Biogas systems to help reduce environment pollution

On June 24, 2008, the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (DARD) of Ben Tre launched the project to build biogas systems in rural households to help reduce environment pollution. This year, the project is building 200 biogas systems in Chau Thanh, Giong Trom, Mo Cay, Cho Lach Districts and Ben Tre.It costs about VND 8,223,000 for a 10-m3 system and VND13,592,000 for a 20-m3 system. The household owners bear most of the cost, while subsidies from ODA (Official Development Aid) funds and provincial government budget are worth VND1 million for each system. Targeted households in the projects are those with cattle and/or poultry herds producing 20 kilogram of dung and up a day.

According to Mr Kieu Van Chue, Deputy Director of the DARD said that cattle and poultry waste could cause environment pollution and hinder the development of livestock raising. Every year, about one million tons of livestock dung is discharged into the environment. If not treated thoroughly, this can cause serious damage to the water, air and soil environments, and can affect remarkably to the community health.

So tackling environment pollution has been high in the province's priority list for the past few years.

There are some difficulties facing the provincial authorities such as low-tech treatment process, small amount of gas produced, the dung not thoroughly treated, etc.

The biogas will cooperate with the livestock raising households to build the biogas to prevent environment pollution, producing clean and cheap energy, contributing to reducing the usage of fossil fuel. In the long run, the biogas project also help improve the household economy and lift the livelihood for rural people.

Translated by Tuyet Anh