KENYA: Giant cooker fuelled by waste is being tested in Kibera, one of Africa's largest slums

Record ID: 362103

  • Title: KENYA: Giant cooker fuelled by waste is being tested in Kibera, one of Africa's largest slums
  • Date: 29th August 2007
  • Summary: (AD1) NAIROBI, KENYA (AUGUST 28, 2007) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF COMMUNITY COOKER WORKER, JOHN GITHINJI, TENDING THE FIRE (SOUNDBITE) (Kiswahili) COMMUNITY COOKER WORKER, JOHN GITHINJI, SAYING: "After collecting the garbage, we put the wet plastic bags over there on the racks so that they can dry. After they dry, they are put through the opening at the top of the structure and
  • Embargoed: 13th September 2007 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Kenya
  • Country: Kenya
  • Topics: Light / Amusing / Unusual / Quirky,Energy
  • Reuters ID: LVACE0MO82IJWOVG9475YYGY23KT
  • Story Text: Piles of rubbish litter the Kibera slums, one of the biggest informal settlements in Africa. A virtually non-existent sewage system and the lack of garbage collection services in the area mean that the residents are constantly in danger of disease.
    It is estimated by a variety of non-governmental organisations that more than one million people live in the slums. Most of them live on less than one US dollar a day.
    A giant cooker fuelled by plastic waste may help improve things a little. The cooker has one oven and seven hot plates that slum residents can use for cooking. In exchange, residents will pay about 15 US cents to the cooker's operators to collect their garbage and channel it into their ovens.
    People are also being encouraged to bring in garbage on their own.
    Once collected, the waste is laid out on nearby racks to dry before it can be used as fuel.
    John Githinji is one of the workers who looks after cooker.
    "After collecting the garbage, we put the wet plastic bags over there on the racks so that they can dry. After they dry, they are put through the opening at the top of the structure and they come down to here where the fire is lit and it burns the waste," said Githinji.
    The project was sponsored by the United Nations (UN) for a sum of 10,000 US dollars as an environmentally viable way to tackle the piles of rubbish in the area.
    Douglas Kinyanjui, another of the cooker's operator, is fearful of the large amounts of smoke the oven emits.
    "Honestly with this smoke after two months you have to get infected with a disease of some sort because there are harmful chemicals released when we burn the plastic bags, its not good if you inhale this smoke you can even get a disease from South Africa. I am afraid," said Kinyanjui.
    Many of the cooker's users, like Patricia Ndunge, are far more positive.
    "What I can say is that the trash has helped us a little bit after the cooker came. There are less diseases like diarrhoea and the environment has improved. So what I can say is that the community cooker has really helped us," said Ndunge.
    But the cooker's critics say the pollution caused by the cooker far outstrip its benefits.
    "As the residents of this area, we can see that every time they burn the garbage, the smoke is going to cause pollution," said Shadrack Amalonza, another resident.
    The cooker project is still in its testing phase. But even if its developers are able to make the system work efficiently, they will still have to convince the people of Kibera that the cooker can truly help change things in the slums.
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