<i>Majpara becomes first 'bio-gas union'</i>
A housewife at Majpara village in Majpara union of Atghoria upazila under Pabna district cooks at a biogas burner as the union with 101 sucs plants has been declared the country's first 'biogas union'.Photo: STAR
Mili Khatun, a housewife of Majpara village in Atghoria upazila under Pabna district, cooks in a gas stove although there is no connection of natural gas in this village, thanks to the introduction of biogas plant. Besides saving daily fuel cost of about Tk 50, it rids her of the health hazard caused by smoke produced in wood-burning cooker. One hundred other families of Majpara union are using gas stoves with the help of biogas plants. Fisheries and Livestock Minister Abdul Latif Bishwas announced Majpara as the country's first 'biogas union' at a programme organised by Infrastructure Development Company Ltd (IDCOL), a government owned organisation, on Majpara School premises on May 28. He attended as chief guest at the programme marking the first 'hundred household coverage' of biogas plants in a union and the inauguration 'Biogas Week-2010'. IDCOL sources said 12 thousand biogas plants have already been set up across the country while they have a plan to set up 37.7 thousand biogas plants within 2012. “The union which sets at least one hundred biogas plants, will be declared 'biogas union'. Covering the target, Majpara union has become the first 'biogas union' in the country,” Nazmul Haque Faysal, an official of IDCOL, told this correspondent. Seventy percent people of the country who live in villages are deprived of natural gas connection facility. They generally use wood as fuel, consuming wood worth about Tk 12 thousand crore every year, speakers said at the programme. Biogas plants bear bright prospect as it will save forests and reduce health risks, especially for rural women, they said. “Cooking in wood stoves required wood worth Tk 50 daily. Besides, it produced huge smoke and made me suffer from diseases very often. Now I can easily cook in a gas burner. It saves my money and reduces health risk. Natural fertiliser produced from this plant helps fish cultivation in a two-bigha pond which brings extra income for my family,” Mili Khatun told this correspondent as he visited her residence on May 28. With the help of a local NGO, Mili Khatun set the plant in 2008 at a cost of Tk 30 thousand while IDCOL gave her Tk 9 thousand as subsidy. Hundred other families in the village also set biogas plants with NGO assistance and government subsidy. The government is assisting villagers in setting up biogas plants because it saves the fuel cost and produces natural fertiliser that helps cultivation, Minister Latif Bishwas said in his speech as the chief guest at the programme on May 28. Chairman of IDCOL, also secretary of Economic Relations Department, Md Mosharaf Hossain chaired the programme while lawmaker from Pabna-4 constituency Shamsur Rahman Sharif Dilu, Chairman of the steering committee of National Home-Biogas Project Maj Gen (retd) Amzad Khan Chowdhury, IDCOL Executive Director Islam Sharif and Atghoria upazila parishad Chairman Abdul Gafur Miah spoke, among others.
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