China's green push starts at the bottom

CHINA - The local speciality in the Liajiang valley, in western China, is fatty pork. It's not terribly good for you, but it is delicious.

So it's not not surprising that the people here value their pigs. And they've now found a use for them apart from in the cooking pot.

Liajiang is rural China at its most pristine, with families living in traditional courtyard houses and working the fertile land at the foot of the jagged and snow-capped Yulong mountain.

The pigs who live with them inevitably produce a lot of muck.

But muck contains lots of energy, and some 10,000 families are putting it to good use: shovelling it up and putting it in a pit in their backyards. There it stews, brewing methane gas which flows along a small rubber pipe directly into the kitchen stove.

For these families, there's no need for firewood and a good deal less smoke.

Source: BBC

29 March 2006