Cooking with a traditional three-stone stove in south-west Uganda's sprawling Nakivale refugee

settlement used to be an exhausting daily exercise for 39-year-old Runiza. "I had to walk for five

hours every day to collect firewood," the Congolese refugee recalls.

It was not just physical exhaustion, she says. "The danger of being raped, attacked or robbed

caused me to feel mentally drained." It's a major concern for all women in rural areas like

Nakivale, where they traditionally collect firewood for the family – a journey that often takes them

to dangerous areas far from the safety of their homes.

But a year ago, Runiza decided to give up the cooking technique she learnt from her mother as a

child and to use environmentally friendly biomass briquettes and an energy saving mud stove.

"Since I have learnt how to make mud briquettes, long-distance walks to collect firewood are just

a distant memory," she says. "I have now two fire points and cooking is much faster." [Innovation:

Briquette-making project helps protect women in Ugandan camp-Making a Difference, By Rocco

Nuri in Nakivale, Uganda-unhcr]

The importance of bio mass as a resource for future energy generation, both thermal and electrical

is well recognized worldwide. However, in Sri Lanka lack of information and sometimes

misinformation hinders the utilization of these renewable and indigenous resources, the

development of which has a multitude of spin off benefits. The availability of a substantial

quantities of variety of bio mass and the very real potential for developing these to be a very

significant national resource is hardly known or noticed.

Traditional biomass accounts for nearly 52% of the primary energy supplied in Sri Lanka. Nearly

76% of our population still depend on fuel wood and other forms of biomass for their household

cooking. However the introduction of LPG for the domestic cooking some decades ago has reduced

such use in the urban households.

In addition the traditional small and medium industrial sector too has been using bio mass

particularly fuel wood for their thermal energy needs. The Brick and Tile sector in particular uses

considerable amounts of fuel wood form different sources. Unfortunately jungle wood harvested

in an unsustainable manner continues to be used heavily, although the renewable sources such as

rubber wood from replanting activates also make a major contribution. Some measures to

introduce rice husk as a heating medium for brick making has not made a significant impact yet...

The tea and rubber processing industries, with more than 1000 factories distributed in the wet

zone of the country is a heavy user of fuel wood. Although some of the estates have grown wood

lots to furnish their energy needs the major supplies comes from rubber plantations or from jungle

clearing. In the past decades the difficulty of getting fuel wood from such sources has prompted

the tea industry to rely on diesel and other heating oils to fire their dryers. [THE BIOMASS

ENERGY SECTOR IN SRI LANKA-SUCESSES AND CONSTRAINTS by Eng. Parakrama

Jayasinghe BSc. FIE (SL), C Eng. MIMech E](President – Bio Energy Association of Sri Lanka)

Sri Lanka is an island of about 20 million population with urban, rural and estate population of

14.6%, 80.0% and 5.4%, respectively. This study describes biomass fuel use for cooking in Sri

Lanka. Wood was the principal cooking fuel used in 78.3% and 78.5% of households in 2000 and

2007, respectively. In 2007, 96.3% of estate sector households used firewood as compared to

84.2% in the rural and 34.6% in the urban sectors. Similar trends were noted in 2000 as well.

[Biomass Fuel Use for Cooking in Sri Lanka: Analysis of Data from National Demographic

Health Surveys] Sumal Nandasena, MBBS, MSc, MD, Ananda Rajitha Wickremasinghe, MBBS,

PhD, and Nalini Sathiakumar, MD, DrPH

Biomass Energy for Cook Stoves and Other Energy Needs

The use of petroleum products for thermal power generation has increased in 2007 compared to

2006. Of the total electricity generated in Sri Lanka, hydroelectricity has decreased from 49% to

40% during the same period. Thus, in 2007, fossil fuel based power plants accounted for 60% of

the electricity generated and this consumes approximately 30% of the petroleum sales of the

country (Central Bank of Sri Lanka, 2007). This has reduced the capability of the state owned

Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB), to generate power at a lower cost. Consequently, the burden to

the government, electricity intensive industries and the domestic consumers has been aggravated.

Eventually the government of Sri Lanka is facing the challenge of neutralizing the situation with

appropriate policy options and demand management systems. [Household Energy Consumption

Patterns in Sri Lanka-K. Rajmohan and J. Weerahewa]

Biomass smoke contains an enormous number of substances, many of which damage or are injurious to

human health. Most important are particulates, carbon monoxide, nitrous oxides, sulphur oxides,

formaldehyde, and polycyclic organic matter [de Koning et al., 1985]. Different air pollutants cause

different health conditions. Indoor air pollutants from cooking with biomass fuel can cause a spectrum of

conditions including respiratory infections, nasopharyngeal and airways irritation, wheezing, chronic

bronchitis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), exacerbation of COPD, low birth weight, an

increase in prenatal deaths, cancers of the lung, mouth, nasopharynx and larynx, cataracts etc. [Bruce et

al., 2000; Bruce et al., 2002; Smith, 2002].

Use of LPG by >70% of the richest households indicates the shift to cleaner fuels with improved economic

status. Despite this, one-fourths of the richest households still rely on wood for cooking. The difference in

the use of wood by locality, 34% in the urban sector and >84% of households in the rural sector (Table II),

may not be explained by poverty alone. The relative availability of a particular energy source may influence

the type of cooking fuel used as a marked variation was observed between the sectors. Other considerations

such as the availability of wood, as well as attitudes, practices and life styles of the rural population can

influence the type of principal cooking fuel used. [

This is a global issue common to many developing countries. According to HERA, the Household Energy

Programme of the German aid agency GTZ this continuing high dependency on fuel wood for cooking

causes environmental problems through excessive felling of trees and deforestation, and also has serious

impacts on health, workloads, and budgets of householders. Smoke from traditional open fires or simple

stoves cause’s respiratory diseases with women and children more affected. (GTZ, 2006 - Topic Sheet on

Household Energy and describing HERA a household energy programme – information at

www.gtz.de/HERA)

Biomass

GTZ, 2006 - Topic Sheet on Household Energy and describing HERA a household energy

programme – information at www.gtz.de/HERA)

Bruce et al., 2000; Bruce et al., 2002; Smith, 2002.

Household Energy Consumption Patterns in Sri Lanka-K. Rajmohan and J. Weerahewa

Household Energy Consumption Patterns in Sri Lanka-K. Rajmohan and J. Weerahewa

THE BIOMASS ENERGY SECTOR IN SRI LANKA-SUCESSES AND CONSTRAINTS

by Eng. Parakrama Jayasinghe BSc. FIE (SL), C Eng. MIMech E (President – Bio

Energy Association of Sri Lanka)

Innovation: Briquette-making project helps protect women in Ugandan camp-Making a

Difference, By Rocco Nuri in Nakivale, Uganda]

de Koning et al., 1985