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UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 05 GENEVA 000657 
 
SIPDIS 
SENSITIVE 
 
STATE FOR IO/EDA, OED FOR DWILUSZ, PRM/AFR FOR WHENNING, 
INR/EC FOR PHOPKE, EAP FOR BBEHN, PCIA FOR BDOROSKI, JMITCHELL 
 
TAGS: SENV ECON UNEP UNHCR
SUBJECT: Solar Cookers present potential solutions for Indoor 
Air Pollution, Refugee Camps 
 
GENEVA 00000657  001.2 OF 005 
 
 
1.(U) Summary : In a June 29 2009 side event on the margins of 
the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Annual 
Consultations with NGOs, the nonprofit organization Solar 
Cookers International (SCI) hosted an informal discussion 
entitled Integrated Solutions to Cooking Needs and Safe Water, 
to explore the feasibility of renewable domestic energy in 
refugee situations. The dozen participants concluded that 
solar cookers can mitigate indoor air pollution and improve 
refugees safety by eliminating their need to forage for 
firewood. They also agreed that the use of a Water 
Pasteurization Indicator (WPI) would aid refugees in 
sterilizing water at a reduced fuel and labor cost. However, 
as the Regional Refugee Coordinator for the Horn of Africa 
noted in an email comment, solar cookers face significant 
deployment challenges, including outright rejection of the 
technology. The success of these technologies will therefore 
rely upon comprehensive training programs and follow up to 
ensure proper and continued use.  END SUMMARY 
 
BACKGROUND 
---------- 
 
¶2. (U) In humanitarian situations, fuel scarcity and poverty 
create conditions where refugees must spend excessive amounts 
of time in search of cooking fuel, primarily firewood. 
Because women and girls bear the greatest burden of firewood 
collection, they are placed in inordinate risk of physical and 
sexual assault or arrest during their outings. Traditional 
cooking methods also pose a public health risk because indoor 
cooking smoke has high concentrations of particulate matter 
and carcinogens. A WHO report from 2007 publishes that indoor 
smoke from solid fuel cook stoves poses the fourth highest 
burden of disease in poor developing countries. Typical 24- 
hour levels of particulate matter in biomass-using homes in 
 
GENEVA 00000657  002.2 OF 005 
 
 
Africa, Asia, or Latin America are 6 to 60 times higher than 
the EPA standard for outdoor air. 
 
¶3. (U) Solar Cookers are most effective in regions where there 
is already a shortage of traditional biomass energy. The 
UNHCR, for example, distributes firewood to refugees, but 
averages only 30 percent of a given camps' requirement; refugees 
must forage for the remainder. Additionally, because of 
widespread poverty, populations will often sell the donated 
firewood for income generation. Because solar cookers require 
no fuel, they can alleviate the pressure placed on refugee 
populations to supplement the relief aid through foraging. 
 
¶4. (U) SCI promotes the dissemination of solar cookers in 
humanitarian situations. Their major operations are in Iridimi 
(Chad), Aisha (Ethiopia), and Kakuma and Dadaab (Kenya). Solar 
cookers reflective structures are designed to concentrate 
solar rays in order to heat food or water. SCI Executive 
Director Patrick Widner noted that SCI acknowledges the issue 
of sunlight availability: solar cookers do not work in the 
shade. However, he said that solar cookers are one part of an 
integrated package to reduce the health and resource burden of 
food preparation. 
 
¶5. (U) Refugee camps often face challenges providing sufficient 
quantities of clean, potable water to their inhabitants; there 
is a persistent need for water sterilization techniques that 
are affordable and efficient. SCI demonstrated a new 
technology for ensuring water sterility in refugee situations. 
The Water Pasteurization Indicator (WPI) is a portable and 
durable thermometer containing a waxen rod that melts at the 
exact temperature of pasteurization. Pasteurization is gaining 
ground as an alternative for boiling water because it 
sufficiently sterilizes while requiring a lower heating 
 
GENEVA 00000657  003.2 OF 005 
 
 
temperature and therefore less fuel and preparation time. The 
WPI is reusable and can aid refugees in cleaning their water 
in a rapid manner, though Mr. Widner noted that training 
courses might be necessary to ensure a successful rollout. 
 
Recommendations from Discussion Participants 
-------------------------------------------- 
 
¶6. (U) The participants noted that one challenge facing the 
rollout is cultural rejection of solar cooking, as certain 
meals are more difficult to prepare using the current solar 
cooker model. Representatives from SCI noted that some 
cultural resistance was found on account of unfamiliarity 
causing fear that the new cooker would burn or otherwise 
injure the user. Participants agreed that refugees and other 
users could be surveyed for potential design changes that 
might better adjust the Solar Cooker model to their specific 
food preparation needs. 
 
¶7. (U) Mr. Valentine Ndibalema of the Environmental and 
Technology Support Section of the UNHCR noted that a primary 
aspect for consideration is the creation of extension services 
(e.g. training for users, and monitoring of stove use) to aid 
the transition from technology deployment to sustainable and 
long term use. In addition, the discussion revealed concerns 
that refugees might revert to traditional cooking methods in 
the absence of such extension services, stressing that 
creating a legacy of solar cooking and sustainable fuel 
cooking, generally is the most important part of SCIs 
development strategy. 
 
¶8. (SBU) Mission contacted the Regional Refugee Coordinator 
(RRC) for the Horn of Africa, based in Addis Ababa, regarding 
the use of solar cookers in refugee situations. The RRC 
 
GENEVA 00000657  004.2 OF 005 
 
 
replied that, in her experience, refugees who are given solar 
cookers often don't use them. She cited the Somali population in 
Dadaab, who traditionally cook at night, a cultural practice 
that makes using a solar cooker impossible. The RRC also 
noted, however, that recent circumstances in Dadaab might make 
for an effective solar cooker intervention. There has been no 
firewood supply contract in the camp since January due to 
price negotiations. Additionally, the host community has begun 
voicing complaints about environmental degradation due to 
refugee firewood harvesting, and though Dadaab is designed to 
hold 90,000 people, it currently contains over 287,000 people. 
The RRC also noted that (quote) the biggest pitfall seems to 
be a lack of follow up to make sure refugees are using them 
(solar cookers) properly or using them at all, and to reinforce 
the message of why solar cookers are better to use. (end quote) 
 
COMMENT 
------- 
 
¶9. (SBU) The success of solar cookers depends on finding the right 
balance of technological intervention and preserving cultural 
integrity. Other companies are pursuing sustainable cooking 
solutions in refugees camps other than solar cookers. One 
such example is the NGO GAIA in Ethiopia, which promotes an 
ethanol stove. Another example is the German NGO GTZ, which 
conducts workshops in refugee camps in Dadaab on effective 
and fuel-efficient stove design; GTZ's workshops can provide 
sustainable cooking solutions where solar cookers are rejected 
by target populations. 
 
¶10. (SBU) The Water Pasteurization Indicator (WPI), 
has the potential to provide quality of life improvements 
in camps through a low fuel-cost water sterilization 
alternative to boiling. SCI and other NGOs operating in camps 
 
GENEVA 00000657  005.2 OF 005 
 
 
should consider rolling out the WPI and similar technologies 
independent of solar cooker programs. END Comment. 
 
GRIFFITHS