The people of the Mentawai Islands, a group of islands off the coast of Indonesia, have been ravaged by all that Mother Nature has to offer. Each day they face the potential of natural disasters such as floods, forest fires, landslides, earthquakes and the all powerful tsunami. As if that wasn’t enough they are also faced with the lack of basic medicine, lack of education, malaria and various other deadly diseases. They have little to no resources and are struggling to keep their children from certain premature death. As it stands now the mortality rate for a child under five years old is a staggering 50%! One of the main causes of death on this island nation is lung infection and pneumonia. These horrific diseases typically target women and children as they cook and play in their small island huts with stoves burning just a few feet away.
Because these islands exist independently and far from any access to the modern world, they are forced to use what little resources they have just to stay alive. Unfortunately the resources they do have are mainly limited to wood, red clay, coconut husk, and sand. Families mainly cook with wood inside their homes and due to poor ventilation the smoke fills the lungs of anyone who lives there. Mothers often cook with their babies at their hip, exposing both mother and child to the deadly smoke. A solution to this type of cooking is to educate them on how to cook with clay stoves.
Cooking on clay stoves can not only greatly reduce the risk of respiratory infection but they are also cleaner, more efficient and inexpensive to operate. The clay stoves can decrease the amount pollution and wood being used by over 50%. A smaller amount of wood is needed in the clay stoves, so natural resources that exist on these small islands can last longer.
The clay stoves can be built using the resources that are available on the island. The stoves can be made with red clay from the hill behind the village (from the tsunami temporary evacuation site), shredded coconut husk and sand from the nearby beach. Water is also added to create an adequate consistency. The clay stoves can be made fairly easily by piling up the wet sand to form the cavity inside the oven and then covering the sand with banana leaves to prevent the clay mixture from sticking to the sand. The mold can then be plastered over. The shredded coconut husks act as a binder and add strength to the mixture. When dry, the mixture of sand, clay and coconut is nearly impossible to pull apart. A serious drawback is the drying time. It can take nearly two months to dry completely due to the hot, humid island climate. Another issue is installing a proper chimney. With limited resources, a pipe chimney is economically out of the question, so one must be constructed from fired clay cones, which isn’t as good as a typical chimney but does prevent the smoke from being directly inhaled. Of course, the risk of fire to the dry bamboo and thatch is another ever present danger that must be closely monitored.
The Mentawai people exist in a model of change. With our help they can be educated and empowered to think, act and prosper within the sandy walls of their village. The potential benefits that could result from our efforts to develop and implement these clay stoves cannot be measured in terms of percentages or graphs. Thousands, if not millions, die each year due to indoor air pollution and the Mentawai islanders are no exception. They are faced with the challenge of not only burning and cooking with clean resources, but doing so in an environment that does not promote many alternatives.
The people of Mentawai and the villagers of Katiet have faced adversity that most of us will thankfully never confront. Tonight we are safe. We will cook in a clean oven free of poison. We will not inhale toxic fumes or watch those we love breathe in deadly poison. Tonight as we enjoy our meal we may forget those that we cannot see and probably will never meet. Set an empty place setting at your table though to remember them, for if we forget, sure enough an empty place setting will be at their table soon enough.
To contribute to this awesome cause please visit http://www.surfaidinternational.org/site/pp.asp?c=ekLPK4MOIsG&b=665821
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