Thanks Sruthi, your message is greatly appreciated.  Please be assured of some answers.  The research has been very simple and is largely complete, with the introduction of 2-piece insulating rocket stoves.  These are indeed *affordable,* especially when produced by the local potters. The upper liner of these is interchangeable for cook pots of sizes from the smallest to the largest.  There is more description at the web page of Africa Prosperity,  www.resiliencie.com
 
I hasten to say that anyone who is getting improved cook stoves to those in need is doing something wonderful and needs to be commended.  There is a serious need for the sake of sustainability, however, to train the ubiquitous potters in the production of sustainable stoves!  Otherwise we may have much the same discussion in the decades to come.
   
What is needed for a proper insulating ceramic is a combination of 50/50 powders of clay and fine-grained combustible.  Unfortunately, there has been a lack of formal discussion!  Some experts have even sought supposed *lightweight clays* as an answer.  No!  Use 50/50, powders of fine-grained combustible and clay!  The fine particle size gives more bonding between clay particles, resulting in really
good strength.  Ask ceramic educators!  This is not rocket science!  Forgive the bold-faced text but this is basic, formal ceramic knowledge.  Many potters have good understanding but there is no substitute for formal education.
 
In Rwanda, we used 50/50 powders of clay and charcoal for our stoves.  We don’t like to suggest charcoal since it’s production is environmentally destructive, but it is widely available.  Fortunately, in Rwanda, powdered rice husk is a far better alternative.  I hope that the pictures and descriptions of the following link address your concern about cooking low to the ground.  Biomass *disks* will be easy to produce in the rural areas, given simple equipment for pressing these. Consequently, this fuel will be locally available.  These biomass disks are easy to produce and viable because of the optimized energy efficiency of the insulating rocket stove.   Solid fuels can indeed be burned cleanly, once we are using properly designed stoves!
 
Again, I hasten to say that all who are getting people improved stoves need to be commended.  Nothing that I say should suggest otherwise.  For the sake of real sustainability though, including affordability, we must get training to the potters and their neighbors.  Please have a look at this current graphic with description, just posted to social media.  Thanks to all.  You are the best!  drive.google.com/file/d/1LABCa5DaZmEUmOV...36A/view?usp=sharing

Dear Reid Harvey,
Adding to what Paresh has said, our experience in India is that biomass briquettes though an excellent option as fuel for cookstoves is often unavailable in remote villages. So are improved cookstoves. Even in cases where improved cookstoves are made accessible, they are not adopted as they do not address the personal, traditional and cultural preferences of people (for eg women generally like floor level stoves as they squat on the floor while cooking). Having worked with an NGO which designs and builds improved cookstoves, I have learnt that extensive field tests assessing the efficiency, emissions, and social acceptance (including the user’s comfort with fuel feeding arrangements, chimney location, height, and rate of cooking) are important if the stove is to deliver on the promise of reducing indoor air pollution. Oftentimes only the technical factors are considered and that’s where I think lies the significance of SDG 17, this problem needs collaboration between different disciplines.

Coming to insulating materials which are used in improved cookstoves here, different combinations of heatcrete, fireclay, lime and gypsum are preferred by improved cookstove manufacturers. Needless to say, the determining factor is cost and manufacturers find it difficult to offer the best insulating combinations owing to the inability of the target population to afford the final product. I completely agree with you that production of energy efficient cookstoves can not really progress unless this issue of appropriate insulating materials is addressed and there is a need for more research to be conducted on cost effective ceramic insulants.

Regards,
Sruthi

Thanks Paresh, for the update as usual. I am struck by your reference to the collection of firewood for cooking, though of course, this is the status quo of solid fuel. Rather, I would hope that your young women would be collecting leaves and sticks and agri-waste for fuel, or producing biomass disks for fuel. I believe I?m posting this video for a second time, of one of the insulating rocket stoves boiling water, that we put together in Rwanda, back in March. The stove is optimized for energy efficiency, burning leaves and sticks. There is no need for wood fuel or carbonized fuel. drive.google.com/file/d/1unAt9nGQHCSgtGx...DFP/view?usp=sharing

If the kitchen you referred to is in a school, the stove of this video may be especially important. As you may be aware, cookstoves in the kitchens of schools and clinics, fueled by solid fuels, can be incredibly expensive, e.g., US$400 or $500. By contrast, insulating rocket stoves for the largest sized cookpots should cost no more than around US$20! ?i.e., 5% (five percent!) of the cost of those conventional stoves

By the way, we are now Africa Prosperity Inc. www.resiliencie.com The transformative interventions of WASH and development described at this web page can be localized, addressing nearly all of the SDGs. Production of sanitaryware toilets can be at the starting point of industrial development from the grassroots. Importantly, these interventions are **affordable*.*

Training starts with production of insulating rocket stoves and candle water filters. Second phase training includes production of toilets, large-scale, point-of-use water treatment, and numerous additional products. Imagine, no one left behind for **affordable** interventions: safe drinking water, sanitary toilets and insulating rocket stoves! For more information go to the web page. All the best! Reid www.resiliencie.com

Dear Reid,
Cook-stoves can be culturally sensitive subject in parts of India, as a new cookstove/kitchen is also equated with division of the joint family. It becomes all the more sensitive when the young women (sometimes newly married) are seen willing to accept the new stove. Important to note that women are primary users as well as responsible for collection of the firewood, both the activities require involve drudgery. 

At the Centre I work with, researchers have therefore worked with increasing efficiency, reducing smoke by retrofitting exiting cookstoves. While they may not be optimal, they are culturally more acceptable. One of the interventions has been adding twisted tape packs, see attached video for a demonstration cum experinence sharing by a user (a woman in a rural area of Maharashtra, India).

Curious to know if you and others have came across such cultural barriers when introducing innovative products and how were they dealt with.  

Regards
paresh

Thanks Alice for highlighting the key findings of these important papers through your blog. I'd like to bring to your attention another thread related to integrated planning of WASH interventions. This detailed literature review by researchers at Eawag found that interventions are almost often planned in silos though there are synergies that can be exploited. The paper highlights these synergies as well. 

I was curious if any of these studies include examples where WASH interventions were planned with an aim of exploiting such synergies and co-benefits.

Regards
paresh

Thanks for such an important publication, highlighting the synergies of WASH with others of the SDGs. So many are siloed to the detriment of potential partnering, rivalries developing. This is contrary to SDG 17, Partnering for the Goals.

I hope it's okay to suggest such synergy between SDGs 6 and 7, pertaining to safe drinking water and clean cook stoves. As a ceramic designer and trainer I make the point that in doing production of either energy efficient cook stoves or water filters, it only makes sense to do production of the other. Insulating rocket stoves and monolithic, candle water filters have much the same composition and forming processes. They are dried and fired in the same way. Both are nature-based, the fuels consisting of biomass briquettes, e.g., briquetted agri-waste. There is no need to cut down trees for fuel wood or to produce charcoal of 'briquetted carbonized biomass'! Insulating rocket stoves give no smoke. The filters and the stoves can be implemented together, familiarizing the communities with these.

Please accept this appeal to verify these assertions with formally educated ceramists. There are many potters who do wonderful work but when they lack formal education in ceramics they miss some of the basics. E.g., those who produce ceramic filters tend not to know how to test these for strength. Those who produce cookstoves, the ceramic parts essential for insulation, tend not to know how to put together an insulating ceramic. They simply use pottery, which is not so insulating. In all humility I make the point that starting with trainings in production of energy efficient cook stoves and ceramic water filters, then expanding upon the knowledge gained, nearly all of the SDGs are addressed squarely.

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Hi everyone, 

We've recently published four working papers focusing on the intersection of WASH with other SDGs.

In this blog, Jamie Myers and I summarise recommendations and explain the hope behind the commissioning of the papers. 

Check the blog out here:  sanitationlearninghub.org/2022/02/24/mor...-wash-in-other-sdgs/

Thanks, 

Alice