Thank you @Ideas4India - local socio-cultural resistance towards domestic #biogas is a poor explanation for why it is sometimes accepted and sometimes not and can mask the fact that higher program inefficiencies are really why it is not adopted @Stir_Research @StirBES

6/6 Facilitating people in perceiving human excreta as a resource and not a waste culturally and spatially could facilitate greater acceptance of TLADs as well as other taboo technologies and practices

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5/6 People with leadership or risk-taking personalities could be used to catalyse adoption in their local areas

4/6 More people could adopt TLADs with opportunities to observe and trial the technology, if they became a social norm and groups are facilitated in adopting them and if they become a greater perceived necessity

3/6 Adoption of TLADs can take time and users must be engaged with over long time periods

2/6 Initial resistance towards TLADs and perhaps other taboo technologies and practices cannot be taken as people’s final decision

The take away findings are: 1/6 Socio-cultural resistance is diverse and flexible and is not an adequate explanation for why TLADs are not used

The biogas programme in the study area in Assam was not found to be engaging with people about TLADs or offering opportunities to observe or trial TLADs

Socio-cultural resistance can’t be generalised across religious or local groups but there could be potential for religious or other leaders to work with people to renegotiate what is seen as waste and a resource locally and even nationally

Interestingly some participants in Assam were also like the risk-takers in Nepal. They explained they would adopt a TLAD if given the chance no matter what their neighbours thought and believed others would copy them once they saw the benefits the adopter was receiving

Importantly, for some people their resistance could be negotiable is they have opportunities to observe or trial a TLAD, if they became a social norm and if circumstances made them a necessity such as increased fossil fuel prices. Others indicated they would never adopt TLADs

Investigation revealed that local resistance towards TLADs is actually very complex and due to both socio-cultural and socio-technical concerns

In Assam no one had a TLAD and this was previously believed to be because of socio-cultural resistance that could not be overcome. Investigation revealed low adoption is probably also a result of low commitment from the biogas programme in working with users to adopt TLADs

An interpretative summary of why participants choose to use either biogas from toilet-linked anaerobic digesters, wood or liquid petroleum gas (LPG)

This is because they had the opportunity to observe their neighbour using a TLAD and learn of the benefits they offer. TLADs are now a social norm with no social consequences in the study area although social norms still shape how biogas is used

One adoption pathway was when an initial adopter, we called a risk-taker as they risked social consequences such as people not eating within their home, adopted a TLAD. With time, their neighbours also adopted TLADs

In fact the taboo toilet connection was a motivation for some who had no existing toilet facility. TLAD toilets were also described as being easier to maintain than other toilets such as pit latrines

Users in Nepal did experience initial resistance towards TLADs. However, users had a wide range of motivations for overcoming them that led to various adoption pathways

In Assam, India which is demographically similar to Nepal but where people have not adopted TLADs, we investigated people’s perceptions of TLADs https://t.co/yqTA2Go4iq

In Nepal, where TLADs are being used we investigated if existing users experienced initial resistance and if and how it was to be overcome https://t.co/qjXdoe0CzZ