News

Solar cookers in Tajik mountain valley

08.01.2016

Little Earth visited last autumn several villages of the Bartang valley, in the western Pamirs in Tajikistan, where the organization carries out its activities on energy efficiency and renewable energy sources. In Nisur Village they met and interviewed the heads of households who received solar parabolic cookers last summer. What did locals tell us about these unusual household appliances? Let’s find out.

Shonazarov Said , resident of Nisur Village:

"I got the solar cooker at the beginning of June under the 50/50 scheme (Note: when half of the cost of the product covered by the project and another half by the purchaser). We noticed benefits right away, as soon as we started to use the device. In our family the solar cooker is mostly used by women. They use it to boil water for drinking, cloths washing and dishwashing as well as to cook food for all family members. Few   times we even tried to bake bread. We used to spend 20-25 kg of shrubs and firewood per day. With the solar cooker in use we spend three or four times less wood. Thanks to this device, we have saved about 2.5 tons of fuel for the past five months. Time that we spend to collect firewood has significantly reduced and could be used for other purposes.

We have almost no problems with this device. One of its disadvantages is the weak pole and turning mechanism, but this can be easily fixed. Several times the solar cooker was turned over by the strong winds that  occur in our area from time to time. So, when it's windy, we hide the device behind the house. But in general, I am very pleased to have gotten this cooker."

Miskinova Nikbahtsulton, resident of Nisur Village:

"I'm glad I bought this solar cooker. It brought us only benefits. I am a disabled person with tuberculosis. It was very difficult to go for firewood every day. But thanks to the solar cooker I do not need to do that so often. After all, it uses the sun's energy, which we have enough. For the last five months I saved about two tonnes of wood by using the solar cooker. Another advantage of this device  is a smoke free process of cooking. Thank you for helping me to buy it."

We also found a do-it-himself man in the village - Miskin Khudonazarov, who built solar cooker from scrap materials. "I was late with buying a solar cooker within the Little Earth project, but from talks with neighbours I realized that such appliance is quite useful. So, I decided to try and construct similar device myself. To build it, I used an old parabolic satellite antenna, self-adhesive foil and old metal corners. Testing  a homemade solar cooker was successful and now I'm going to make a stand and it will be ready to use",  said Khudonazarov.

Little Earth, with the support of Norwegian Society for Conservation of Nature, helped residents of five villages in the Bartang Valley to purchase solar cookers under the 50/50 scheme. Under this plan, local families paid only half of the cost of the product, while the second part was covered from the project funds. In total, 30 solar parabolic cookers were distributed under this scheme.

News and photos by Timur Idrisov of Little Earth