A Pakistani City Will Launch A Network Of Transportation Powered By Cow Manure

Buses using cow manure will be Pakistan’s new kind of transportation.

According to a report from the Reuters which came out on Wednesday, Karachi city will start introducing a new transportation network called BRT or the Green Bus Rapid Transit in 2019. The system includes 200 zero-emissions vehicles which are run by bio-methane from the dung of the water buffaloes.

If the plans came through, it would assist the city in dealing with its transportation problems. Moreover, the project will also become the framework for other cities to plan and launch their own biopower transportation networks.

As stated on the website of the project, the new BRT network of Karachi has a total cost of $583.5 million. The project is funded by the Asian Development Bank, a local Pakistani province and the United Nations Green Climate Fund.

The network covers an area of 30 kilometers in length. This will provide a clean transportation option to 1.5 million residents in the area. Considering the lack of other transportation options in the city, it is quite understandable that according to officials’ estimation, 320,000 will benefit from this new network every day.

A commuter called Afzal Ahmet said in an interview with the Reuters that the public transportation system of Karachi has absolutely fallen through. Therefore, most of the city’s citizens need to rely on auto rickshaws and online taxi-hailing services.

In Karachi, there is a total of 400,000 water buffaloes producing milk. Officials will collect the manure of these buffaloes and move them to biogas plants. The manure will then be converted into fuel that helps run the buses. In a span of 30 years, this new kind of transportation will help the city avoid dumping about 2.6 million tonnes of CO2 (carbon dioxide) into the atmosphere.

Converting cow dung into fuel will help the city of Karachi save fresh water as well. At the moment, 50,000 gallons of clean water are used to sweep 3,200 tonnes of dung into the bay each day.

According to the policy think tank, Leadership for Environment and Development Pakistan CEO, Ali Tauqeer Sheikh, if everything goes as planned, the new transportation network of Karachi will become an inspiration for other cities to follow.