KOCHI: At a time when mega waste treatment plants worth hundreds of crores of rupees are collapsing by the dozen, the little biogas plant at Government Ayurvedic Hospital, Fort Kochi, holds out an important lesson for both town planners and citizens alike. The biogas plant worth about `6 lakh is now the sole source of fuel and cooking gas at the hospital.“On an average 150 patients visit the hospital daily. The medicine for all these patients are prepared here. Besides this, all the medicines for the in-patients, including various potions for massages and hot water, are also prepared here. Food, tea and other items for the inmates too are also cooked using the fuel,” said Dr K B Bini, physician at the hospital.The hospital has four stoves, all of which work with the gas from the plant. The main stove in the kitchen is put on at 6 am and it functions till late in the evening. Everyday the main stove alone churns out as much as 80 litres of ‘kashayam’. The biogas plant has also brought down the treament cost for the patients. “Earlier patients had to buy kerosene for the stoves while preparing medicines here. Every week there will be about five ‘kizhi.’ For this, each patient had to bring three litres of kerosene. Normally there will be 14 in-patients. This would mean that 52 litres of kerosene is needed a week for the ‘kizhi’ alone. Now the bigas plant has come as a boon for patients,” says Sayeed Kutty, hospital attendant.The plant was part of the corporation’s scheme to build around nine biogas plants in the city. But as of now, the only the plant at the ayurvedic hospital is functioning. “We installed around nine biogas plants spending `50 lakh in 2006. But while most others failed, this one has become a role model. One of the factors which made it a success is that it is built above the ground,” said Corporation Health Standing Committee chairman T K Ashraf.The plant is now maintained by Grow Green International, on a contract-basis for a period of three years. But the company has not been paid for the maintenance even after 18 months. "When we got this plant, it was disfunctional like the other ones in the city. But we repaired and are taking care of dumping the waste every day and maintaining the slurry. But the corporation has not given us any financial assistance. We have been frequenting the corporation office for months now. But to no avail,” says A D Sanu, biogas plant in-charge at Grow Green.
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