In 2007, Nam Dinh Province received assistance from the Dutch Government through the Netherlands Development Organization (SNV) to carry out a biogas project in the animal husbandry sector. In coordination with the provincial Department of Natural Resources and Environment and the Center for Clean Water and Rural Environmental Health under the Nam Dinh Department for Agriculture and Rural Development, the project’s management board has surveyed and selected suitable households to take part in the project.

Relevant authorities of Nam Dinh Province sent 10 technical workers and 20 teams of building workers from all districts and towns to training courses. After they finished the training courses, these workers have come back to Nam Dinh Province to take part in construction of biogas plants and installation of biogas equipment. Each household taking part in the project has been provided with financial assistance worth VND1.2 million to build a biogas plant (of this sum, VND625,000 comes from the project’s budget and the remainder from the provincial budget). In places where the project was developed, people took active part in the construction of biogas plants. Before they were put into use, biogas plants were checked carefully and at the same time users were provided with detailed instructions to ensure effective and safe operation of biogas plants.

For the past nearly four years, Nam Dinh Province has built more than 1,400 biogas plants, nearly 300 of which are based in Hai Hau District. The project’s management board said that all these biogas plants have been built in accordance with environmental health and technical standards set by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development. Aware of the good effects of using biogas plants, many people in Nam Dinh Province have shown their interest in the project. Statistics from relevant authorities show that since the beginning of 2010, nearly 500 people have registered to take part in the project and this number equals nearly one third of the total number of participants in the previous three years.

Currently, there are in Nam Dinh Province more than 500 farms of animal husbandry, most of which are based in places that are located between residential areas, and those who work in these farms pay almost no attention to environmental protection. Nam Dinh Province is encouraging local people to take active part in the biogas project. The province is calling for investment from different sources into biogas development. Participants in the project, especially those who live in coastal areas, have been guided to use low-priced materials that are suitable to their actual financial capacity when building biogas plants.

By Thuy Hang