Indonesia, in cooperation with the Dutch government, is working to develop alternative energy from livestock waste for local farmers’ household needs on Lombok Island, West Nusa Tenggara (NTB).
The Dutch government is represented by HIVOS (Humanist Institute for Development Cooperation) Regional Office of Southeast Asia (ROSEA).
The program, called Household Biogas (Biru), has enabled a number of cattle-farming communities in Nyiur Lembang village, Narmada district, West Lombok, to use biogas, processed from cattle droppings.
Touted as environment-friendly and safe, compared to liquid petroleum gas (LPG), household biogas can also save residents, mostly in the low-income bracket, from spending money on kerosene for cooking.
“Each family needs around 10 liters of kerosene for cooking weekly. If a liter costs Rp 4,000 (about 40 US cents), we have to spend Rp 160,000 monthly for kerosene. Using biogas is more economical because we don’t have to buy the cow dung,” Suryati, 48, a housewife in Nyiur Lembang, said, adding that she had used biogas for the past two months.
To use biogas, she puts around 3 kilograms of dung into an underground tank connected to the gas tank. The gas is channeled to the stove at home through the pipes.
“It can work up to six hours daily,” Suryati told The Jakarta Post.
Suryati’s family keeps two cows, and she said she never expected the dung, which used to be annoying, to be a benefit.
Nyiur Lembang village chief Warti Asmunadi acknowledged the program’s benefit for villagers, 50 percent of whom are livestock farmers.
“As many as 49 percent of the 1,004 families in the village are categorized as poor. Around 50 percent of them are cattle farmers, so they really benefit from the biogas program, especially in saving costs on kerosene,” he said.
He said the use of biogas was becoming popular because using LPG (Liquified Petroleum Gas), bottled in 3 kilogram canisters, had them cautions of explosions.
“They are afraid of using LPG after seeing news on TV of the frequent gas explosions,” he said.
HIVOS Bali-Lombok Biru Biogas program officer M. Ali Ikhsan said the program commenced in May 2009 in West Java, Central Java Yogyakarta, East Java and South Sulawesi, and launched in Bali and Lombok at the end of last year.
“This is a government-to-government program, in which the Dutch government has recommended livestock producing provinces, including Bali and Lombok, to be included in the program,” he said.
Lombok is currently home to 81 Biru plants, located in West, East and Central Lombok regencies.
“We intend to build 500 reactors in Lombok by 2012,” said Ikhsan.
HIVOS provides a subsidy of Rp 2.5 million to install each reactor, while the residents pay the remaining Rp 3.5 million to the total installation cost of Rp 5.5 million.
Panca Nugraha, 03/24/2011