More than 50 families in the Bharat Nagar ward of Tambaram municipality near Chennai are on cloud nine thanks to an innovative idea implemented by the local body authorities.
The ward, part of the Bharat Nagar slum which was infamous for its squalor and open defecation till 2012, has become the best maintained locality in the municipality. A public toilet, which has been lying in a dilapidated condition for more than seven years turned out to be the “game changer”.
Every morning Elayammal, Shanthi, Manjula, Rajathi and their neighbours cook breakfast and lunch in the modern community kitchen built by the municipal authorities in the ward. Gone are the days of firewood, kerosene, wood powder, smoke and ash. The granite and marble laden community kitchen boasts of 12 gas pollution free stoves with which they cook their meals in record time. “At a time 12 of us can cook here. It won’t take more than 15 minutes for us to cook our food,” said Shanthi.
These housewives do not spend a single rupee on cooking gas or any other fuel. The community kitchen is fuelled by methane gas generated in the revamped public toilet. “We renovated the toilet, built the community kitchen and a bio-digester at a total cost of `25 lakh,” said S Sivasubramanian, Tambaram Municipal Commissioner. It was a challenge for Sivasubramanian to go around the ward and convince the families to switch over to the community toilet which was in a pretty bad state.
The commissioner who was getting a lot of complaints about the lack of sanitation in the ward as most of the houses did not have toilets. “Instances of contagious diseases were high in this locality. We were out of ideas to handle the situation when Rajendran, a specialist in waste treatment, came with the proposal of building the community kitchen fuelled by methane gas,” he said.
VR Rajendran, who was reluctant to reveal his educational and professional background opened up his mind when asked about the community kitchen. “If you have a series of toilet units used by 200 or more persons, we can generate methane gas out of the human waste and use it as cooking gas. All we need to do is to build a bio-digester made of concrete and bricks underneath the toilet. Differences in temperature between the bio-digester and the outside will generate methane gas which could be released in a controlled manner to the cooking stoves,” explained Rajendran.
Rajendran has built five such units in Satyamangalam, Pollachi, Namakkal and Tiruchenkode in Tamil Nadu. “Probably ours is the first community kitchen in the country fuelled by methane gas generated from toilets. I am killing two birds with one stone. While these poor families can save money on cooking fuel, the area becomes free of open defecation,” said Rajendran.
He also said that the project would not have materialised but for Mahadevan Karikalan, the young municipal chairman of Tambaram. A civil engineer by profession, Karikalan could comprehend the scope of Rajendran’s proposal. “But convincing the people was a big challenge as this area was part of a slum,” said Karikalan. He took it as a challenge and visited all the houses in the ward with Sivasubramanian to create awareness among the residents.
The community kitchen has changed the lifestyle of Santhi, who used to spend `50 per day for firewood. “Now each of us pay `50 per month for the maintenance of the community kitchen and the toilets. More than 250 people in the ward make use of the public toilets,” she said.
Karikalan claims this could be replicated all over the country where there are slums and lack of sanitation. “It will not cost much to build and operate community kitchens and toilets in colonies like Bharat Nagar. The community kitchen has helped in creating a kind of camaraderie between the users who can improve their cooking skills as well as strengthen their friendship,” said Karikalan.
According to Rajendran, human waste generated in places like Tiruppati Temple in Andhra Pradesh, the shrine at Sabarimala in Kerala and the lord Murugan Temple at Palani could be used to generate electricity. “My studies prove that at least three MW power could be generated at Tiruppati. I have submitted a plan to the Kerala Government for setting up a 3 MW power plant at Sabarimala but I am yet to get any response,” he said.
One need not grimace at the thought of using methane gas generated in public toilets for cooking purpose. The community kitchen in Bharat Nagar is as clean as the kitchens using lPG or microwave ovens. “Open defecation, India’s main bane could be solved to a great extent by this technology,” said Karikalan.