Our colleagues Gert Crielaard and Linda Lap are in India and travel on to Bagepalli where the campus of our other local partner ADATS is located. Here too it is striking that the area is very dry during the rainy season. The director of ADATS Ram Esteves says that the drought has a great impact on the local population. There are families who have to sell their cattle because there is insufficient income. That's hard to hear.
In the coming days we will visit a number of villages to view the progress of the project and to talk to the locals. In Besthalapalli we talk to Adilaxmamma, a forty-year-old married woman with four children. Three daughters are married off and now live in other villages in the area and her son lives with his wife in the parental home that is common here. Her in-laws also live in her house. A slightly larger space than the houses we have seen in a cottage for Indian rural concepts with a space for cooking and a separate living / sleeping area.
In the living space where we are received, there is a meeting going on for women from the village who have access to a biogas installation. Every week the women come together to discuss various topics, such as care facilities, education of the children and of course the operation of the biogas installation.
The women enthusiastically tell us about the benefits of using biogas for cooking and the challenges they face. The benefits are much greater than expected and that has to do with saving time. Previously, the women spend a full three days a week in neighboring forests to gather wood and cut into smaller pieces. Long distances were covered for which up to 10 kilos of wood had to be carried home on the head, a huge burden. Now that no wood needs to be used for cooking, this time can be used to generate extra income. To earn extra money, for example, women sew leaves together to make plates that are sold at the local market.
In addition, cooking itself also saves time. In the old situation where cooking was done on an open wood fire, it took an average of 2 hours to prepare a meal. By using biogas, the preparation of a meal is shortened to 30-45 minutes.
The greatest challenge currently facing women is the drought in the region. Due to the drought, no crops grow and agricultural activities are not possible. If there is insufficient income, families have to sell their cattle, but they need the manure for the biogas plant. A cow provides enough fertilizer per day to cook for a family of 4-5 people.
Another problem comes to light when we visit the village of Ammagripalli the next day where a biogas plant is being repaired. The slurry has dried up and must be loosened, otherwise the cement from the biogas dome may crack. With a large mixer and lots of water, this problem is solved by an ADATS employee. One of the few problems with the very solid biogas installations.
All in all, cooking on biogas appears to be a very good investment for local households. The investment has many positive effects in areas such as health, income, education, local employment, preservation of local forests and biodiversity. People are proud to be cooking on biogas. They feel rich.
FairClimateFund always takes the CO₂ footprint of its journeys into account as much as possible. We visit our projects at most once a year to discuss the progress with our local partners. We always compensate our (project) trips with our Fairtrade Carbon Credits.