Amongst the most significant developmental and environmental challenges India faces relate to energy and waste. These have many dimensions but let us focus only on the most obvious as they lie almost hidden even in front of our eyes. India’s waste, whether urban or rural, is becoming a scar on our landscape and health threatening and a problem which threatens to go out of control.
Meanwhile, India faces a potential crisis of energy security even as we spend thousands of crores not only on importing fertilisers and gas but also giving subsidies for them.
India generates over 700 million tons of agricultural residue, 150 million tons of municipal solid waste and rising, 1.2 billion tons of cattle dung and 26.4 million litres of sewage annually. This waste, generated in our farms or accumulating in rising urban landfills or polluting our water sources through leaks and lack of treatment, has the potential of producing 62 millions of tons of pure biogas while cleaning our cities and environment, reducing methane emissions, increasing farmer incomes, generating thousands of jobs, creating a large nation-wide medium scale industryand saving 30-40000 cr in imports and subsidies.
Biogas thus has transformative potential and it's a clear win-win. The time has come not only to recognise this but to ensure it is systematically and urgently harnessed fully and bring about the much-awaited revolution of wealth from waste.
Despite all this potential biogas seems to be lying at the periphery of energy planning with most conversations being about solar and nuclear power. What then is the problem? Technology is not, though standardisation and certifications are needed.
Investment funds would be available when policy makes projects viable. The problem appears to be lack of awareness, regulatory neglect and lack of capacity, especially in urban bodies. All layers of Government are involved — central, State and local bodies, departments work in institutional silos and there is little convergence. Financial incentives are insufficient.
There have been many bold policy pronouncements — Swach Bharat, GOBArdhan, Namani Gange, SATAT, and SBM 2.0. But these work in isolation and each has gaps, which are being sought to be individually addressed.
Closing these gaps requires policy integration, decisive thrust towards filling the policy gaps and focusing on implementation challenges and a national recognition that biogas is not a peripheral technology but a critical instrument in our battle against the multi sector challenges the country is facing.
It could thus be seen that biogas is not only about energy and the environment. It should be seen as a crucial and important part of our overall national development strategy and something that is going to positively impact millions of lives. It supports all our developmental goals — SDG, Atmanirbhar Bharat, Viksit Bharat by 2047 and Net Zero by 2070. The country needs to awake to this massive problem, the challenge and the opportunity.
Routine or not doing enough is no longer an option. It requires, therefore, a mission approach prepared and implemented with missionary zeal and the sooner we start the better. Next: Treating Urban Waste
Mr Deepak Gupta, IAS (Retd), Ex Secretary, Ministry of New and Renewable Energy and Ex-Chairman, UPSC, and Dr D.K. Khare, Ex-Advisor (Bioenergy), Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, Govt of India and Incharge of India chapter of World Biogas Association, UK; views are personal
