Site Selection
On 01 March 2011, Grameen Shakti officials visited Faridpur municipal area along with the delegates from PEAR Carbon Offset Initiative Limited and Bureau VERITAS. During the visit, the honorable Mayor of Faridpur municipal area expressed his keen interest about the proposed biogas project and assured to provide all kind of support and cooperation to Grameen Shakti for implementing this project. The Mayor also proposed an existing landfill site and another piece of plain land for the biodigesters. Both sites are just off the main road with very good transportation facilities. Final decision regarding the site selection will be taken upon further discussion with Faridpur Municipal Authority.
Technical & Legal Facts
In the Faridpur Municipality around 90% people are dependent on biomass for everyday cooking as there is no natural gas supply. Moreover, the alternative fuels like kerosene and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) are expensive for most of the people. A study showed that 4.24Â tons fuel-wood were consumed per family per year in Bangladesh. That means the proposed project will save around 1,275 tons of biomass every year. Subsequently, the proposed project will reduce the CO2 emission by 3,500 tons approximately every year. There are quite a number of wood shops in the Faridpur municipality area which causes serious deforestation and others environmental problems around the neighborhood.
The Environmental Conservation Rules of Bangladesh has been carefully studied and received the clearance certificate from the Department of Environment regarding this project and the local authority verbally agreed to sign a MOU with Grameen Shakti concerning this project.
Waste Management
The Faridpur municipal area is excluded from the government's waste composting programme which alternatively forced to create un-engineered landfill sites. On the subject of current practice of waste management, municipality collects the wastes from the households and dumps it to the existing landfill sites which causes severe odor nuisance and emits CH4 and other hazardous gases. Moreover, these landfill sites cause visual instruction to the municipality dwellers.
The Faridpur Municipality has already divided the whole area into 64 sub-areas and provided 1 collection van in each sub-area. Their current collection capacity is about 14 tons per day which becomes 20 tons per day at the moment. According to the municipal officials, 75% of the municipal wastes are organic. Therefore, the total amount of the organic waste from the Faridpur Municipality is about 15 tons and only 12 tons would be required to operate the proposed biodigesters. Water requirement for the biodigesters will be provided by the municipally with their existing water supply system.
Community's Perception
Grameen Shakti could not arrange stakeholder consultation meeting due to municipality election at Faridpur. Instead, Dr. Golam Rabbani of Grameen Shakti conducted survey on 20 experts and relevant organizations and 30 male as well as 20 female households at Faridpur
Water Requirements
The river Padma passed through the Faridpur sub-district and there are a number of canals around the municipal area which make the surface water available for the municipality dwellers. The Faridpur Municipal Authority assured Grameen Shakti to provide sufficient water supply for the proposed biodigesters.
