Environmental research

The proposed project area covers two Village Development Committee (VDCs) named as Gumba and Kubinde VDC which are situated in the Northern and middle part of Sindhupalchok district. The one VDC (Gumba) is remote area of Sindhupalchok district and far from area national highway (Aaraniko) whereas Kubinde VDC around 85 Km far from Kathmandu. All the households in the area cook their daily meals with available firewood from the nearby community forest. Almost all of the households in the area use traditional cooking stoves made up of mud, stone and metal tripod stand. Only very few percentage (about 3%) of the households use other cooking devices, such as biogas stoves, LPG stoves and coal stoves. Most of the household in the area said that cooking was performed generally two to three times a day and the total cooking time was 3 to 4 hours. Usually household boils water for tea and hot water drinking which is performed one to three times a day. In the area, space heat is high demand in winter season which is done by burning firewood in the tripod stove and sitting around to get expose on the heat. Out of two proposed VDC, the people from Gomba VDC are deprived from access of national grid electricity. In order to reduce the firewood consumption and reduce green house gases, the project aimed to introduce energy efficient cook stove such as smoke hood, efficient Matribhumi Stove and energy efficient solar lights. Likewise for the visioning of healthy homes, the project also aim to introduce Sulav pit latrine, clean water via SODIS and water filter.

Nepal