In many developing countries where 75% of the population live in the rural areas, the question of access to the main electric grid source is the very tricky one. Usually governments in these regions refuse to invest on electrification projects due to high initial cost of investment, minimal return, difficult terrain and inconvenience in maintenance and billing to mention some.
In this workshop different case studies in developing countries related to lack of access to electricity were presented...
I was a member of a team who explored socially, economically and environmentally sustainable alternatives to power up a school in the middle of a notorious new slum in Addis ababa. In our case study, the problem stems from the fact that a NGO is willing to build a school for the slum community but only if it would be electrified. As the government refused to electrify the school, we jumped to the rescue with our decentralized energy solution.
As Addis ababa is located in the tropical area, our main choice as an alternative source of energy was the Sun. So, after we collected money from community savings and funds from different environmental groups we bought the following materials:
1. Five solar Panels
2. Bio gas Generator
3. Batteries
4. Materials for Bio gas plant
On any ordinary day in Addis ababa we can get enough energy from the sun to power up the whole school. But keeping some foggy days in mind, we built a bio gas plant that drives our small backup generator. we collect our input for the bio gas plant from the school toilet and the slum community. In cases when we produce more energy from the solar panels than we need, we charge our batteries. the batteries later can be used to charge the Mobile phones of the community for small charges.
Since looting is the main problem in the slum, the whole power and bio gas plant will be kept in the school yard and watched by the guard.
Wednesday, November 24, 2010
Individual work: Solid Waste Management In Developing Countries
The growth of mega cities in developing countries is affected by issues such as high population, an ever increasing need to expand in order to accommodate this population bulge and unequal access to basic public services among the different social classes. Urbanization of this trend has an adverse effect on the environment due to lack of sanitation, excessive waste, various forms of pollution (air, water and soil) and lack of proper waste treatment methods.
In my individual work I studied the provided material that focuses at discussing types of waste, waste-related problems in cities and waste treatment techniques. After I grasped the main content of the material, I reflected my gross ideas as below:
Waste is produced almost everywhere. Homes, industries and farming produce wastes of different type and varying proportion. What makes it difficult for cities to manage waste is due to a number of reasons such as rapid population growth, poor city planning which stems from bad governance, improper waste dumping process (such as mixing of toxic and domestic wastes), lack of knowledge among the local community concerning waste management and reluctance on the side of the government to promote the virtues of proper waste management.
There are a number of waste treatment methods that can be applied depending on the type of waste. Some of the techniques, however, are rather controversial. One example is taking the waste to landfills, as it results in the release of methane in to the atmosphere and also it consumes a lot of land space.
For waste management to function correctly - it is important to educate the society to increase awareness, laws not only need to be passed but also need to be implemented and there must be a social welfare.
In my individual work I studied the provided material that focuses at discussing types of waste, waste-related problems in cities and waste treatment techniques. After I grasped the main content of the material, I reflected my gross ideas as below:
Waste is produced almost everywhere. Homes, industries and farming produce wastes of different type and varying proportion. What makes it difficult for cities to manage waste is due to a number of reasons such as rapid population growth, poor city planning which stems from bad governance, improper waste dumping process (such as mixing of toxic and domestic wastes), lack of knowledge among the local community concerning waste management and reluctance on the side of the government to promote the virtues of proper waste management.
There are a number of waste treatment methods that can be applied depending on the type of waste. Some of the techniques, however, are rather controversial. One example is taking the waste to landfills, as it results in the release of methane in to the atmosphere and also it consumes a lot of land space.
For waste management to function correctly - it is important to educate the society to increase awareness, laws not only need to be passed but also need to be implemented and there must be a social welfare.
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
Lecture diary 3: Water Management
Water is one of the many precious resources that this plant is blessed with. Even if most of the surface of the earth is covered with this resource, only a small percentage of it is usable. That is why water management gaining more and more ground in the modern era. Even if I am not in agreement with the quote from the lecture that stated 21 century wars could be fought for water instead of oil, I firmly believe that, with unwise water management practices, regional conflicts would be inevitable. The recent tension between the Nile basin countries in east Africa can be cited as good example.
Concerning scarcity.....
In the lecture it was also discussed that mostly the middle eastern countries and northern Africa would face a critical scarcity in water at the beginning of the next decade.I think the participants made the forecast based on the geographical and climatic conditions of the countries. But in my opinion, the term scarcity in water context should consider the legislative aspect too. In some areas, even if there is abundant water resources, due to lack of fair legislation on how to use it, people could not harass the resource as they want. A good example for this - once again - are the Nile basin countries. Because of the old aged legislation that highly favor only few of the basin countries, most of the upper stream countries are susceptible to drought and hunger even if a large amount of the resource either originates from or crosses their land.
On global Changes.....
It is quite obvious that global changes like climate change, population growth, urbanization and the like have strong interaction with water. Issues raised related to climate change are mainly those of rises in sea level that eventually reduces fresh water. Moreover urbanization and energy production as they are water thirst processes,efficient water management system is a must to cope up with these global trends. But most importantly, as over population is the root of all the problems, I suggest that a wise water management strategy should also focus on how to directly or indirectly tackle this problem.
Concerning scarcity.....
In the lecture it was also discussed that mostly the middle eastern countries and northern Africa would face a critical scarcity in water at the beginning of the next decade.I think the participants made the forecast based on the geographical and climatic conditions of the countries. But in my opinion, the term scarcity in water context should consider the legislative aspect too. In some areas, even if there is abundant water resources, due to lack of fair legislation on how to use it, people could not harass the resource as they want. A good example for this - once again - are the Nile basin countries. Because of the old aged legislation that highly favor only few of the basin countries, most of the upper stream countries are susceptible to drought and hunger even if a large amount of the resource either originates from or crosses their land.
On global Changes.....
It is quite obvious that global changes like climate change, population growth, urbanization and the like have strong interaction with water. Issues raised related to climate change are mainly those of rises in sea level that eventually reduces fresh water. Moreover urbanization and energy production as they are water thirst processes,efficient water management system is a must to cope up with these global trends. But most importantly, as over population is the root of all the problems, I suggest that a wise water management strategy should also focus on how to directly or indirectly tackle this problem.
Thursday, November 4, 2010
Lecture diary 2: Workshop on Mega cities
One of the most pressing problems in megacities is that of housing provision for the urban poor. In majority of the cases, these people do not have access to clean water, sanitation facilities, health care and waste disposal.
Based on the issues of the fictitious illegal housing settlement called Ibare in Lagos, Nigeria, the theme of the workshop was to develop strategies for megacities in their bid to have an urban development scheme that is acceptable to the various stakeholders involved.
The stakeholder teams in this workshop were:
1. Federal government officials
2. City planners
3. NGO/Community leaders
4. Social scientists/academics
5. UN habitat team
I was member of the social scientists / academics team and we were strongly pushing for the following points to be taken into account in the process of devising an urban development program:
1.The importance of involving the community (participatory approach). This can be
launched by arranging forums with the aid of NGOs who shall act like a bridge
between the community and the government officials.
2.The utilization of good quality building materials that is environmentally
friendly.
3.Housing schemes shall be compliant with the proper building standards.
4.Available land for residential purpose shall be properly administered by the .
government
Finally, a question for the government guys......
how far does it work to try to relocate a certain group of people to make way for developing the land? :)
Based on the issues of the fictitious illegal housing settlement called Ibare in Lagos, Nigeria, the theme of the workshop was to develop strategies for megacities in their bid to have an urban development scheme that is acceptable to the various stakeholders involved.
The stakeholder teams in this workshop were:
1. Federal government officials
2. City planners
3. NGO/Community leaders
4. Social scientists/academics
5. UN habitat team
I was member of the social scientists / academics team and we were strongly pushing for the following points to be taken into account in the process of devising an urban development program:
1.The importance of involving the community (participatory approach). This can be
launched by arranging forums with the aid of NGOs who shall act like a bridge
between the community and the government officials.
2.The utilization of good quality building materials that is environmentally
friendly.
3.Housing schemes shall be compliant with the proper building standards.
4.Available land for residential purpose shall be properly administered by the .
government
Finally, a question for the government guys......
how far does it work to try to relocate a certain group of people to make way for developing the land? :)
Lecture diary 1: Urban Risks
On the lecture....
Urban risks can take various forms such as accidental deaths, natural and technological hazards, diseases, etc. For instance, majority of airplane accidents occur during take-off and landing, which puts all the settlements around airports in an increased risk. Thus, proper city planning needs to take into account such factors.
The state of population by itself poses a risk. In developing countries the problem is due to rapid population growth whereas in some developed countries, in contrast, it is due to a decrease in population. Although there is significant improvement in city life and increased involvement of governments in assessing and managing risks, there is still the demand for better security due to:
high concentration of infrastructure
high concentration of industries, trade and commerce
high population density
The long term impact of rising sea levels was also discussed. Coastal cities are in imminent danger and the economic impact of such a disaster is also bound to be massive. But what causes rising sea levels? Is it due to climate change? In my opinion it is and the biggest problem today is human action contributing to global warming.
On the weighting discussion....
In our weighting discussion, we tried to filter out, from the list of various urban risks, the most important ones in the European context. Even if we did not base our discussion on statistical data, we generally decided that hazards like floods, extreme temperatures and storms/cyclones, in that order, are very important to be taken into consideration when one plans urban environments in Europe. In another hand,Tsunami, earth quakes and volcanic eruption pose low risk. Incidentally, the weighting from the other group was more or less similar to our analysis.
Projecting this discussion to my own town, Addis ababa, would result in a different output. As Addis ababa is located in one of the poorest countries in Africa,Ethiopia, the main urban risks would mainly be related to overpopulation which is the root of all the problems.
Urban risks can take various forms such as accidental deaths, natural and technological hazards, diseases, etc. For instance, majority of airplane accidents occur during take-off and landing, which puts all the settlements around airports in an increased risk. Thus, proper city planning needs to take into account such factors.
The state of population by itself poses a risk. In developing countries the problem is due to rapid population growth whereas in some developed countries, in contrast, it is due to a decrease in population. Although there is significant improvement in city life and increased involvement of governments in assessing and managing risks, there is still the demand for better security due to:
high concentration of infrastructure
high concentration of industries, trade and commerce
high population density
The long term impact of rising sea levels was also discussed. Coastal cities are in imminent danger and the economic impact of such a disaster is also bound to be massive. But what causes rising sea levels? Is it due to climate change? In my opinion it is and the biggest problem today is human action contributing to global warming.
On the weighting discussion....
In our weighting discussion, we tried to filter out, from the list of various urban risks, the most important ones in the European context. Even if we did not base our discussion on statistical data, we generally decided that hazards like floods, extreme temperatures and storms/cyclones, in that order, are very important to be taken into consideration when one plans urban environments in Europe. In another hand,Tsunami, earth quakes and volcanic eruption pose low risk. Incidentally, the weighting from the other group was more or less similar to our analysis.
Projecting this discussion to my own town, Addis ababa, would result in a different output. As Addis ababa is located in one of the poorest countries in Africa,Ethiopia, the main urban risks would mainly be related to overpopulation which is the root of all the problems.
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