Making mud stoves in Sudan
Practical Action
The stove needs to match the cooking practices of the people who are going to use them.
The main benefit of this stove is that the women can make the stoves for themselves so that when
IDP return to their homes they take with them the knowledge of how to manufacture and maintain
the stoves without any external inputs.
Building the stove
Using the approach in which each family
makes their own stove to suit their
particular pots after they have received
training on the making stoves and on how
to train others so that the quality of the
stoves remains high. The concept of the
deign passing from person to person
introduce the possibility that the design
will deteriorate if training is not good
enough.
The stoves are made from locally
available materials which comprise of
bricks, water, mud and donkey dung. The
mud used should be a heavy clay mud
which in some cases is taken from river
beds.
Figure 2: Mixing the materials. Photo: Practical Action,
Sudan.
Ensure that the materials needed to
make the stove are actually locally available; if they need to be brought in to the area from a distance
then this will negate the benefits of using local materials.
The mud is mixed with the animal dung.
The bricks or parts of bricks are used as
the three internal stands for the pot.
These are then placed on the base and
the mud walls are built up around them.
Once the basic shape has been created
then then the hole for feeding the fuel can
be cut out before the mud has become
hard.
The stove needs to be left to dry before it
can be used.
The difference between a high performing
and an ineffective stove can be a matter
of a slight change in a critical dimension.
A wrongly matched pot and stove will
result in poor combustion and increased
smoke.
Figure 3: Cutting the hole for fuel access. This needs
to be large enough for wood and ventilation. Photo:
Practical Action, Sudan.
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