Received: from ATHENA-AS-WELL.MIT.EDU by po7.MIT.EDU (5.61/4.7) id AA01819; Mon, 28 Feb 94 20:36:06 EST Received: from auvm.american.edu by MIT.EDU with SMTP id AA17275; Mon, 28 Feb 94 20:36:00 EST Message-Id: <9403010136.AA17275@MIT.EDU> Received: from AUVM.AMERICAN.EDU by AUVM.AMERICAN.EDU (IBM VM SMTP V2R2) with BSMTP id 8376; Mon, 28 Feb 94 20:31:39 EST Received: from AMERICAN.EDU (NJE origin LISTSERV@AUVM) by AUVM.AMERICAN.EDU (LMail V1.1d/1.7f) with BSMTP id 3980; Mon, 28 Feb 1994 20:30:21 -0500 Date: Mon, 28 Feb 1994 20:28:00 EST Reply-To: Volunteers in Technical Assistance Sender: Technology Transfer in International Development From: Volunteers in Technical Assistance Subject: Your DevelopNet News for March. To: Multiple recipients of list DEVEL-L %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% @@@@@ @@@@@@ @@ @@ @@@@@@ @@ @@@@@ @@@@@@ @@ @@@ @@ @@ @@ @@ @@ @@ @@ @@ @@ @@ @@@ @@@@@@ @@ @@ @@@@@@ @@ @@ @@ @@@@@@ @@ @@@ @@ @@@@ @@ @@ @@ @@ @@ @@@@@ @@@@@@ @@ @@@@@@ @@@@@@ @@@@@ @@ %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% @@ @@ @@@@@@@ @@@@@@@@ On-Line News and Views on @@@ @@ @@ @@ @@@@@@@ @@@@@@@ @@ Technology Transfer in @@ @@@ @@ @@ @@ @@ @@@@@@@ @@ International Development %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% @@@@@ @@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@ @@@@ @@ @@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@ @@@@@@ @@@@ @@@@ @@@@ @@@@ @@@@ @@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@ @@@@ @@@@@@ @@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@ @@@@ @@@@ @@@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@ @@@@@ @@@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@ %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% March 1994 Volume 4, No. 3 IN THIS ISSUE TECHNOLOGY WATCH Meeting the Challenge: New Methods for Safe Drinking Water LITERATURE REVIEWS Improving Transportation Access Cooperatives in Cuba ORGANIZATIONS Agricultural Development VITA PROJECTS VITA's New Chairman 200,000 Requests for Information! ANNOUNCEMENTS Agroforestry Extension for Development * * * DevelopNet News is published monthly by Volunteers in Technical Assistance (VITA) in Arlington, Virginia, USA. For additional information, please see the end of this newsletter. * * * T e c h n o l o g y W a t c h MEETING THE CHALLENGE: NEW METHODS FOR SAFE DRINKING WATER by Dale Andreatta, VITA Volunteer Water quality and human health have been closely linked throughout his tory. However, it was not until the last quarter of the 19th century that pioneering work by Robert Koch and Louis Pasteur established the germ theory of infectious disease. With the understanding that fecal- borne bacteria, viruses, and protozoans were responsible for most water- borne diseases, it was possible to develop sanitation and water- treatment practices which provided people with a safe water supply. In industrial countries safe water is now taken for granted. In developing countries however, the burden of disease caused by contam inated water and a lack of sanitation continues to be staggering, par ticularly among young children. Diarrhea is caused by microbes entering the mouth, most often from contaminated water. According to the U.N. Children's Fund (UNICEF), diarrhea is the most common childhood disease in developing countries. Dehydration resulting from diarrhea is the leading cause of death in children under the age of five, annually kill ing an estimated five million children. Diarrhea is also the most common cause of child malnutrition, which can lead to death or permanently impaired mental and physical development. UNICEF estimates that 60% of rural families and 23% of urban families in developing countries are without safe water. In some areas all water supplies may be contaminated. If a water source is suspected of being unsafe, the most common recommendation is to boil the water. This recom mendation is seldom followed for several understandable reasons, the most important being the time and the scarce fuel it would require. Here my colleagues and I shall describe some effective and inexpensive alter natives to boiling. Solar Heat Pasteurization Contrary to what many people believe, it is not necessary to boil water to make it safe to drink. Heating water to 65 degrees C for a few min utes will make the water safe. This process is called pasteurization; its use for milk is well known, although milk requires slightly different time-temperature combinations. Any source of heat can be used, including solar energy, which obviously does not require any fuel. There are many ways of achieving solar water pasteurization. According to engineers of a nonprofit group, Solar Cookers International (Sacramento, California), one can pasteurize water by putting jars of it inside a solar box cooker. This method yields up to eight liters of water per day. SCI also has developed a reusable device for determining when the water has reached the proper temperature. The method is simple but does not make the best use of the solar energy. While sunshine costs nothing, the solar cookers are not cost free. PAX World Service (Washington, D.C.) has a continuous flow device that uses a slightly modified solar cooker containing 18 meters of tubing that is painted black. A thermo static valve prevents water flow when the water is below pasteurization temperature. A filter with layers of sand, gravel, and charcoal does the preliminary filtering. This device gives 16 to 20 liters of water per day in strong sunshine. While these devices work, the energy in the heated water is lost to the environment. If most of this energy could be recovered and transferred to the cool, incoming water, less solar energy would be needed or more water could be pasteurized. Derek Yegian and I, who are graduate stu dents in mechanical engineering, have developed a device to recover most of the energy. In its present form it increases the output of the PAX device about fourfold on a day with strong sunshine, to about 72 liters of water per day. The device (called a "heat recuperator") becomes more effective as the water flowrate decreases. On a day with weak sunshine, where the original PAX device would have produced eight liters of water, our version may give up to 45 liters, given enough sun to get the water flowing in the first place. This means that the system as a whole is less sensitive to the strength of the sunshine. The cool outflowing water also presents less of a burn hazard. This form of the device uses a flat metal plate; another version uses a thin metal tube that gives slightly less water but can be made from purchased parts. In both cases the device functions as one type of coun tercurrent heat exchanger, familiar to all mechanical engineers. The outgoing hot water flows through a thin passage on one side of the metal plate (or inside the metal tube), and the highly conductive metal con ducts the heat from the hot water to the cold water in contact with the opposite surface. The cost of the entire system including solar box cooker, valve, tubing, and heat recuperator is about $100. The expected life is about five years if properly cared for, and maintenance costs should be small, say $20 for replacement valves. If the device puts out 50 liters per day, 250 days per year, the cost per liter is less than $0.002. If each per son requires ten liters per day, the yearly cost per capita is $7. There are many applications of the heat recuperator. It can, at least in principle, be used equally well with water that is heated by any means. Other types of solar collectors can be used. Heat from a flame is another option, and the flame might be used while it also cooks food. Another source of heat might be the exhaust heat from the engine on a portable generator. The heat recuperators can be made in any size, from a family size to a small community size. One of the side benefits of this project has been the accumulation of a body of knowledge about what makes a successful heat recuperator. There are literally hundreds of ways to build a heat recuperator, but there are a few basic principles which are very important. A document that is available from PAX contains all of the important information regarding these principles and we hope that our work will stimulate others to come up with their own designs for heat recuperators. Yet another device, now under development in our laboratory, shows prom ise; we call it a "solar puddle." It has a large area of inexpensive plastic sheets with insulating layers on the top and bottom. It proces ses one batch of water per day rather than a continuous flow. It has a very large collection area, which is designed to give much more water at a lower cost. We should know by the late spring whether this idea works. Ultraviolet Disinfection for Larger Output Ultraviolet (UV) purification requires a reliable source of electric power. UV radiation in the wavelength range from 100 to 280 nanometers (called UV-C radiation) destroys microbes by damaging their ability to divide. Disinfection with UV has many advantages over the traditional use of chlorine. UV irradiation does not change the taste of the water, does not have a maximum dosage beyond which detrimental side effects appear, and is more effective in virus disinfection. UV disinfection devices can supply flows of up to 30 liters per minute, suitable for a village of 2,000 people. A disinfection device is being designed at Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory (Berkeley, California). The device is simple and inexpensive and con sists of a water-tight container, a germicidal UV lamp and ballast, and some plumbing and electrical fittings. The lamp (similar to a standard fluorescent lamp) and its ballast are situated directly above the water so that as the water flows through the channel to the outlet it is irradiated by the UV. Appropriate safety measures will be incorporated in the design to protect against electrical and UV dangers. These precautions include electrical shutoff if the cover is opened, safety valves to prevent water flow if the lamp is not working properly, an appropriate warm-up time to re irradiate the water in case of electrical interruption, and warning notices on the outside of the unit. The initial cost of the unit is $100 and the basic unit is expected to last ten years. Lamps will probably need to be replaced every year at a cost of $15 and ballasts will need to be replaced every two years at a cost of $30. Assuming electrical costs of $0.10 per kilowatt-hour the total ten-year cost of the device, running 5,000 hours per year is $500. The average water output is about 1,700 liters per hour and, assuming 10 liters per person per day, the yearly cost per capita is $0.0226. Thus, UV disinfection appears to be a technology that can succeed due to its low cost, simple design, and benefits readily seen by the end users. It is an easy means of providing basic protection from water-borne illnesses. Preventing Recontamination One potential danger with both of these methods of purification is that the water can become recontaminated. This is in contrast to chlorinated water which has some residual chlorine and some capacity to kill germs which are introduced into the water after the initial purification. Experience with water pasteurized in solar box cookers shows that some education is necessary to get people to avoid the mistakes of putting their clean water into dirty containers, or dipping dirty cups, or their fingers, into the water. In conclusion, we have described two methods for providing safe drinking water and some recent technological advances. One method provides a smaller quantity of water using solar heat; the second method provides larger quantities of water but requires access to electricity. Other methods are available. Whatever method is chosen, the devices themselves must be part of a well-rounded program that includes education. I am indebted to Robert H. Metcalf (California State University, Sacramento) for sharing his experience with the practicalities and educational aspects of water pasteurization in developing countries. My colleagues and I hope that these devices will promote the availability of safe drinking water for all the people of the world. Information: The author is at the University of California, Berkeley; e- mail . UV purification queries: Derek T. Yegian, . L i t e r a t u r e R e v i e w s TRANSPORTATION ACCESS Jonathan Dawson, 1993. "Improving Access for the Poor." Appropriate Technology, vol. 20, no. 1 (June), pages 1-4. Road-building projects are a favored method for rich countries to help poorer ones. But is policy this necessarily wise? Dawson (IT Transport, Ardington, U.K.), introduces this special issue of Appropriate Tech nology which is devoted to transport in poor regions of the world. He sums up the problem by saying "isolation, inaccessibility, and immo bility result in a poverty of ideas, poverty of innovation, poverty of health, poverty of opportunity, and poverty even of hope for a better future." Isolation -- restricted access to basic needs (water, fuel, building materials, food processing facilities and so on) "intensifies poverty by adding to the time and effort required to gain access to them." These are hardly revolutionary ideas, but there are many places on Earth that are just as isolated as they were 30 years ago. Examples: 70% of India's villages have no all-weather road connection. A 1988 study in Indonesia found that 40% of a sample of villages had no direct road access at all and 60% of the total weight of goods transported was car ried on foot. In Ghana, the annual load-carrying activities of a typical rural family equals carrying 50 kg for 77 km every week; over 80% of this workload is undertaken by women travelling on foot. In fact, transport development in the nonindustrialized world has imi tated the North: it has stressed road-building programs designed for motor vehicles. This policy has been based on two assumptions: (1) If the state builds roads, the private sector will supply enough transit vehicles to satisfy demand; and (2) Motor vehicles can satisfy all of people's transport needs. Dawson says that both assumptions are often contradicted by facts. Instead, he urges that transport policy should target specific locali ties, determine the real needs, and try to serve them. Actual needs may be for better foot trails, better facilities for animal traction, better location of facilities that are located too far from where people live and work, or better credit programs so that farmers can invest in the improvements they need. There already exists a substantial body of information on which policy reform can be based. COOPERATIVES IN CUBA Brian G. Sims, Raymundo Ventot, and Alberto Rivera, 1993. "Cooperatives as a Solution to Small Farm Mechanization Problems in Cuba." Agricul tural Mechanization in Asia, Africa, and Latin America, vol. 24, no. 4 (autumn), pages 63-68, 72. The agricultural cooperative movement arrived late in Cuba; farm cooper atives first became an element of public policy in 1977. The late arri val is said to be caused by the reluctance of the government to direct resources away from the state-owned farms, which include about 80% of the country's agricultural land. Farm production cooperatives (contras ted with farm credit unions and similar organizations) cover 9% of the land. Cuba's very first agricultural cooperative (the CPA Rep`blica de Cuba in Pinar del Rbo Province) was started in 1973. Sims (Silsoe Research Institute, Silsoe, U.K.) and his colleagues (Uni versity of Pinar del Rbo, Cuba) present the case history of the first CPA. From the start, it had financial problems. In addition, most of the members had been wage laborers and were not used to relating their own labor to agricultural output. Many of them were skeptical about the new cooperative, because previous state production plans had not worked well. There was little democracy in the cooperative, which tended to stifle interest. The cooperative had inherited a large debt, and the members increased the debt by collecting immoderately large cash advan ces and building new houses. After several years of decline, the CPA began to reform its policies, in consultation with the government. The remedies were to promote collec tive decision making, prioritize labor use, set realistic work goals, reduce cash advances, and improve crop planning and management. By 1983, each peso of production was calculated to cost only 0.71 pesos, the bank debt was zero, and 80,000 pesos (about US$105,000) was distributed to members as a dividend. It is not surprising that once organized and effective, the members effectively sought to improve their lives in other ways. This led to mechanized agriculture, better housing, health, education, and other amenities. The paper also provides political background on the part played by the Castro regime in the history of the cooperative movement. O r g a n i z a t i o n s AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT The Winrock International Institute for Agricultural Developoment works to alleviate poverty and hunger worldwide through sustainable agricul ture, rural development, and environmental resources management pro grams. The programs achieve their goals through the provision of tech nical assistance, developing human resources, strengthening agricultural institutions, and improving policies for agricultural and rural devel opment. The Institute has more than 90 projects in a total of 60 coun tries in Africa, the Caribbean, Central, North and South America, the New Independent States of the former Soviet Union, and South and South east Asia. Projects vary from a few months to ten years and address problems on a regional or country-wide scale. Information: Winrock International, Rosslyn Plaza, 1611 North Kent Street, Arlington, Virginia 22209; tel: +1 (703) 525-9430; fax: +1 (703) 525-1744; telex: 910-720-6616 WI HQ UD. V I T A P r o j e c t s VITA'S NEW CHAIRMAN VITA welcomes Harlan Cleveland as the new Chairman of its Board of Directors. He was elected by the board last month. Cleveland brings a lifetime of distinguished international experience and service, inclu ding key positions in diplomacy, government and management, and is a recipient of the U.S. Medal of Freedom. His leadership is expected to help VITA move into a period of expansion of its communications capa bilities and information resources. Cleveland replaces W. Bowman Cutter, who was appointed by U.S. President Bill Clinton as his Deputy Assistant for Economic Policy. Information: Barbra Bucci, VITA 200,000 REQUESTS FOR INFORMATION! In January, VITA's Technical Information Service received its 200,000th request for technical information. It came from Peace Corps Volunteer Andrew Maguire, a water development engineer with the Tunyai Community Programme in Meru, Kenya. Maguire works in water development in the arid regions of Eastern Kenya. After reviewing some materials from VITA, he asked for more information on potable water storage, irrigation systems, solar water pumps, and water supply and treatment, needed for his work. It took 26 years for VITA 's Technical Information Service to receive and answer its first 50,000 requests. Only four more years were needed to reach 100,000 requests. Less than four years later the 200,000th request arrived. The escalating demand for the service is only one example of the developing world's increasing thirst for knowledge. Information: Brij Mathur, VITA A n n o u n c e m e n t s AGROFORESTRY EXTENSION FOR DEVELOPMENT Agroforestry is a collective name for land use systems and practices in which woody perennials are deliberately integrated with crops and/or animals on the same land management unit. As agroforestry has become more widely used, especially by agricultural planners, extension offi cers, and environmentalists, there has been a growing need for training in methods and approaches to agroforestry extension. In response to this need, Technical & Study Tours has announced that it will conduct two training courses in 1994, both in Nairobi, Kenya. The first course which will be held from 4 July to 5 August will be designed for senior exten sion officers and coordinators. The second course will be for frontline extension agents and will be held from 31 October to 2 December. Both training courses aim to provide extension workers with skills and in-depth knowledge of agroforestry principles, concepts, systems, tech nologies, extension methods, and techniques. The courses will broaden the awareness of the participants in the technical, ecological, social and economic bases of agroforestry as well as its institutional rele vance as a tool for rural development. They will emphasize the integra tion of these issues in the planning, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation of agroforestry extension programs. The courses will combine lectures, audiovisual presentations, participant presentations, group discussions, and workshops as well as practical experience in field settings. Information: The Managing Director, Technical & Study Tours, P.O. Box 50982, Nairobi, Kenya; tel: +254 (2) 222192 or 244773; fax: +254 (2) 780461 or 244775; telex: 22047. * * * HOW TO JOIN VITA'S ELECTRONIC FORUM VITA's free, public, online discussion forum, DEVEL-L, provides for the exchange of ideas and information on a wide range of issues and topics related to technology transfer in international development; for exam ple, technologies, communications in development, sustainable agricul ture, women in development, the environment, small enterprise develop ment, meetings, and book reviews. Subscribers to DEVEL-L automatically receive this newsletter and can download documents free from a special archive by using FTP requests or e-mail messages. To join the forum, send this command or message that reads: SUB DEVEL-L your_real_name to this address: or . You can receive the same benefits by joining the newsgroup bit.listserv.devel-l. You can subscribe to DevelopNet News without joining the discussion forum by sending the following message to the same address: SUB DNN-L your_real_name . Please do not send these messages to VITA. * * * DevelopNet News is an electronic newsletter published monthly by Vol unteers in Technical Assistance (VITA), a private, nonprofit, inter national development organization located in Arlington, Virginia. The newsletter needs your stories: you are invited to send them to the editor in electronic form. Your redistribution of DevelopNet News is encouraged. Kindly send us a message on the approximate size of your mailing list; it will be helpful in our planning. President: Henry R. Norman Acting Editor: Vicki Tsiliopoulos Editorial Assistant: Rafe Ronkin, VITA Volunteer VITA specializes in information dissemination and communications tech nology. It offers services related to sustainable agriculture, food pro cessing, renewable energy applications, water sanitation and supply, small enterprise development, and information management. It has long- and short-term projects in 10 countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. VITA's publications, on a variety of practical subjects, are designed to assist persons and organizations in developing countries. You can request a descriptive publications list by postal mail, phone, or fax. Be sure to include your postal address. Volunteers in Technical Assistance (VITA), 1600 Wilson Boulevard, Suite 500, Arlington, Virginia 22209. Tel. +1 (703) 276-1800, 24-hr BBS: +1 (703) 527-1086 [up to 9600, N,8,1], fax: +1 (703) 243-1865, telex: 440192 VITAUI, cable: VITAINC, e-mail: or , FidoNet: 1:109/165 .