without producing smoke. They cook food much faster than firewood or charcoal. This helps the user to cook in a smoke-free environment which saves the person from carbon monoxide pollution.     

The Eco Stove has an imbedded FM radio and a fan. The fan accelerates the lighting of the stones and regulates the combustion. The stove uses a flash. The inbuilt devices are powered by a solar battery. This means that while cooking, a person can play the radio, music and charge a phone without leaving the kitchen. The stove also has two electric lights which provide lighting during cooking when it’s dark especially at night.

Many women have started using the smokeless stove for their cooking and other energy needs.

Ugnature has visited rural areas for interviews with some of the people using the stove to seek their views about the clean energy technology.  

During a field visit to Buseruka sub-county in the rural Hoima District, about 240km from the country’s capital Kampala, Ugnature had occasion to meet some of the users who testified about the Eco Stove.

The respondents under Kwataniza Women Group told UgNature that the stove is a big relief because it has saved them from the choking smoke of burning charcoal and firewood and from moving several kilometers looking for firewood in the bush, where often times they face risks such as rape, sexual abuse and common assault.

They can listen to news, play music and charge their phones on the stove as they cook, without the bother to leave their kitchen.

Scovia Tusiime, a mother who appeared to be in her mid 30s, a resident of Kyakabingo village, Buseruka in Hoima, was found at her home preparing lunch for the family. She said the stove has made her life easier as a mother.

“It has an imbedded radio and a charging system. It can also use a flash. I listen to the radio, charge my phone and can also play music while cooking. Previously I had to take my phone to neighbors for charging. This consumes time but besides, sometimes they would have no space for my phone. At times I would go without battery especially at night when I couldn’t go to the neighgbors’ homes.  But with this stove I do all this in my kitchen,” Tusiime told UgNature on May 19, 2022 at her home in Nyakabingo as she pointed to her one-head Eco Stove in the room.       

She said although the stove appears expensive, it proves cheaper than the charcoal stove in the long run.

Tusiime explained that the Eco Stove comes with four packets of volcanic stones which last up to two years. After the lapse of the stones, one only needs a new packet of volcanic stones at Shs30,000 for replacement. The packet lasts six months.

Tusiime reasoned that given that a bag of charcoal costs about shs35000 and lasts only one month, in six months a person using charcoal would have spent Shs210,000 compared to Shs30,000 his/her counterpart would have paid for the volcanic stones on the Eco Stove.  

Mary Kugonza, another mother in the same area, reiterated similar views about the stove, which she praised for helping her and other local women in many ways.

Her only concern was about the price. She appealed to government and other stakeholders to subsidize the production so as to bring the cost further down to enable more women or people access the smokeless stove.

“The volcanic stones are smoke free and cook much faster than charcoal. Actually they cook about five times faster than charcoal. The Eco Stove cooks almost as fast as gas,” Kugonza said during the interview with UgNature as she lit her Eco Stove to prepare tea at her home in Buseruka trading center.    

The innovator, Twine, said she has contacted some partners and they are in discussions to explore ways of bringing the cost of the stove much lower for more people to afford it.

She was optimistic this will reduce destruction of the country’s forests and tree population in desperate search for firewood and charcoal for household energy needs.

Besides, it would save more people from exposure to the carbon monoxide toxins from the smoke emitted by burning firewood and charcoal during cooking.  

The Hoima City Deputy Mayor and local councillor for women Sylvia Nalumaga Balyesiima uses the stove. She said she has been impressed by its unique technology that uses volcanic stones to cook without producing smoke.

Volcanic stones are locally available free of charge in the wilderness in Kisoro district in southwestern Uganda. Nalumaga said the smoke-free clean energy is good for environmental conservation and projected that it will go a long way in mitigating environmental degradation and climate change.

“I am excited about the stove because of its unique and environmental-friendly technology. The price is a little high but it is worth the sacrifice. As a woman leader, I wanted to inspire fellow women to adopt the technology, after all it was developed by a woman. The stove is a big health relief for women who are exposed to toxic fumes daily from burning firewood and charcoal during cooking. It enables them cook in a healthy environment in the often congested and poorly ventilated kitchens,” Ms Nalumaga told Ugnature in her office at Hoima City Hall.

She said over time many women have developed cancer or cancer-related ailments because of long time inhalation of carbon monoxide gas during cooking using biofuels.

Carbon monoxide is a health risk for humans and inhalation of significant amounts of the toxic gas can cause death.

There is no standard data on the extent of the carbon monoxide threat to human health, but WHO estimates that indoor carbon monoxide pollution is responsible for up to 3.7% of disease burden of respiratory ailments in developing countries and 2.7% globally.

It is further estimated that indoor air pollution occasioned by poor stoves burning biomass fuels—wood, charcoal and crop waste—is responsible for the globe’s 1.6m deaths every year.

On August 7, 2018, two Ugandan females aged 13 and 14 died in a structure where they ran a restaurant in Busia town. They used charcoal for cooking. The post-mortem indicated that the deceased died of carbon monoxide suffocation.

Uganda is ranked as Africa’s second most polluted country after Nigeria, according to the 2018 report on the world air quality.

In a related research carried out in Mbarara Municipality by Springer Nature, the investigators found that 77.3 per cent of the town population depends on charcoal for cooking.

The research, whose findings were published in an article on 20^th November 2020, examined  carbon monoxide concentrations in households using firewood and charcoal to assess their contribution to indoor pollution.

In all the assessed kitchens, carbon monoxide concentrations were found higher than what is acceptable under WHO air quality guideline (6.3ppm) for carbon monoxide.

(This article was done under the initiative supported by Dunia, a CFI project, French media development agency).