Over the moon with the cows

A biogas plant brings electricity,water to a Punjab village

Till a few years ago,villagers of Channuwala in Punjabs Moga district battled electricity cutsunable to afford the monthly electricity billsand consequently,a grave water shortage.

Then Jatinder Singh,or more precisely,his 1,500 cows stepped forward. Inspired by the biogas plant at his farm,the villagers got together and now the cowdung produced by Singhs cattle is helping generate uninterrupted electricity at a biogas plant in Channuwala. Moga Additional Deputy Commissioner Joram Beda,an IAS officer,helped coordinate the project with Singh.

Of Channuwalas population of 3,600 people,1,400 live in Garib Basti and have benefited the most from the scheme.

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The generator,run on biogas,also runs the water pumps,thus bringing water to all the houses in the village.

Beda says while they were wondering how to generate enough dung to make the project viable,Jatinder Singh came to me and said that he would happily contribute all the cow dung produced in his dairy farm for the village bioelectric generator.

We started this as a pilot project in Channuwala and now it has become a role model, says Beda.

Jatinder Singh recounted that his father started with just one cow around 38 years ago. Singh is now not only a successful businessman,with the biggest dairy farm in the village,but also a block samiti member.

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The problem was grave as poor families did not have even Rs 100 to pay as monthly bill. With all the unpaid bills,electricity would be cut off every few days, says Singh. This generator can run for eight hours and now the village gets water supply for four hours a day, says Singh.

Singh too gains as the two trolleys full of cow dung that he supplies to the bioelectric generator daily ultimately lands back in his fields as manure. Earlier I had to dig a pit and wait for weeks for the dung to turn into manure,but now,after being used in a biogas feeder,the residue left is manure in a few hours, he says.