The Chinese government will fund 2.6 million more rural households to build
methane pits, which provide clean energy and protect local environment, in 2007,
according to the Ministry of Agriculture.
Wei Chao'an, vice minister of
agriculture, said that the 2.6 million rural households would be selected from
the western and major grain producing regions in the country.
The
government will grant a subsidy ranging from 800 yuan (about 100 U.S. dollars)
to 1,200 yuan for each household to build one pit, in view of their locations,
Wei said.
Governmental statistics show that a total of 18 million rural
families had each built a methane pit by the end of 2005.
An
eight-cubic-meter methane pit can provide 80 percent of the energy used by a
four-member family in cooking annually. The 18 million methane pits produce
energy equivalent to 10.9 million tons of coal and save 3.96 million hectares of
forest.
Since the 1970s, China has been promoting the use of methane
pits to process rural organic wastes.
Dunghill, which were common in
most of rural China in the past, are no longer seen in places where people have
built methane pits.
Wei said, methane pits changed human and animal
wastes into "treasure"-- the gas generated in the pits is piped out for cooking,
heating and even for lighting.
In the mean time, methane pits also serve
as an important method to control spread of schistosomiasis and pig-borne
bacteria streptococcus suis as well as other diseases in rural area, Wei said,
adding that test shows methane pits can completely kill schistosome eggs.
According to the Ministry of Agriculture, there would be 50 million methane
pits by 2010.
According to plan, the Ministry of Agriculture will select
10,000 villages to conduct pilot energy recycling projects, which are expected
to popularize the use of clean energy and raise the treatment of wastes in rural
areas.
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