While housewives are still coming to grips with the Centre's decision to restrict the number of subsidised LPG cylinders in a year, the Confederation of Real Estate Developers' Associations of India (Credai) has come up with a project which could allow families to dispense with the use of LPG altogether for their cooking .
The Credai Clean City Movement spearheaded by its executive director, Jose Joseph, is working to turn night soil into cooking gas using bio-gas units at 225 locations across the state, including new houses and villas being built by several developers.
The bio-gas plant linked to the septic tank of a household can help meet the fuel needs of a five- member family, according to Joseph. “Houses under construction can install a bio-gas plant for upto `48,000 and also use their kitchen waste as fodder for the unit," he explains, adding that there is no foul smell either from the septic tank or the gas as feared.
Moreover, as the septic tanks are made of either fibre or cement , there is no contamination of the soil or water around them, he says. “When two houses on small plots are built close to each other, chances of the well of one house being too close to the septic tank of the other are high.
With the bio-gas unit, there will be no contamination of the well water,” Joseph maintains.
Even the water from the unit can be used for gardening after it is treated using a sock-pit filled with metal and coal and then exposed to UV rays, according to him.
But such bio-gas units can be established in homes only if their septic tanks are not on low ground prone to flooding, he warns. So far “bio- bins” have been installed in 750 flats to produce gas in small units for limited cooking.