A sincere gesture can be enough to do a great job

Amanur Aman, Back From Daulatpur

It was beyond the dream of poor people on an isolated shoal on the Padma.

Only five months ago, they used to take meal and finish all evening chores under flickering kerosene lamps. And life stopped there for the rest of the night.

Now, the whole village with over 3000 people remains lively till late night. Electricity from a biogas plant has changed their life. Unlike city dwellers they are free from the curse of loadshedding.

Use of biogas plant is not new in the country. But power generation from such a plant and its use by so many households is certainly something great for the downtrodden.

It has been possible due to the effort of a man of the village-- Mohamad Ali--an expatriate in Saudi Arabia. The benevolent man has spent his life's savings of Tk 25 lakh to remove darkness from his village, the beneficiaries said.

The story is of a village named 'Padmar Char' in Ramkrishnapur union in Daulatpur upazila. This union is detached from the upazila headquarters by Padma river, which flows around it.

Ramkrishnapur was once part of the mainland. Thirteen years back, the mighty Padma changed its course causing erosion across the upazila, isolating 18 villages in the union from the upazila headquarters. Since then, these villages were deprived of all facilities from the upazila headquarters and people there have to walk about 6 kilometers and cross the Padma to come to Daulatpur upazila headquarters.

Mohamad Ali went to Saudi Arabia to seek fortune 16 years ago, where he works as an electrician. When he came back to his village, he often thought to 'do something' for the deprived people.

In August last year, Ali came to the village on a five-month leave.

Based on his experience, Ali thought of producing power from biogas for his people. He contacted officials of Bangladesh Biogas Diploma Engineer's Association (BBDA) and its Kushtia unit secretary Safiqul Islam.

He also visited a Biogas plant in Bogra used for domestic purpose.

Ali with Saiful's, help drew a plan for biogas plant to generate power.

He first set up a dairy farm with 150 cows to collect dung and constructed a big a big 'digester tank' with 'inlet' and 'outlet' faces.

Cow dung is poured into 'digester tank' through the 'inlet face', where gas is produced.

A biogas tank has been built at the 'outlet face' of the 'digester', which can contain 25000 cft biogas. A 1600 cc (cubic power) generator has been set up, which produces power by using the biogas through a pipeline.

At least 50 kilowatt electricity is being generated there, which is supplied to the households. Primary schools, mosques and markets in five villages in Ramkrishnapur union now also get electricity from the plant.

The villagers pay Tk 50 for each bulb, which they use at will. But they are very conscious not to misuse the power and take care of the whole system like their own property. About Tk 25,000 is earned from the consumers per month.

Villagers are very happy. As a gratitude to Mohammad Ali they have renamed the area Saudi Ali Para.

Gopinath S
Chief Executive
nRG Consulting Services
Bangalore, India
Ph: 9180 26698211
Mob: 91 98455 11648
Website: http://business.vsnl.com/gopinath
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