Biogas, a low-cost alternative fuel produced from perishable wastage, which is used for cooking, has become popular among people in different areas of Gaibandha district.
Sources said the people of the area who had never had gas to cook with, can now use the gas for all domestic purposes.
Currently, around 30 rural families use biogas instead of firewood for cooking.
The Gaibandha Municipality, Practical Action, Bangladesh (PA,B) and Chhinnomul Mahila Samity have been jointly implementing the long-term project since 2011.
The plant has been set up by spending Tk17,00,000. Some 17 workers collect 1,500 kg of wastage from the people in the municipality area and 30 cubic gas is produced daily from that waste.
Though many of the people are unaware of the production of biogas from waste, it proved effective when it was made operational in the municipality.
Housewife Roksana Begum of Baniarjan in Gaibandha municipality area has been using a biogas-run stove for cooking for the last two years.
Roksana said her husband Farid Mondal, a local high school teacher, took the biogas connection from the samity that is providing the service.
“We have been getting a supply of biogas that lasts for five hours per day and have been paying Tk600 per month as a service fee to the service provider.”
“Cooking with a biogas-run stove is better than a wood-run stove as smoke and soot are not emitted by the biogas-run stove. It is also cheaper than wood-run stove. “It costs more than Tk600 to cook using a wood-run stove. Hence, we feel better in using the biogas-run stove”, said the housewife.
Morsheda Begum, Jahanara, Shamim Ara and Azhar in the area echoed Roksana’s views. Mayor Mohammad Shamsul Alam lauded the initiative to produce biogas from waste and provide it to people to cook with.
He assured that, on behalf of his institution, he would provide all the support that he could.
“We have a double advantage. The collection of wastage is helping to keep our environment clean, and the biogas, produced from the wastage, is meeting our cooking needs. So it is definitely better for us,” said Shamsul Alam.
The mayor hoped that the government and other non-government and private organisations will come forward to produce biogas and expand the service countrywide.
Mursidur Rahman Khan, executive director of the samity, said: “Biogas production through a combined waste management system is a momentous initiative taken by the organisations working for the improvement of the urban and rural environments.”
“We plan to expand the business,” he said.