The Editor, Sir:

Sometime in the mid-70s, I read about a design developed by the then College of Arts, Science and Technology where pig farmers could use faecal waste from their pig pens to produce biogas (60-70 per cent methane). Quite a few working digesters were actually built and I remember hearing of a farmer that used the biogas to run a power generator on his farm.

We have a serious environmental problem with the millions of gallons of untreated sewage that enters our harbours and coastal waters daily. The damage this practice inflicts on the marine environment is well documented and need not be further discussed here. There is also the skyrocketing price of fuel and fertiliser that is crippling our economy.

Creating organic fertiliser

I am no scientist but if pig waste could be converted into such useful products - fuel and manure - I am sure that the sewerage plants in Jamaica can be reconfigured to produce biogas to be used as fuel and the odourless solids that remain could provide an abundant source of organic fertiliser.

Dramatic recovery

I am quite sure that within a decade our harbours and coastal waters would have made a dramatic recovery and our dependence on imported fossil fuel and inorganic fertiliser significantly reduced. We could therefore develop a new and cheap source of energy, produce an odourless cheap fertiliser in abundance and significantly reduce the discharge of effluent in the coastal waters

Three birds with one stone.

Over to you, UWI and the scientific community.

I am, etc.,

AUSTIN LOBBAN

austin_lobban@yahoo.com