In one of the improved stove programs in Pakistan, a Lahorebased
NGO with funding from UNDP has developed and introduced
a fuel-efficient cookstove to relieve pressure on fuel-wood
resources in the Chhanga Manga forest and improve the health
and economic prospects of village women. The stoves are made
of mud and straw by the women who use them. About 11,500
stoves have been installed, serving over 90,000 people [32]. They
consume much less than half the fuel-wood consumed by a traditional
stove. These fuel-efficient stoves all have chimneys which
are made from recycled old steel bins or from mud to save on cost.
The steel chimney is fabricated from sheet steel or old tin cans by a
local blacksmith. A short steel rod is used to reinforce the entrance
to the combustion chamber, and steel is used for chimney dampers
and fire-box gates. The stoves are designed so that two pots can be
used at the same time, with a cover to go on a pot-hole when it is
not in use. The steel chimney is a little expensive while the manufacture
of mud chimneys is time-consuming [32]. Pakistan Council
of Renewable Energy Technologies (PCRET), a unit of the Ministry
of Science and Technology, has also developed five different models
of efficient cookstoves for use in different parts of the country
and disseminated 70,000 such stoves [33]. However, a large section
of poor people still use traditional inefficient stoves for cooking. A
study shows that the urban poor are in general more likely to benefit
from improved stoves than the rural poor for a number of reasons
listed below [34]. The urban poor are more likely to be using stoves
of some sort in the first place, rather than an open fire.