BUENOS AIRES - An environmental group in Argentina has designed a tank known as a ''biodigestor'', which produces gas for fuel from organic waste, to benefit remote communities of farmers and fisherfolk.

The Fundación Proteger (Protect) says the ''biodigestor'' can produce 30 kilograms of ''biogas'' per month, a volume sufficient for consumption in difficult to reach zones near the Paraná River, in northeast Argentina.

More than half of the Argentine population of 37 million people do not have access to the natural gas distribution network and buy it in small tanks, which since 2002 have doubled in price due to increased exports and a sharp devaluation of the Argentine peso.

Biogas is a renewable fuel that can replace natural gas (a fossil fuel), but not yet on a major scale. The tanks designed by Proteger can process organic waste, such as leaves and grass clippings, manure and seaweed, which are readily available in the Paraná region.

BOGOTA - The Colombian government is drafting a plan to curb environmental losses from forest fires, using equipment worth 86,500 dollars donated by the United States to the Ministry of Housing, Environment and Territorial Development.

The plan entails environmental education programs, training for preventing and fighting forest fires, protocols for restoration and evaluation of environmental impacts, said Minister Sandra Suárez.

The U.S. donation was received Jun. 17. Biologist Efraín Leal told Tierramérica that most forest fires are caused by human actions, such as those related to the expansion of the farming frontier.

From 1986 to 2002, nearly 14,500 forest fires were reported, and affected more than 400,788 hectares, Leal said.

LIMA - Peru will begin special processing of dangerous waste coming from hospitals, the treatment of which had not been included in the national Solid Waste Act of 2000.

According to a report from the environmental health office, DIGESA, of the Health Ministry, Lima produces some 30 tons of hospital waste each day, and 75 percent is paper and food waste that can be treated as common domestic garbage.

But the dangerous portion is made up of organic pathological material, chemical or pharmaceutical residues, sharp or puncturing objects and radioactive material.

Lima's hospitals have incinerators, but because of technological deficiencies, along with those ashes there are three tons of hospital waste arriving at the landfills each day, posing serious threats to the environment and human health, said DIGESA biologist Elmer Quichiz.

The regulations for the waste management act were approved by parliament on Jun. 19.