FAF Developmentss has reached out to a poor rural area in Costa Rica to provide technical assistance to Pelón and his family to improve their sewage system. FAF added a biodigester to their house, which allows the organic house waste to undergo anareobic digestion, a common chemical process that decays biological waste in the absence of air. This is a simple, practical, sustainable, and low-cost solution, with numerous concrete benefits.
The biodigester not only eliminates the wastes from their home, but also supplies them with methane gas, which provides both environmental and economical benefits. “Thanks to the biodigester I no longer have to worry about polluting my surroundings and I won’t ever need to cut down more trees to cook. My family and I can spend more time taking care of the cattle, vegetables, and maybe my little girls can join a school” expressed Pelón. Methane is an excellent replacement for firewood as it combusts into water vapor and carbon dioxide, which are both clean gasses. The family’s kitchen will no longer be filled with smoke that adversely affects their health. The biodigester generates fertilizer, which the family will be using for their vegetable garden. The biodigester is truly an essential part of a household’s sustainability.
FAF took the time to design and build a continuous biodigester which allows biomass to be interminably added throughout the process, which is requires almost no maintainance. Although the biodigester facilitates complex biological processes, all the materials for its construction were found at the hardware store in the local village. This project was a complete success as it cost less than one-hundred US Dollars to build.
The lessons learned, technical expertise and ingenuity required for this installation, can be applied and replicated to large scale development projects. The biodigester will benefit and improve the livelihood of everyone, disregarding their socio-economic class. Pelón is one example of the many families that can be helped thanks to the biodigester.
Pelón and his family enjoy their new biodigester