Rebuilding Liujiaba Canal and using biogas in Xincheng Village, Hunan, China
Church World Service and
Amity Foundation (AF)
Some 202 families (997 people) in Xincheng Village, Longshan County, Hunan, China, are participating in a project to rehabilitate a canal and develop biogas as a fuel alternative.
The two-mile long Liujiaba canal was built by the community in 1952 and has since deteriorated to the point where only a small portion of it is providing water for crop irrigation, delivering small amounts of water to only 50 of the 165 acres of fields that the families farm. About half of the canal needs to be rebuilt so the rest of the farmers' plots can receive adequate water. Rebuilding the canal will help the farmers to increase their farm yields and improve their families' lives.
One-hundred twenty of the families are learning how to ferment and use biogas for household needs. This will help them save money on fuel, and help preserve the nearby forests. Many in the community find it difficult to afford coal, gas, or electricity for cooking, and firewood collection is depleting forest resources.
Each family raises two or more pigs, or a cow, and collects the waste to put in an eight cubic meter tank with water for fermentation into biogas. Each tank can produce 500 cubic meters of biogas per year. Each year, the 120 biogas tanks can protect 80 acres of trees.
Through the project, the farmers have found an economical and environmentally-friendly energy resource that will be meaningful to the life and environment of the area, along with maximizing the water available for farming. The biogas project helps to reduce carbon dioxide emissions because less wood is burned, and generates more income through activities like organic fertilizer production.
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Updated 3/26/2008
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