The first ever biogas plant in The Gambia has been unveiled in Sukuta Wednesday.
The project, a donation from Indian companies URJA Bio SYSTEMS from Puni, and their partners in West Africa TRISP Africa, is handed to the Sukuta Health Center and the community to help them access renewable energy as well as serve as a pilot project that would inspire private sector and government to go into renewable energy on a bigger scale.
Gajanan Patil, CEO of Urja Bio System from India, informed the audience that it was Pikou Punjabi of TRISP AFRICA who told them about the need for renewable energy in The Gambia.
“And that is why we select this location to demonstrate to the country that waste can be made into useful energy and fertilizer for farming.
“We are converting biodegradable waste into energy from biogas into pure and clean energy. This plant here is fed with 40kg of cow dung and it generates 2 cubic meters biogas daily, which in turn generates 1.2kg LPG per day of clean fuel; meaning 30kg fuel per month to serve this health center with energy for cooking. This is just a demonstration but we want to introduce the technology on a bigger scale so that other wastes from the market, abattoir and other places can be recycled to provide energy for our homes and hotels,” he told a widely marveled audience.
The Councilor of Sukuta Ward, Lamin Sanyang thanked Pikou Punjabi of TRISP AFRICA and his collaborators for testing the novelty facility in Sukuta.
Alieu Bah of the Gambian Embassy in India and a native of Sukuta praised the Indians for successfully piloting the project as a wonderful donation to his community.
A representative of the Regional Health Office praised the Indians for choosing the health centre for the project.
Pikou Punjabi of TRIPS AFRICA said the technology is the solution to manage waste as well as provide clean energy for cooking and for electrification of otherwise deprived areas, in addition to providing manure to enhance farming with greater ease and high productivity.
Omar Sey, a former minister of health familiar with the technology said The Gambia will greatly improve its renewal energy need through this initiative.
