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Three biogas plants inaugurated at Thandalam

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The Hindu      19.02.2015    

Three biogas plants inaugurated at Thandalam

Benefits are huge, says S. Kamaraj of TNAU

The biogas plant installed in the house of a beneficiary at Thandalam near Arakkonam.— Photo: C. Venkatachalapathy
The biogas plant installed in the house of a beneficiary at Thandalam near Arakkonam.— Photo: C. Venkatachalapathy

Three biogas plants, installed with the help of the Thandalam Yogashema Trust (TYT) and technical assistance of the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University (TNAU), were inaugurated in Thandalam, about 8 km from Arakkonam, on Wednesday.

The labour component of the installation of the plants was provided free of cost to beneficiaries K.S. Gopal, M. Balakrishnan and V. Rajagopal thanks to the construction of the plants by masons who underwent a 10-day training offered by TNAU in the village recently, according to S. Kamaraj, Head of the Department of Bio-Energy, TNAU, Coimbatore.

Mr. Gopal said he established a two-cubic meter biogas plant with the help of the trainee masons in December. He has three cows with which he was able to feed 25 kg of cow dung to the plant daily.

Mr. Balakrishnan has established a 4-cubic meter plant. With 20 cows, he is able to get 75 kg of cow dung to be fed to the plant daily.

Mr. Rajagopal has installed a 6-cubic meter plant. He too has 20 cows. “I get a steady supply of biogas from the plant,” he said.

Dr. Kamaraj said with these plants the beneficiaries would be able to save the cost of buying LPG for cooking. The 12 cubic meters of biogas, which they would be producing daily, was equivalent to 150 cylinders of LPG per annum. The manure in the form of slurry, which is a by-product of biogas, was equivalent to 30 bags of urea. They could also save on chemical fertilizers. They planned to take up vegetable cultivation by using the slurry as manure.

Radha Parthasarathy, Managing Trustee of TYT, said the establishment of the biogas plants was part of the rural development activities undertaken by the TYT with TNAU’s help as part of an MoU signed between the two institutions last year for imparting modern technology to farmers in the village.

The Trust hoped to expand its activities soon to the neighbouring Itchiputhur village whose president P. Gunapooshanam Palraj had evinced interest in the construction of hygienic individual toilets to eliminate open defecation.

 

Corpn. cleans Sanganoor Canal in stretches

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The Hindu     01.12.2014   

Corpn. cleans Sanganoor Canal in stretches

Sanganoor Canal in Coimbatore being desilted on Saturday.— Photo: K. Ananthan
Sanganoor Canal in Coimbatore being desilted on Saturday.— Photo: K. Ananthan

The Coimbatore Corporation has begun cleaning the Sanganoor Canal in stretches. The Canal runs for over 10 km within the city.

According to sources, the work has begun in Ward 10 in West Zone near the Mettupalayam Road – Sanganoor Road junction.

The work was for one-and-a-half km at Rs. 10 lakh. From the junction, the Corporation would clean the Canal till Periyar Nagar.

The reason for choosing the stretch was that it was full of bushes and that had obstructed the flow of water.

In Ganapathy in North Zone, the Corporation had decided to spend Rs. 19 lakh to clean the stretch from Maniakarampalayam to Ganapathy in two phases. At present, it was cleaning the Kattabomman Street stretch of the Canal.

The sources said that stretch to be cleaned measured around five km and covered Wards 40, 41, 46 and 47 in North Zone.

Likewise, the Corporation had planned to clean the Canal stretch near Sivananda Colony.

This area fell under the Central Zone, where the officials had prepared estimate for around Rs. 25 lakh.

They said that the Corporation wanted to clean the Canal with its funds without awaiting the State Government clearance for the funds and that was the reason that it had split the cleaning work in zonal packages for local financial approval.

If the project were to be taken as one package, the cost would surpass Rs. 1 crore, which was beyond the Corporation Council’s power to sanction projects.

Mayor P. Rajkumar said that the Corporation had taken up the project that was a long pending demand of people.

The Canal cleaning work would help easy drainage of flood waters.

But sources said that the civic body was executing the project at a time when the North East Monsoon was declining.

Ideally, it should have cleaned the Canal prior to the South West Monsoon as it would have helped in discharging rainwater and prevented inundation of low-level areas.

The State Government had recently approved of the Corporation’s proposal to lay a road on the Canal’s bank.

 

Bio-toilets: for cooking, irrigation too

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The Hindu        27.08.2014 

Bio-toilets: for cooking, irrigation too

A bio-toilet at a village in Panapuram panchayatin Salem.— PHOTO: P. GOUTHAM
A bio-toilet at a village in Panapuram panchayatin Salem.— PHOTO: P. GOUTHAM

The first bio-toilet in the district was constructed at a house in Panapuram panchayat in Mecheri block.

Under the Construction of Individual Household Latrine scheme of the Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan, which aims at sanitation in rural areas, the toilet costs Rs. 11,100.

The Centre’s share was Rs. 5,700, assistance from MGNREGS was Rs. 4,500, and the house owner contributed Rs. 900. The toilet consists a bio-digester having a capacity of 750 litre instead of the septic tank. It is filled with bacteria ‘inoculum’ that has a life of about 50 years. The bacteria decomposes the excreta and releases methane gas, and treated water.

The biogas can be used for cooking. The water for irrigation. Chinnathai (45), the house owner, said that no odour emanates from the tank. Officials said that they had simplified a bio toilet developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation to make it efficient, and cost-effective.

The toilet does away with manual disposal of human waste. It prevents the waste from seeping down and contaminating the groundwater.

Many from other States are visiting the place to study the functioning of the toilet. Project Director of District Rural Development Agency V. Ayyappan said after studying the functioning of the toilets for six months, the model would be recommended to the State Rural Development Department for implementing across the State. Currently 30 bio-toilets are being constructed in Edappadi block in the district, he added.

 


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