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Guests like Pokhara's Hotel Barahi for its view of the surrounding mountains, but what few of them know is that the hotel's waste is used in its kitchen and bakery for cooking.
Hotel Barahi's backyard has been transformed into a biogas plant that converts kitchen and toilet waste into flammable methane gas for energy. Although biogas is popular in rural Nepal, Hotel Barahi has shown that even posh establishments can use this technology.
"The municipality is not regular with collecting waste here, and we had a huge problem with disposal," the hotel's manager, Biplov Poudel, explained. The biogas plant cost only Rs 600,000 to build and includes a waste collection system, an underground digester and pipes to take the gas to the kitchen.
"All the biodegradable waste goes into the plant," says Goranga Kaur, the hotel's chef. The waste from the kitchen and the sewage pipes makes its way into an underground tank that can produce enough gas to power a stove for five to eight hours a day providing for hotel guests and 100 staff. Kaur says the hotel's kitchen has been using the gas now for two and half years.
Khem Bahadur Roka who looks after the biogas plant says it is easy to maintain and operate. "We don't have to worry about garbage disposal either," he adds.
Says Poudel: "A biogas plant is the perfect solution to our waste management problem, and we save on our gas bills."
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