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Solar cookers feeding survivors in Kutch

Where the Earth has wreaked havoc, the Sun is coming out to help.

Solar cookers are feeding quake survivors and helping doctors heat water to sterilise equipment in the quake-flattened Kutch district of Gujarat, says Girija Sharan of the Indian Institute of Management in Ahmedabad, who has set up the cookers.

Fifty solar cookers are being used by relief agencies in Kutch with 500 more waiting to be installed.

In remote Vijpasar village, situated 45 km from Bhuj, where damage to buildings were total, Sharan's team from IIM's Community Initiative set up a solar community kitchen one day after the quake.

The kitchen cooks food for 80 people twice a day, says the agricultural engineer who holds a doctorate from the Cornell University in the United States of America and teaches at the IIM's Centre for Management in Agriculture.

Soon he received a request from the principal of the Anand Kanika High School in Bhachau for a solar kitchen to cook food for its 700 students living in tents pitched in the playground after the school crumbled in the quake. Now, 18 solar cookers help serve hot food to the children.

The Gujarat Energy Development Agency has told Sharan that they are keeping 500 cookers on stand-by to be transported to Kutch.

The solar cookers come handy in relief operations diverting precious human resources to other areas.

''One person can look after 20-30 cookers at a time,'' says Sharan. ''The solar cookers don't need any attention once they are loaded. They don't take people's time away from relief."

A solar cooker is heating water for a first aid medical camp on the Bhachau-Bhuj highway.

Sharan is also planning solar cafeterias serving popular Gujarati food on the highways in Kutch.

The Sol Cafe designed by him will serve tea, coffee, mineral water and two popular Gujarati dishes plus Khaman , a baked dal dish that looks like a cake.

''There is no shortage of raw food in Kutch. Rice, grains and potato are available in plenty,'' says Sharan.

An experimental Sol Cafe that would be made from quake-resistant material is expected to be launched in Kothara village, 20 km from Bhuj, next week, says Sharan.

The idea behind the solar cooker, Sharan explains, is that local energy should be used in calamity situations. The solar cookers and cafeteria would be helpful whenever government utilities fail.

With at least a couple of months more to go before the quake survivors get into houses built for them by the government, solar cookers is what will keep them going until then.

UNI

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