The report says that the demand has been fuelled by Sri Lankan housewives seeking better cooking stoves. The demand, specially for large stoves, was met by construction of 'Anagi' stoves in areas where Kithul treacle is produced.
“Anagi” in Sinhala language means ‘precious' or ‘excellent’. According to IDEA, “Anagi” stove is an excellent and precious stove because it saves firewood and cooking time provided it is made to the correct dimensions. Lab tests carried out on the stove spell the technical efficiency of 21%, and numerous field-cooking tests tell average firewood savings to be over 30%, twice as good as traditional stoves, says IDEA.
The Island quotes IDEA’s Executive Director R M Amarasekara, "To date nearly two million stoves had been sold, they of three levels large, medium and small scale. I was behind this project since 1982 and to date we have trained about 300 persons."
According to The Island, the kitchen improvement programme became sustainable after rehabilitation of Tsunami affected areas by trained NGOs who constructed kitchens using the anag methods.
In Sri Lanka, 55 per cent of the total energy consumed is derived from a variety of biomass resources of which 80 per cent is used for domestic cooking and 20 per cent in the industrial sector. Nearly 90 per cent of rural households use biomass for cooking.
Amarasekara says most of the households and small industries cannot afford to use any other source of energy other than firewood which has become essential, especially for the rural poor. He believes in this situation the most appropriate action is to introduce technologies to reduce the emission of these GHGs while used for domestic cooking and also small industries such as rice par-boiling, curd making, sweet making, etc.
