Cooking cleanly

Visiting a family in the village of Sivinca Mayu in south-west Bolivia. Claudia Cespedes is in her simple kitchen, stirring the groundnut soup. She has had her new stove for a couple of months. And she is extremely proud of it. It is made only from loam, straw, dung and water, but the combustion chamber is high-tech. It is designed so that the wood burns efficiently and as much of the heat as possible is conducted to the cooking pot. For cooking Claudia Cespedes now needs only half the quantity of firewood that she used to use. 'I used to cook on a three-stone hearth. It always made me cough and my eyes water', she says. 'In those days the kitchen was the ugliest room in the house. Now we have repainted the walls; it is cleaner, because the stove no longer smokes. And I no longer need to worry about my little daughter burning herself on the fire.' Behind her mud house is a river, with green hills and harvested fields beyond. Collecting firewood is not difficult for Claudia Cespedes. Things are different for people living at an altitude of 4,000 metres in the Bolivian highlands, far above the tree line. Women there often don't know what they can use to cook the next meal. In these areas a stove that needs only half as much wood and can even burn llama dung is a real blessing. And it is not only the women who benefit; the new stoves enable the centuries-old yareta plants, which are often dried and used as fuel, to be conserved. Shortage of firewood is not the only problem that the rural people of Bolivia have to contend with. Two-thirds of the rural population has no access to modern energy either for cooking or for other purposes such as heating, chilling, lighting or processing foodstuffs. This is set to change. The Bolivian government plans to extend the supply of modern energy to the rural population. Access to energy is after all one of the keys to tackling poverty. Germany and the Netherlands are jointly supporting Bolivia through the Energising Development project. Over the last four years some 500,000 people have gained access to modern energy through the project. That is a major success - and at the same time just a beginning.

Light in the darkness

For many Bolivians there is no prospect of mains electricity for decades to come. It is not only nature that puts obstacles in the way. The country is sparsely populated, which means that universal electrification on the European model is not a viable proposition.

Where there is an electricity grid nearby, GIZ supports the Bolivian government in enabling as many households as possible to be connected to it. Where there is no grid, it promotes the construction of photovoltaic systems or micro hydropower units to generate electricity.

Darkness falls at about 6 p.m. in Bolivia. Driving through the countryside, one glimpses dim figures emerging here and there from the darkness. In Europe there are very few areas without lighting; rural Bolivia, by contrast, is plunged every evening into darkness that is only occasionally pierced by a burning candle or a petroleum lamp.

For Pedro Huayllas that has changed. 'Life is much better now that we have electricity', says the 75-year-old farmer with visible pleasure. His hut in the Bolivian Yungas, the fertile Andes valleys north-east of La Paz, was recently connected to the electricity grid. Now he and his wife Simona enjoy being able to read as they sit in their little hut in the evenings. They used to use a petroleum lamp that produced large quantities of soot but little light. The pensioners were rarely able to afford batteries for their torch. Pedro and Simona Huayllas could only afford the connection to the grid - which costs around 80 euros - because GIZ persuaded the energy supplier to introduce a credit tariff.

Claudia Cespedes would also like to have electricity - and Internet access, so that her children can learn more and perhaps one day go to university.