The expansion of the biogas plant on Jahangirnagar University (JU) campus has been put on hold due to non-availability of required garbage and wastes, authority said.
The bio-gas plant, which was built in 2009, is now supplying gas to nearly 50 households on the campus, using biogas generated from household garbage in and around the campus.
Nearly 100kgs of organic fertiliser is also produced from the plant which is used for different flower and vegetable gardens on the campus.
Environmental Science department Prof Khabir Uddin, also the convener of the gas plant, first took the initiative to build the biogas plant in 2005.
Failing to get financial aid, Prof. Uddin built the biogas plant from his own resources in 2009. In the meantime Grameen Shakti, a non-government organisation (NGO), with the assistance of Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), came up with financial support.
At present the wastes which are used in the plant come from the students' dormitories, teachers' quarters and different hotels and shops on the campus.
Prof. Uddin said, "We provided three containers to all the students' dormitories and the teachers, officers and employees quarters for collecting garbage daily."
"Among the containers one is a plastic pot where decomposed waste is kept, another is red where poisonous wastes are kept and the other is green where the recyclable wastes are kept."
Earlier, the campus residents used to throw their garbage here and there which contaminated the environment but after providing the containers at different places on the campus people keep the wastes in the containers which have helped keep JU environment free from pollution, he mentioned.
However the expected amount of gas is not available now as most of the people, especially the hotel owners and the shopkeepers are still not aware about keeping their daily wastes in the containers.
Recently Bangladesh Public Administration Training Center (BPATC) has agreed to provide their daily wastes, with some financial assistance, to the JU bio-gas plant which will help the plant produce more gas, sources said said.
JU Vice-chancellor (VC) Prof. Farzana Islam said, "JU is a model for the country in this regard. As we manage our waste we can live in a clean environment and we can enjoy fresh air."
Grameen Shakti's Noyon Ahmed said, "Though we can't produce a huge amount of gas due to the lack of garbage, we hope we can supply gas around 100 families using our machineries if we find available wastes."
A user of gas from the plant Parul Aktar said, "At first when the gas plant started to provide gas, we got a lot of it for our daily household work but now we are facing some problem with its availability."
Mohammad Ajim, the coordinator of the plant said, "Earlier most of the employees used to do their cooking with illegal electricity connections, for which the JU authority had to pay a huge amount of electricity bill. But as they now get the benefit of gas they do not use illegal electricity."
He said. "If the JU authority helps us properly we will able to produce a handsome amount of gas every day."
However, most of the gas users complained that when the gas plant was built they got unlimited gas but they do not get the expected gas now.
Expansion of JU biogas plant put on hold
JU Correspondent | Published: March 06, 2014 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2026 06:01:00
Share if you like