Day 21

16 days of biogas cooking in Nepal

Cow and man - together against climate change Cow and man - together against climate change

16 days of biogas cooking in Nepal
Day 21
Reconstruction of small biogas plants in Nepal

In Nepal, two huge continental plates - the Indian and the Eurasian - meet. Together, they have not only created the largest mountain range in the world - the Himalayas, but they also cause repeated earthquakes. In spring 2015, there were two particularly strong earthquakes, which reached a total of 7.9 on the Richter scale. The consequences are still clearly visible today. The rural areas of Nepal were particularly badly affected by the damage. The earthquakes also destroyed many of the small biogas plants already in existence in Nepalese households. They are important for a clean energy supply in households, because the dung from one cow is enough to run them and enable an entire family to cook with biogas.

Reconstruction of small biogas plants in Nepal
need
Repair of the biogas plants destroyed by the earthquake to produce renewable biogas and fertilizer for every household.
activity
Purchasing spare parts and commissioning local craftsmen to repair the system.
Measurable performance
Number of small biogas plants that could be repaired.
Result
Cooking with biogas from your own biogas plant makes households independent and reduces the financial and health burdens associated with purchasing firewood.
Systemically relevant impact
The health of users improves. Local forests are protected and climate change is not further exacerbated.
background

Around 64,000 houses in the Sindhupalchok region were severely damaged by the 2015 earthquake (reliefweb, 2015). Before the disaster, many of the small farmers had invested in a biogas plant, which made them independent of the fluctuating price of firewood and supplied the household with renewable biogas.

Due to a lack of alternatives and the destruction of the facilities, local people are using collected or purchased firewood for cooking. Since then, wood has been in high demand again and is therefore expensive. Families often have to either spend a large part of their income on firewood or spend a lot of time collecting it. The increased use of wood leads to deforestation in the region and the burning of wood indoors leads to harmful smoke pollution. The resulting CO2 emissions contribute to global climate change. Problems that had already been solved with the company's own biogas plant.

Sindhupalchok, Nepal
Day 21 Day 21
The good deed

Thanks to this good deed, biogas plants in rural Nepal are being repaired and put back into operation. The biogas plant produces methane (biogas) from cow dung, which can be used directly in the kitchen on a small gas stove. The biogas plants reduce a family's wood requirements and the CO2 emissions that would have been generated by burning firewood. Taking into account the repair costs of a plant and the expected lifespan of the plant, the donation means that a family can cook with clean biogas for 16 days. Compared to burning firewood, biogas is cleaner because it burns efficiently and without soot. This protects the health of the users. At the end of the process, the cow dung comes out of the biogas plant as digested sludge and can be used by the users as fertilizer for the fields. This increases the production of food and feed on the farm and the farmers' earning potential.

AboutNepal
Kathmandu
Kathmandu
Capital city
29 305 000
29 305 000
Population
2.471
2.471
Gross domestic product per capita per year
149
149
Human Development Index (Human Development Index)

In addition to Mount Everest, the highest mountain in the world, seven of the ten highest mountains in the world are located in Nepal. 124 different languages and dialects are spoken in the country.