COW dung, commonly known as gobar, has a crucial value in the modern world.
Many rural families in Trinidad and Tobago and other countries where there are many cows would have been acquainted with gobar.
It is cow waste that was used in bygone days, with a mixture of water, to plaster and smoothen earthen homes and floors.
Leepay was the name of that art, and it means “to plaster.”
The practice was brought to the Caribbean and other countries by Indian immigrants, who built thatched homes with lumber, leaves, and grass from the respective communities, and used gobar to flush and gloss floors and walls.
Leepaying was commonplace.
But the practice went out over the past couple of generations with social mobility and modern lifestyles.
Yet, gobar, which is made up largely of methane and carbon dioxide, is relevant in these urgent days of climate change.
These two gasses are major culprits in heat-trapping chemicals that are doing damage to our earth.
In India and other societies, gobar has been used to create a form of biogas, in which bacteria is broken down into organic matter.
Gobar, is, therefore, turned into an eco-friendly alternative to fossil fuels and is considered a clean source of energy.
Of course, a large supply is required to make this a commercially successful industry, but its use has been growing in India and other countries.
International experts say that biogas could also be made from biodegradable waste from industrial plants, expired food, manure, field biomass, and agricultural by-products.
There is a scientific process of converting gobar into biomass.
Each kilogramme of gobar could be made into up to 40 litres of biomass, the experts say.
They explain that cow dung includes chemicals that produce nutrients for plants.
Gobar biomass has been used as a source of low-cost energy, for lighting and cooking.
In large plants, the energy produced could be sent to electricity grids.
Advocates say gobar biomass has several benefits, most importantly being that it does not harm the environment.
It is also cheap and accessible.
There are legislations in several countries that promote the use of biomass as a cost-effective system.
Generally, the experts say that cow dung could be part of the solution to the current climate change crisis and they anticipate that its use would grow in popularity.
Reflect on that when you think of gobar and the age-old art of leepaying.
