Dublin engineers working with rural communities in Malawi have come up with an effective joint solution to two problems faced by developing countries.
Clean cooking has become a priority for Irish Aid and other organisations working to tackle the huge health and environmental problems from inefficient solid-fuel cooking methods. Now a simple, locally made device added onto a clay cooking stove can use the heat from everyday cooking to make electricity to charge mobile phones, lights and radios.
Malawi is one of the the world’s least developed countries. More than 85 per cent of Malawian people live in rural areas, and fewer than one out of every 100 rural people has access to grid electricity.
“At the very best by 2025, only 20 per cent of the population will have grid electricity, so there will still be a huge need to need to find energy solutions for the majority of Malawians,” said Aidan Fitzpatrick, head of development at Irish Aid in Malawi.
The vast majority of people burn solid fuels in their homes for cooking, heating and lighting. Traditional stoves are wildly inefficient, putting only a fraction of the energy from burning fuel to use.
Women in Malawi spend hours each day searching for firewood while household air pollution worldwide leads to more than four million deaths a year, according to the World Health Organisation.
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