Different domestic biogas digester programmes have been implemented in Vietnam over the past 50 years, but none have achieved large scale dissemination or long term operational success. This is despite the fact that conditions in Vietnam are favourable for biogas, people are in favour of the technology and there are obvious needs for the benefits that biogas can provide. The Vietnamese government supports a significant growth of the livestock sector. Vietnam’s high population density means that a considerable amount of this growth will be in semi-urban areas (e.g. within the limits of rural villages). This is likely to have public and animal health implications due to increased smell and groundwater pollution. In addition, it is still common for people to use fuel wood and other biomass sources for cooking and heating purposes. The smoke that results from this does not only increase the amount of time spent cleaning cooking implements and kitchens, but also poses a serious health risk, particularly to women and children who spend the most time in the kitchen. The purchase or collection of biomass fuel sources is costly or time consuming, and there are severe time inefficiencies in using biomass fuel for domestic purposes. Against this background, the Vietnamese and Netherlands Governments signed a Memorandum of Understanding for the implementation of a domestic biogas dissemination project in 10 provinces of Vietnam in January 2003. The project –“Support Project to the Biogas Programme for the Agricultural Sector in some Provinces in Vietnam” or “BP I”- uniquely joined Vietnam’s technical knowledge on fixed dome plant design and construction with Netherlands’ experience with large-scale dissemination of domestic biogas.

Bibliographic information

Biogas Project Office (2006). BP I Final Report Biogas Project Office

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