On Friday I had the chance to visit an innovative program being funded by an Australian Grant. It was specifically designed to improve the lives of women in the village of Wakemiya Tiyo. The project was a bio-gas cooking system that was very clever. It was just being installed for 25 families. I visited 2 of them. It was a simple system that did a lot of good!First, it allowed the women to cook without requiring them to gather firewood, which has been a traditional chore for them. Gathering wood could take hours out of their day and deforested the local environment leading to a dryer, dustier village.
Now with the biogas cooking system - the ladies can simply turn a valve, and fire up their stovetop. Life simplified!!The husband/farmer gets 3 big benefits - first, improved fertilizer as the biproduct of the system helps improve his farming production, second, milk from the cows involved improve the health of the family, and finally, the system uses 2 young cows - and once they are mature and fattened, they are taken to the local cattle yard and sold. The money - big money - is used to buy 2 young replacement cows, and there is cash left over to improve the livelihood of the family and pay off the cost of the system.
Financially, the system is self sustaining, the family only starts by paying 10% of the cost upfront -roughly $US20. Then the rest of the money is paid off from the sale of the cows at the cattle yard. With the system repaid, the funds can be used to assist another family. The communities goal is to have the system installed in 100 families homes.Here's the video clip of how the methane production works...and the wife lighting the burner. Warning - This is sort of gross - but also strangely cool...
