Paving way to a Sri Lankan Eco-Friendly Home

Avanthi Fernando

Many would think of an eco-friendly home as how their ancestors would have lived in the colonial times - with fire hearths powered by firewood, petromax kerosene lights, kerosene lamps and drawing water from the wells.

However, trees are becoming scarce, felling trees are prohibited and obtaining a permit is needed together with the Global Warming problem.

In addition to the rising cost of electricity, kerosene is also expensive and dangerous, the National Committee for the Prevention of Injuries states that unsafe use of kerosene lamps kill around 140 and injure thousands every year.

In the urban areas, many wouldn’t think of going back to the prehistoric times but they will realise that we are fast using up natural resources like gas and oil including water and electricity and looking for alternative means is vital.

An eco-friendly home of today might look more economically-friendly but changing it overnight is difficult. Adapting to an alternative system might be expensive but in the long run, it is going to reap benefits especially when the world uses up its resources and there is nothing more to use.

More often than not, people think that there are no alternative sources of energy in this country. This is true when most think that the old system can’t be changed in any way.

However it should be known that if there is a will, there is a way. The important thing to note is to change human behavior in order to be more ‘environmentally-friendly’.

Power Generation

Solar Power - Converting your present electricity system might be difficult but there are economical ways with regard to this. One can use a simple emergency LED light called the ‘Solid State Solar Power System’ the brainchild of ‘Solar Sanath’ an engineer working with the Light up the World foundation, international non Government organisation (INGO).

If the demand is more, it should be highlighted that there are as many as 13 solar companies in operation but mostly in the rural areas. The most successful of these companies is ‘The Solar Shell Company’ located in Thambuttegama that provide as much as 40 watts of solar power. A solar panel is fitted to the house and the house is wired to the battery store that is powered by solar energy.

Right now, 100,000 small houses are powered with solar power in the Anuradhapura district.

Water

The best way to use water is to have a good understanding about the value of water. In urban areas, there is a huge water tax because most of the water is being used for free by the shanty dwellers and the poor.

We must first ensure that we don’t waste water ourselves but use it wisely. Use buckets instead of running taps. Share a shower with your significant other to maximize the water content, it will improve your love life also.

In Kurunegala, two water basins namely the Kurunegala tank and Wennaweru all flow via a former irrigation canal and when it passes the town, it turns into a sewer where waste water flows.

The fact is that farmers working the paddy fields at the end of the canal all depend on this wastewater for irrigation. Doing wastewater agriculture will be the only reliable source of water in the future and it should be treated at the point of source. Right now the National Water Supply and Drainage Board are currently building a sewage treatment plant with foreign funding for this problem.

Waste

The future of waste is going to be separation of excreta and urine with a special commode that is now being sold in European countries. This was highlighted at the Water Agriculture and Sanitation for Poverty Alleviation (WASPA) workshop held recently by the IWMI (International Water Management Institute). The excreta is collected over a period of some years and used as compost for the garden, this is like the manure we use for agriculture.

The urine which is high in nitrogen will be used to water the plants in the garden. The fact is that the phosphorous and nitrogen content in human waste is the best natural fertiliser in the world. For the best natural pesticide, take khomba leaves and grind it into water like a juice and spray it to all your plants.

Cooking

Retired Major General Kamal Fernando, who was the first to take solar cooking to the tsunami-affected villages says, “Solar cookers are going to be the only way to cook our food because of the rising prices of fuel in Sri Lanka and around the world”.

Relatively easy to make and pollution-free, it is so simple that you can even make it in your own home. Tape some aluminum foil to the insides of any cardboard box or carton. Then cover the foil with blackened paper and tape it firmly.

Tape a plastic sheet or glass panel to cover the ‘cooking part’ of the box with 1/4 inches from the sides of the box. Make sure you have a ‘reflector which can be a flap over the box pasted with foil.

Seal it tight so no air can get in. On a sunny day, you can use the blackened cooking pot to make rice for about half an hour and boil water for around 20 minutes. You can even bake cakes and dry vegetables and fish however the time varies for this.

You can you improvise your oven by adding insulation, increasing the number of foil reflectors, and painting the outside of the box black as well.

Recycle

Every home needs a good recycling facility, eco-friendly bags should be used instead of plastic or polythene. Plastic bottles and newspapers should be given to recycling plants and now there is even an on-going campaign that allows people to sell their plastics in order to save the environment.

Compost bins should be used around the house and an efficient way of disposal should be incorporated.

However, the number one thing that will help in all this is the human behavioral patterns should realise that despite having recycling facilities isn’t enough. As a person, you should realise and understand how important it is to change your behavior in order to protect Mother Nature.