06 Mar 2007 - By Trishna
Gurung* - “One day I woke up and told my
husband that I wasn’t going to risk my life
by collecting wood from the forest anymore
and that we were going to get a biogas stove,
even if we had to take a loan,” recalls
Jari Maya Tamang, 41, as she stands proudly
next to the first biogas system in her village
in Badreni, Nepal.
Since Jari Maya took out a micro-credit
loan to install the energy-efficient stove,
others have quickly followed. Today, 80
per cent of the 82 households in the village
— about a four-hour drive south-west from
the capital, Kathmandu — have similar systems
in their homes.
Sitting on the edge of Nepal’s Chitwan
National Park — home to some of the largest
surviving populations of Bengal tigers and
greater one-horned rhinos — Badreni has
earned the distinction of being the first
biogas village in Nepal’s Terai Arc Landscape.
Located in the shadow of the Himalayas,
the Terai Arc covers 5 million hectares
from Nepal’s Bagmati River in the east to
India's Yamuna River in the west.
A role model for alternative energy
As part of WWF Nepal's Terai Arc Landscape
Programme, some 7,500 biogas plants are
to be installed in villages like Badreni
over the next three years.
“With more than 9.3 million heads of cattle
and over 6.7 million people, there is a
future for biogas in the Terai Arc, but
this technology is still out of reach for
the majority of people who cannot afford
it without micro-finance schemes that WWF
funds through grassroots forest users groups,”
says Basu Dhungana, Chairman of the Mirgakunj
Buffer Zone User Committee in Chitwan.
“Badreni is our model. The people understand
there is a direct link between our actions
and impacts on the environment.”
With a dense population, high biodiversity
and fragile ecosystems, deforestation is
a major issue facing the Terai Arc. Unsustainable
fuelwood extraction affects both community
and government-managed forests.
Sixty-one per cent of all households in
the Terai Arc Landscape in Nepal currently
rely on fuelwood for cooking, and 49 per
cent source their wood from nearby government-managed
forests. A family uses an average of between
1.3–2.5kg wood everyday. Evidence suggests
that this is not sustainable.
Reliable and efficient
More and more people are turning to biogas
in Nepal, especially as the technology is
relatively simple, reliable, accessible
and risk free.
“The advantages of a toilet-attached biogas
plant are numerous,” says Jari Maya. “The
village’s reliance on forests fuelwood has
decreased dramatically, and health and sanitation
conditions have improved.”
Cooking with firewood causes chronic respiratory
diseases, especially as there are no chimneys
in traditional rural houses in Nepal. Installing
a biogas system in the house often improves
the health of the familly, especially that
of women and children, who spend a lot of
time in the kitchen.
Not only has research shown that an average-sized
biogas plant can save 4.5 metric tonnes
of firewood annually, but woman like Jari
Maya don’t have to go as often to the forest
to collect wood where they are vulnerable
to wildlife attacks.
Biogas and climate change
Biogas also has a direct positive impact
on climate change, helping to reduce greenhouse
gas emissions and global warming. According
to WWF, a single biogas plant reduces carbon
emissions by 4.7 tonnes per year.
Alternate energy promotion is an important
priority for WWF’s work in Nepal’s Terai
Arc Landscape. In 2006, WWF Nepal partnered
with the Alternative Energy Promotion Centre
and Biogas Sector Partnership–Nepal, signing
a tripartite working arrangement to install
the 7,500 biogas plants.
“We are actively promoting biogas installation
through microfinance schemes in 13 sites
in the Terai Arc, particularly for the poorer,
more marginalized communities,” said WWF
Nepal Country Representative Anil Manandhar.
“There is a great potential for biogas
villages like Badreni to be replicated throughout
Nepal.”
* Trishna Gurung is WWF Nepal's Communications
& Marketing Manager.
END NOTES:
• Biogas is produced from cattle manure
and toilet waste. Each household can produce
their own biogas by installing a toilet-attached
biogas plant. The technology is simple:
the manure and toilet waste are mixed with
water and dumped in an airtight underground
pit of about 6 cubic metres. In these anaerobic
conditions, methane starts forming and it
is led via a narrow pipe into the gas stove
in the kitchen. A valve is turned on whenever
the gas is needed for cooking. The gas in
itself is pure methane, clean and odourless.
It burns more effectively than wood, increasing
the efficiency of cooking.
• Through the Terai Arc Landscape Programme,
WWF-Nepal encourages installation of biogas
systems by giving information and advice,
and finances a part of the cost, especially
for the construction of toilets and linking
them to biogas plants. The total cost for
an average sized biogas plant is 20,000
Nepali rupees (US$280).
