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A Community Cooker,managed responsibly and operated for a year will
save the caloric heat equivalent of burning 2,400 mature trees in a year.
More than 80 percent of Kenya’s urban dwellers, many of whom live
in poor, informal settlements, use charcoal made from wood as their primary source of energy,
according to government statistics. Their heavy dependence on wood for fuel has contributed to the
rapid decline of Kenya’s forests, with negative effects for the local climate, wildlife, water
sources and forest dwellers, says the World Rainforest Movement.
In March 2011 the Community Cooker in Laini Saba site was tested for
stack emissions and residual ash. The results show that the Community Cooker has combustion
efficiency of 99 per cent and that the levels of SO2 , NO2 and heavy metals detected fall within the
regulatory limits of United States EPA and World Bank IFC guidelines. These Results also meet Kenya
Air Quality and Waste Management Standards. Environmental Measure Report NRB1152-009421 March
2011.
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The locals in the Laini Saba village in Kibera have been instrumental to the success of the activity.
This came as a one-time solution for not only our waste management problem but for so many other
related issues as well. Free usage of the Community Cooker is given to anyone from Kibera slum who
shows up with a sack of garbage.
The greatest thing about the cooker is that it is much cheaper than buying charcoal or kerosene,
which are the most commonly used fuel sources in the slum.
The Community Cooker offers resourceful slum dwellers a fuel source that is far less expensive than
wood fuel, charcoal, gas or kerosene, and very much less expensive than electricity and reduction in
Acute Respiratory Infections due to household air
pollution.
The activity employs seven young people who sort the solid waste in Laini Saba Kibera.
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The pilot phase has been such a success there are hopes of replicating it all over the extensive
slum.
An NGO called Jhpiego an affiliate of John Hopkins University are
putting up a Community Cooker at Eastleigh,Nairobi and offering technical advice to the Community
Cooker being put up by Longonot Fairtrade horticultural company at Karagita Slum, Naivasha, Rift
Valley Province. The Community Cooker has received interest from a variety of
organizations.
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