This project is reducing cooking emissions by producing and distributing more efficient cookstoves in Cambodia. By reducing the amount of fuel that is required, the new cookstoves also reduce pressure on forest resources. The project improves living conditions, particularly for women, by reducing their exposure to harmful pollutants and time spent collecting wood and cooking.

The objective of efficient cookstoves in Cambodia is to reduce fuel consumption through production and distribution of Lao cook stoves in nine provinces of Cambodia. Part of the larger Cambodian Firewood Saving Project (CFSP), this project avoids emissions from direct combustion while also protecting local forest ecosystems through increasing the efficiency of traditional wood-fuel stoves.

Ninety percent of the Cambodian population depend daily on fuel for cooking purposes. In addition to fuel conservation, the cookstoves emit less airborne particles like carbon monoxide to improve the living conditions of the users. Benefits have been shown to positively affect women more proportionally than men through decreasing ill health within the home, saving the time to collect fuel wood and cooking, and reducing the cost of purchased fuel. Additionally, economic opportunities are created through production distribution and management opportunities.

This project improves access to safe drinking water in Cambodia by providing water filters to rural families. By eliminating the need to boil water using wood fuel, the project prevents CO2 emissions, reduces pressure on Cambodia’s precious forest resources, and improves indoor air quality.

Water-borne diseases are a major health concern in Cambodia, particularly among young children in rural areas. Untreated water and poor sanitation causes about 10 million cases of diarrhea and 10,000 deaths in the country each year. Most families in Cambodia boil water on wood or charcoal stoves to make it safe to drink. Typically women and girls are responsible for gathering and burning the firewood. This exposes them to harmful smoke which can cause adverse health effects. In addition to affecting respiratory health, this burning process also produces carbon emissions and puts pressure on Cambodia’s precious forest resources. 

This project will improve access to clean drinking water and reduce emissions by selling affordable ceramic water filters to rural households in Cambodia. Over the seven year crediting period, water filters will be provided to up to 1.7 million people across a potential 312,000 households. The filters are shown to remove 99.9% of bacteria from water and can produce up to 30 liters of clean water per day.  Families that have water filters in their homes will no longer need to disinfect their water by boiling it. 

By eliminating the need for wood fuel, the project reduces depletion of Cambodia’s forest resources, relieves mothers and daughters from collecting firewood, and lowers household fuel expenses. The use of filters instead of wood burning also lessens indoor air pollution, thereby preventing greenhouse gas emissions and reducing the risk of respiratory illness. Plus, since the filters are produced by Hydrologic, a Cambodian social enterprise, the project also generates employment opportunities for local residents.