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Interview with Bhushan Tuladhar Environment and Public Health Organization ENPHO’s plaque reads: In appreciation and recognition of your dedication, commitment, and investment to demonstrate the impact of household energy interventions. ENPHO is a research based NGO that works with communities and other research institutes to develop appropriate technologies and test their performance in the lab setting. The technologies are then field tested to assess their performance in real life situations, as well as for social acceptance by the community. Through widespread monitoring they showed a reduction in pollution levels, as indicated by concentrations of PM2.5 and CO, by more than 60%. |
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What is the most exciting aspect of your work?
Taking on new initiatives in a sector that has been ignored by many people and then seeing the impact on the lives of people. It is great to see that what you are doing really makes a significant impact on the health and well being of poor people, especially the children. It is great to be able to put a smile on a child’s face.
What accomplishments are you most proud of?
We are proud that we were able to do a scientific analysis of the environmental and health impacts of Nepal’s Improved Cook Stove (ICS) Programme. The results have been appreciated by all and we are confident that the results of the study will be very helpful in further promoting ICS in Nepal and thus improve the lives of thousands of Nepalese women and children. The fact that PCIA recognized our work with the Special Achievement Award is very satisfying as well.
More recently, we are proud of the research work we have been doing on developing a system for Water Pasteurization through Improved Cookstoves (WAPIC) in Nepal. We have developed and tested the system in our lab and now it is being field tested in four districts of Nepal. The system will allow us to address the two most significant health risks in Nepal – indoor air pollution and unsafe water and reach across sectors to use the synergetic efforts of ICS and safe water promotion programmes to scale up both these programmes.
How has PCIA helped you in your work?
The training organized by PCIA in Vietnam from August 7-11, 2007 on monitoring and evaluation was very helpful for us. As a participant of the training, I learned a lot and it boosted my confidence to go ahead and do this research. The training also provided an opportunity to meet others interested in monitoring and evaluation and learn about their experiences. We were also able to buy the necessary equipment (UCB particle monitors and HOBO CO loggers) in Vietnam and get hands on training on using the equipment. Even after the training, we were able to receive technical assistance and guidance from friends at Berkeley Air Monitoring Group which was extremely helpful in our future work. PCIA therefore played an instrumental role in connecting us to the right people and building our capacity and our confidence.
What did you find most useful about the 2009 PCIA Forum?
Networking! It was great to meet all the brilliant and committed people in this sector and learn about all the exciting happenings from all around the world – from scaling up of stove programmes in Guatemala to carbon financing of improved stoves in Uganda and commercialization of rocket stoves in China. There are a lot of good things happening in this sector and the Forum provided a great opportunity to learn about all of it under one roof by actually interacting with the people who are involved in these initiatives.
What do you want the rest of the household energy community and world to know about monitoring impacts?
Monitoring impacts is not as difficult or as complicated as many people seem to think. Some people tend to get a little scared when it comes to handling all the equipment, data and analytical work associated with scientific research. Now, there is a lot of experience from several places through which we can learn and the equipment and methodologies are also fairly simple to use. Therefore, I would urge all promoters of clean household energy to monitor your impacts to make sure that you are on the right track. This will also help in convincing your donors, beneficiaries and yourself that you are doing a good job.
What are your goals for the coming 1-2 years?
In the next 1-2 years, we hope to do more impact monitoring of different household energy projects, build local capacity, raise awareness on clean household energy and also complete our research work on WAPIC. We will also to do more research and demonstration on biogas from waste and wastewater to link household energy with sanitation.