Fuel saving concrete oven gets popular in Jhenidah
The people of remote villages of the district are now using a new type of oven that consumes much less fuel (wood chips) than usual and does not produce smoke.
Action in Development (AID), a non-governmental organisation in the district, is providing thousands of the concrete ovens to the people at a lower price subsided by Infrastructure Development Company Ltd (IDCOL).
While visiting Pabohati village under Sadar upazila, this correspondent saw around 60 workers making the ovens by the side of the Jhenidah-Magura road. The workers said they can make 10 to 12 ovens between 6:00am and 6:00pm. They use cement, sand, brick chips, iron rods, steel, thick paper and rock wool. They get Tk 280 per day as wages.
An oven costs Tk 483 per piece and is sold at Tk 300, subsidised by IDCOL.
Worker Polash Mollah said the oven needs a kind of cotton named rock wool for insulation, adding that the oven saves fuel and creates no smoke.
Hawa Bibi of Porahati village in Sadar upazila said the oven takes less time for cooking in comparison with other ovens.
Nurul Islam of Pabohatio village said the oven can cook rice and curry within 45 to 50 minutes.
Assistant Project Coordinator of AID Md Shariful Islam said this project funded by IDCOL started in July 2016 and will last till 2018, adding that they have provided 25,000 ovens in four upazilas of the district so far.
They have taken this initiative with a view to maintaining environmental balance as the oven produces no smoke and uses very little fuel, Shariful said, adding that if this oven is used in every house the area will not be polluted and it will do no harm to the users.
Technical Instructor of IDCOL Md Borhan Uddin told this correspondent that the oven is environment friendly. An earthen oven needs four kg of fuel for cooking rice and two items of curry for five to six people, while the concrete oven needs one kg for the same number of people.
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