The students of government and aided schools across the state will
now learn something new on solid waste management other than what they
have learnt from their textbooks.

The Agriculture Department in
association with the Department of Education is installing biogas plants
on the premises of schools across the state. The primary aim of the
project, being implemented at a cost of Rs 8 crore, is to provide
cooking gas for preparing mid-day meals in schools and effective
biowaste management. The solid waste management through biogas plants
would also give insights to children on keeping the premises of schools
clean.

“This might not help in providing sufficient cooking gas
to meet the demand for preparing full meals of a day. But it would be
possible to meet part of the demand which would be of great solace to
the schools. The students would also learn on how to keep the school
premises clean in a more effective way,” Agriculture Department director
R Ajithkumar told Express.

Providing enriched organic manure to
the school vegetable gardens and creating a learning atmosphere for
students to convert residues from vegetable gardens into biogas and
organic manures are also the objectives of the project.

The
Agriculture Department has vegetable gardens in 2,500 schools across the
state. It is expected that the waste from the cultivation and food
waste can be effectively processed through the biogas plants.

The tender process to install the plants had begun and the project would be rolled out by February next year.

In
the first phase, it has been proposed to establish 3,825 portable
biogas plants in the same number of schools. It would depend upon the
availability of waste in schools and the interests of students and
teachers. The selection of schools for the construction of biogas plants
would be done by the Education Department while the agency to construct
the plants would be selected by the Agriculture Department.