How can such a project reduce poverty and its impacts, help eradicate extreme hunger, alleviate poverty and maintain environmental integrity? According to a Nigerian, the managing Director of World Bank, 550 million people in sub Saharan Africa have poor access to energy which in turn affects economic growth and poverty alleviation.
The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) 1997 Report, Energy After Rio: Prospects and Challenges identified community biogas plants as one of the most useful decentralized sources of energy supply. Unlike the centralized energy supply technologies, such as power plants based on hydroelectricity, coal, oil or natural gas, that have hitherto been the only choices open to rural communities, biogas plants do not require big capital to set up, and do not pose environmental problems that excite public opposition. Instead, in most cases, they offer solutions to existing environmental problems, and many unexpected benefits besides.
For more interesting reports on the subject, visit: http://www.i-sis.org.uk/BiogasBonanza.php