For Burma, clay stove may be best way to save trees
April 7, 1996
Web posted at: 2:30 p.m. EDT (1830 GMT)From Correspondent Tom Mintier
RANGOON, Burma (CNN) -- The Asian nation of Burma will face a natural resources disaster if its people don't find another way to heat food. (1.1 MB QuickTime movie)
Wood is widely used as fuel for cooking, but experts question how long the forests can last, given the demand placed on them.
Burma still does things the old-fashioned way. Manual labor is the technology of choice, making high technology an unneeded expense. Expense is the reason Burma must look to low-tech solutions for wood-burning dilemma.
For the Burmese, the most popular way to heat food is to place a pot on three rocks above a pile of burning wood.
"It's a very inefficient way for gathering the heat and using the fuel wood, and thus more pressure on the forests as more fuel wood is needed," says Douglas Gardner of the U.N. Nations Development Program.
Gardner and his colleagues have come up with a partial solution to help correct this inefficiency: a clay stove that would only cost about $1.50 and use much less wood.
The U.N. has been distributing pamphlets urging women to change their cooking methods, and it appears that many villagers are making the switch.
"The demand for the fuel wood stoves far exceeds the supply . . . so what we're trying to do in the context of our grassroots work with the communities is to train local potters in the production of fuel wood stoves because we see an extraordinary demand for them," Gardner says.
Burma, which is just starting to develop, still has time to change its ways. The little clay stove may not change history, but it can help preserve a precious resource.
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