Winter Fuel: Dung cakes demand soars in Punjab

MULTAN: Minus the ‘yuck’ factor, dung cakes have emerged as a fuel of choice for heating and cooking in rural and sub-urban Punjab during winters when piped gas supply is short and firewood rates soar, villagers near southern Punjab city of Vehari said. A renewable source of heating and cooking fuel, dung cakes are made from cow dung and dried chaff and sold so cheap that even the underprivileged people can buy sacksful. A villager, Muhammad Khalid of Pipli Adda, Vehari talking to APP, said he buys five maunds (200kg) of dung cake every winter. Irshad Bibi, a dung cake seller, said she runs her kitchen through this business.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 25^th, 2015.