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A cooking gas crisis has emerged across India amid the war in the Middle East. Cafes and restaurants of this country have already started to feel the impact of the crisis. In such a situation, everyone is desperately looking for an alternative to cooking gas (LPG), so that daily cooking can be done within the affordability. Many recommend cooking in the microwave or induction. Many are going back to the wood or earth in the meantime.

In this climate, a video of Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, founder and spiritual guru of the ‘Art of Living Foundation’, has gone viral on social media, where he says there is no need for any other fuel. Only half a liter of water will cook six months at home! Food quality will be more than gas cooking!

How is that possible? Ravi Shankar talked about a special type of stove developed by a man named Mr. Mahesh, which would require only water to run instead of LPG. In a filter-like device adjacent to the stove, the hydrogen and oxygen in the water will be separated. The hydrogen will be used for cooking and deoxygenated in the air. Whether this oven will work or not will be tested initially at his ashram, the priest said.

The maker of the stove, Mr. Mahesh, also spoke in favor of its use in the video. According to him, carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide mix in food when cooking by burning LPG. If the bread is baked directly on the burner, the black burn mark is due to this harmful gas! This is one of the reasons why cancer takes root in the human body, said Mr. Mahesh.

However, questions have been raised on social media about how profitable this water-powered stove will be. Approximately 313 lakh tonnes of LPG is consumed in India every year. Of this, 87% goes to households and the rest to hotels and restaurants. If a natural resource can be used instead of this huge amount of LPG, it may be cost effective. It will be useful for the people in rural or marginal areas and will indirectly help the development of Indian economy.

But water crisis is not new in India as well as around the world. People have witnessed the drying up of the water table in different areas of the country and because of that many sufferings. Standing there, if water becomes a substitute for a commodity in high demand like cooking gas, the question remains how cost-effective it is for nature as a whole.