As once relatively prosperous Sri Lanka suffers from a severe economic crisis with shortages of everything from medicines to gas, people are returning to cooking with firewood.
The shift began earlier this year when more than 1,000 kitchens across the country blew up, killing at least seven people and injuring hundreds more.
This was due to cost savings on the part of suppliers and the increase in propane content, which increased the pressure to dangerous levels.
But now, like much else in the country of 22 million people, gas is either unavailable or too expensive for most.
Some tried to switch to kerosene stoves, but the government didn’t have dollars to import it along with gasoline and diesel, which are also in short supply.
And those who bought electric stoves got a nasty shock when the government imposed long blackouts because it ran out of dollars to import fuel for generators.
Niluka Hapuarachchi, 41, was miraculously unharmed when her gas stove exploded just after cooking on Sunday in August.
“Fortunately, no one was there at the time. There were broken glass all over the floor. The glass stove had exploded. I will never use gas for cooking. It’s not safe. We are now dependent on firewood,” she said, despite moves to address the propane issue.
The roadside restaurant’s owner, MG Karunawathi, 67, also switched to wood and said it was a choice to close her shop or face the smoke and soot.
“We suffer (smoke inhalation) when we cook with firewood, but we have no choice,” Karunawathi told AFP. “It’s also difficult to find firewood, and it’s also getting very expensive.”
– Pain into 2023 –
Sri Lanka used to be a middle-income country, with a GDP per capita comparable to that of the Philippines and a standard of living envied by neighboring India.
But with economic mismanagement and the crucial tourism industry battered by Covid-19, the nation is running out of dollars needed to pay for most imports.
And the pain is likely to linger for some time, as Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said in Parliament on Tuesday: “We will continue to face difficulties in 2023.
“That’s the truth. That’s the reality.”
Unofficial inflation is now only surpassed by Zimbabwe, and the United Nations estimates that around 80 percent of people skip meals because they cannot afford food.
Before the crisis, almost every household in Colombo could afford gas, but now lumberjack Selliah Raja, 60, is making a roaring business.
“We used to only have one customer – a restaurant with a wood-fired oven – but now we have so many that we can’t keep up with the demand,” Raja told AFP.
His wood suppliers in the provinces have doubled their prices because of the sharp rise in demand and skyrocketing transport costs, he says.
“We used to be paid by landowners to uproot rubber trees that are no longer productive,” logger Sampath Thushara told AFP in the tea and rubber-growing village of Nehinna.
“Today we have to pay to get these trees.”
Searching for wood can also be dangerous in the snake and insect infested forests. Last week a father of three died from wasp stings in central Sri Lanka and four others were hospitalized.
Demand for alternative energy is also increasing, and entrepreneur Riyad Ismail, 51, has seen sales of the hi-tech wood-burning stove he invented in 2008 soar.
He’s attached a small battery-powered electric fan to blow air into the barrel-shaped stove to ensure better combustion, thereby reducing smoke and soot associated with traditional firewood burners.
Its upscale Ezstove and mass-market Janalipa, which uses coconut charcoal, promise at least 60 percent savings over gas cooking.
His two ovens — which cost about $20 and $50 respectively — have become big sellers, and buyers have to put themselves on a waiting list.
It was so successful, says Ismail, that there are several copies on the market.
“You’re going to see a lot of versions of my design…other people piggybacking[on the design],” Ismail said while making chicken satay.
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