Kolhapur Adopts Biogas Toilets

Background: The city of Kolhapur (Maharashtra) is highly benefiting from its progress in the adoption of biogas toilets.

About Biogas Toilets in Kolhapur

The Bio-Toilet is the one which connects to the Biogas system, which is an off-grid appliance that turns organic waste into cooking gas.
The Biogas system takes waste such as food scraps and animal manure using a biological process, and turns that into gas.
The journey in Kolhapur began in 2014, during the launch of Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, when the district authority took the initiative of establishing biogas-linked toilets.
Challenges faced in pursuance of Biogas Toilets:
- Authorities faced difficulties in changing the mindset of the people.
- Lack of knowledge, cultural or psychological beliefs, and religious beliefs hampered the initial adoption process.
- Myths or taboo about the foul smell, faeces visibility, and contaminated food cooked on Biogas, needed to be tackled.
Benefits from adoption of Biogas Toilets:
- Reduced their dependency on firewood.
- Elimination of the need to visit public toilets.
- Benefit from the cooking process has also allowed the villagers to spend more time and energy in increasing their sources of income.
- Slurry released by biogas plants acts as manure and has successfully reduced the expenditure of urea.
It reduced the need for frequent cleaning of tanks.
The case study of Kolhapur region demonstrates how the production system uses organic matter to produce bio-methane, which has highly benefited the lives of people and that of the environment.
There is a need for more such Biogas Toilet installations, on a macro level to encourage sustainable development in the country.