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Sustainable Development
Sustainable development in Tajikistan’s Bartang Valley doesn’t require a huge influx of foreign dollars for success. Rather, it is successful because the community sees benefits which they want to share in. For the people in Roshorv, a remote village at an altitude of almost 10,000 feet, having a solar cooker saves them 20 to 40 pounds of wood per day.
Community members are asking for the solar devices because they are simple to use and inexpensive to maintain having no mechanisms needing repair. Besides, the fuel is free and available 200 days of the year.
According to one villager it takes a pound of bush kindling, 4 ½ pounds of firewood plus 6 ½ pounds of dried manure or coal to prepare lunch or dinner. Boiling 5-7 quarts of water uses 8-12 pounds of bush kindling. Saving this much wood and coal by using solar also cuts down on unhealthy smoke.
Tajikistan is the poorest state emerging from the former Soviet Union and the declining capacity in its domestic energy infrastructure causes blackouts in the winter. Despite this, the country’s has great potential for generating power with solar and hydro resources. In fact, the village already has its own mini-hydro station generating electricity for the community and its surroundings.
Little Earth, the Tajik environmental organization sponsoring the solar cookers, plans to distribute another 10 solar cookers to the most at risk families high in the Bartang Valley. Even with 100 days of sunshine annually, 10 solar kitchens would save families 20 tons of fuel a year.
So in addition to making life more sustainable for those most vulnerable, cooking with solar helps forestall deforestation from logging and land clearing. Hillsides devoid of bushes and trees increase the risk for dangerous and often deadly mudslides to occur.
A small investment in a tool like the solar cooker is a manageable way for a small Tajik NGO to promote sustainable development in vulnerable areas.
Please contact us for more information on helping promote sustainable development in Tajikistan.
