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AT MICROFICHEREFERENCEbll3RARYA project of Volunteers in Asia

Introduction to Apprwate Techw&gy

Edited by:R. Congdon

Published by:Rodale Press, Inc.33 East Minor StreetEmmaus, PA 18049 USA

Paper copies are $9,:95.

Available from:Rodale Press, Inc.33 East Minor StreetEmmaus, PA 1'3049 USA

Reproduced by &rmission of the Rodale Press, Ync.

Reproduction of this microfiche document in anyform is subject to the same restrictions as thoseof the original document.

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Written largely by experts who haw w orked with theIntermediateTechnology Development Group in London andbased on experiences in developing countries, this book isof interest to all Americans who are interested in pursuing asimpler life-style.

This comprehensive work featrues specific ways inwhich both developed and developing countries canintroduce people-oriented technologies to all aspects ofsociety. It is a revolutionary work in that it outlines someradical economic changes which must be made in theindustrial world.

The following chapte r titles illustrate the wide-rangingapplicability of the book: An ApproacB for AppropriateTechnologists, Tha Social Context for Choosing WaterTechnologies, Teals for Agriculture, IntermediateTechnology Building, Energy in Rural Areas: Anfntermediate Approach, Pedal Power, IntermediateChemical Tachnology, Educational Systems: AppropriateEducation and Technology for Development, Appropriate

Production Systems: A Conceptual Framework, IndustrialLiaison, and others.

Introduction to Appropriate Technology, written by 12world-renowned engineers, scientists, and sociologists, aswell as agricultural and education specialists, is anextremely practicar and down-to-earth introduction to whatmany people believe will be the technology of the future.

.

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_ introduction to

- -oward a Simpler t.ife-Stylr

Edited by R. J. Gongdon

RQDRLE PRESS, ~mmaus.A

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COPYKIGI1T @ ,977 by Rod& Press, nc.

.~II rights resewed. No part of this book may be re-produced o r transmitted in any form or by anymeans. elschnic or mechanical. includingphotocopy. recording. o r any information storageand retrieval system without the written permissionof the publisher.

&inked i th e United Storeso,Ameriroon recycled Paper

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Library of Congres Catalogiq in Publication DataMain entry under ide:

htmdctio to appropriate technlogY.

E!ibliograpby: .Indudes ndex.1. Technology. I. Congdo,R.,.

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,:

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Table of Contents

Forewonl.......................................................xINTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..xtity,ames c. McQdlagh

Introduc tion to Appropriate Technology xivAppropriate Technology in the United States xsiNational Ceil ter for Appropriate Technology xvi

CHAFTER ONE:AN APPROACH FOR APPROPRIATE TECHNOLOGISTS 1b ceoree Mcmbie

Infrastructure ......................................... 3Intermediate Technology Development Group 6Methodology ......................................... 6Practical Alternatives ............. .............. ........ IiLevelsofNeed ........................................ 7IdentifyingtheGaps ................................... 7Assembling and Disseminating Ini~ormation.............. 8OverseasLinks ........................................ 9SurveyingLocalNeeds ................................. 10Local Cantxs ........................................ 13New Developments ............. .............. ......... 14

Limits to Large Scale ..................... .............. 15

CHAPTER TWO:THE SCCIAL CONTEXT FOR CHOOSING

WATER TECHNOLOGIES 17by Simon 3. watt

KnowYourself ........................................ 17Choosing Appropriately. .............. .............. ... 31ProblemDefinition .................................... 33Standards ............................................ 33Htalth ............................................... 27Hygienevs.Medlclne................................... 27Centralization ......................................... 30Small Steps ........................................... 33

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Introduc tion to Appropriate Technology

CHAPTER THREE:~v~~O;SSo;IR AGRICULTURE .................................. 34

BuyersGuide ......................................... 34Technical Inquiries .................................... 34.Designs .............................................. 35FmSureys ......................................... 37Demonstration Projects ................................ 39C~su!taticn .......................................... 49Tools for Agriculture .................................. 41Conclusion ........................................... 51

CHMTRK FOUR:INTERMEDIATE TECHNOLOGY BUILDING 53by JohnP. Parry

Building Matarials ... .............

Environment .....................Skills .............................Technical Assistance ...............Small Brickworks ..................cement Subtitutes .................Domed Rcofs ......................

vi

................. 54

................ ..5 5................. 56

................. 66

................. 57

................. 61

................. 62

CHAPTER FIVE:ENERGY IN RURAL AREAS:

AN ;NTERMEDIATE TECHNOLOGY APPROACH 63by PdcsD. Dunn

Energy Requirements ............. ..Sources of Energy ..............

:metives .. .. .......

.._.............. 6667

,._.....,..__..... 66WindEnergy .......................................... 71MusclePower ......................................... 71Methane ............................................ 72LiquidPi? :, pnes.................................. 73External Cm$ .stion (Heat Engines) ............. 73......InternalCombustion ................................... 75

CHAPTER SIX:PEAI,POWER..................,.,,............ 60by Statls. Wilson

IEvolution of the B,cyc:e ................................ 60Social Change 82..... ..... ..... .... ............Traditmnal R,ckshaws.... ............ ..... ....... 86

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Contents

ImprovedRickshaws................................... 88Chinese Wheelbarrows 69

Cycle Production 91Stationary Pedal Power 93

CHAPTER SEVWT:INTERMEDlATE CHEMICAL TECHNOLOGY .I02by George . Reynolds

LocaIlv Added Value .I02BatchProcesses ..................................... ..19 3Enerq, ............................................. ..,O 3CausttcSoda..........................................lo 4SodaAsh.............................................10 5Electrolysis .......................................... ,106Soap ................................................ .I96Wood .............................................. ..10 7Charcoal..............................................llOSugar .............................................. ..110Traditional Processing ................... ............. .I 13Plants as Raw Materials ............................... .114LeafProtein...........................................114Marine Products ...................................... ,116

CHAPTER EIGHT:EDUCATION SYSTEMS:

APPROPRIATE EDUCATION AND TECHNOLOGY FORDEVELOPMENT .......................................... ..tl7

by chor,es R. TettColonial Education ................................... .116Education and Culture ................................ ,119Urban Uimmployment ................................ ,121

Choiceqr1echnologjr......................................122

RuralUdemploymect..................................12 2Is Education the Answer? ............................. ,122Formal Education and Training ........................ ,125The Informal Sector of Industry ........................ .I26Nonformal Education and Training ..................... ,127Summary ............................................ .132

CHAPTER NINE:APPROPRIATE PRODUCTION SYSTEMS:

A CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWO RK ,133by Ben 0 Rianckho~sf

Technology...........................................l33Social Aspects .I34Technology and the Third World ,136

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Introduc tion to Appropriate Technology

ThePoorEconomy .................................. ..13 9Production Functions ................................. ,149Traditional and Conventional Technologies ............. ,141

Conventional and Socially Appropriate Technologies .... ,143Need for Alternatives ................................. ,144A Catalog of Alternatires ............................... 144AResearchMeihod....................................14 6Conclusion .......................................... ,146

CHAPTER TEN:,$ZKJ~~~XJ;h~u~eAISON .I47

Window Manufacture ,147StandTdization

.............................................................................147

Packag,ngPiant .146PulpForming.. ..................................... ..14 9

Develqpment .,.: ...................................................................... .25XTechmcal Inqu,r,es ,153Interrflediate,Technology WorkshopHosp,talEqu,pment .... ..................................................

.153,154

Entrepreneurs., ...................................... ,155Wheelchairs ............................. ........... ..I5 5Local Design ............................... ......... ..15 6Small Industry in Mauritius ........................... .156Hand-Tools in Ghana .................................. 157Exports ............................................... 158Glassmaking ............................... ........... 158Economic Vmbdlty...................................... 159

CHAPTER ELEVEN:SOME SOCIAL CRITERIA FOR APPROPRIATB TECHNOLOGY. ,160by TO de Wilde

Growth .............................................. .I60Purpose ........................... . ...... ,161Criteria ............................................... 162International Rice Research Institute. ................... ,163Planning Research and Action Division ,167Brace Institute ....................................... ,172Technology Consultancy Center in Ghana ............... ,174Conclusion ......................................... ..I7 7

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Price of Education ,178Pmfessios .......................................... ,178Get Off Their Backs ................................... ,179Prestige ............................................. ,180HonestIntentions .................................... .180Three Principles ...................................... .I81Generate New Technologies ........................... ,182Modify ............................................. ..lS 2Modernize ........................................... .184Invent ............................................... ,164Technology Consultancy Center ....................... ,186SchoolEqipment.....................................18 6Tanzania ............................................ ,186

China................................................ 187

Electm,ty............................................. 188VillageElectrification ................................. ,190LocalIndustries ....................................... 191Ferrocement .......................................... 193

Afterword.. ................................................ ...19 6Appropriate Tedmology Groups .............................. .197Appropriate Technology Publications .......................... .199Bibliography ............................................... ..20 0Index ............................................ ......... ,203

ix

CHAPTER TWELVE:THE TRANSFER OF KNOWLEDGE AND

THE AUOPTION OF TECHNOLOGIES ,178

by Ony Dickinson

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Foreword

Thins book was first published by the Cam-mittee for International Cooperation Activitiesof the Technical University of Eindhoven in theNetherlands, as a result of a series of lectures or-ganized jointly with the CICA at the TechnicalUniversity of Twente. in the Netherlands. Thelectures were given at both universities at theend of ,974. and were part of the :rowth ofactivities in the field o f socially appropriatetechnology in the Netherlands which the twoCIcAs have done much to stimulate.

The first edition of this hook was publishedby the TOOL Fwndation, a nonprofi t agencythat coordinates the research and developmentactivities of volunteer groups of staff andstudents in Dutch higher education instiix-ticns. and an engineering consultancy firm.Since its establishment in 1874, TOOL has han-dled thousands o f technical inquiries from bothindustrialized countries and the Third Worlds,from development workers engaged inactivities in the field o f socially appropriatetechnology. In addition. through the medium of

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publications such as this, TOOL has promotedthe concept and the practice of a socially appro-priate technology both to the general public andto current polic:m akers. Engaged in providingsupport for a growing number of field projectsin Africa, Asia, and Latin America, TOOL iswding with government and nongovern-mental agencies alike on the application ofSAT. A key artivity in which TOOL has beenencouraged by similar agencies elsewhere totake a lead is in the establishment of acomprehensive documentation bank for thepractitioners in SAT; SATIS, the socially appro-priate technology information system, is an in-formal and practical network of developmentworkers spread throughout the world.

Neither the Technical University ofEindhoven, nor the TOOL Foundation, ctin ac-cept any liability for damage claims artsingfrom the use of any advice or descriptions of,,any instruments or apparatus contained withinIntroduc tion to Appropriate Technology.

Fi. J. Congdon

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Introduction

Between the bullock cart and the Jet plane,between the hand plow and the combine,between the wheelbarrow and the truck, thereexists a whole range of intermediatetechnologies that are appropriate to an indi-vidual, a culture, a nation.

In this age of big. and often destructive,technologies, increased attention is being givento intermediate or appropriate or low-cost technologies which tend to mea dif-ferent things to different people. But, beyondthis semantic tangle is B discernible cry, both inAmerica and &road, for alternate technologies,for differet world views and tools andtechnologies to fit such perceptions.

In his book, Small Is Beautiful, E. F. Schc-macher coined the term intermediatetechGIogy to describe a technology ofproduction by the masses, making use of thebes! of modern knowledge and experience, con-ducive to decentralization, compatib!e withlaws o f ecology, gentle in its use of scarceresources, and designed to serve the humanperson instead of making him the servant of ma-chines.

From an economic point of view Schu-macher considered intermediate technology to

stand between high and low technologies. 1have named it, he w,,ote, intermediatetechnology to sigaify that iiis vastly superior tothe primitive technology of bygone ages but etthe same time much simpler, cheaper, and freerthan the supa-technologies of the rich. One cancall it self-help technology or democratic orpeoples technology-a technology to whicheveryone can gain admittance and which is uc~treserved to those already rirh and powerful.

xii

In a specific sense intermediate technologyrepresents a practical alternative to thosecaught in the grips of inappropriatetechnology. I his contribution to this bookPeter D. Dunn refers to the inappropriateness ofa European space agency supplying televisionsets to rural parts of Africa a& then supplyingsolar cells, battery packs. aud small gasolineengines to supply the power for the sets.Gasoline engines, Dunn suggests, are unre-liable end difficult to maintein, battery packsare very expensive, and solar cells are prohibi-tively expensive. Now this is a good example ofwhere pedal power is required. A person canpedal very easily on a bicycle for a hour andgenerate 35 watts. We have in fact developed agenerator of this so rt. It consists of a smallwooden frame with a wheel-mounted dynamo.If it goes wrong, the reason is obvious: the dy-namo has fallen off or something similar. Thelocal people do not regard it as a mysteriousblack box. They see what is wrong and they canrepair it themselves and m&e more units at thesame time.

But whether a technology is inter-mediate of not depends on a number of fwtors.The ox-plow, which stands halfway between

the traditional hand-operated hoe and moderndiesel tractor, would be considered a inter-mediate technology in Africa where it wasrecently introduced. On the other hand, writesNicolas J6quier in Appropriate Technology:Problems and Promises, In the societies o f theMiddle East and Asia which have known andused the ox-drawn plough for thousands ofyears. such a technology can be called tradi-tional, and the intermediate level of technology

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Inamductian

would more adequately be represented by thesmall two-wheel tractors of the type developedby the International Rice Research Institute inthe Phillipines UT by the industria l co-opera-tives of Sri Lanka. In the tropical Africansocieties which do not have any tradition oflivestock breeding and which still use veryGmple implements, the ox-drawn plough is amajor innovation, and from a technological

8,:; point of view, it represents a big step forward .,XZ,>,S~ Therefore, in the very best sense, the inter-

mediateness of a technology is relative to timeand space, to the perceptions of a particular cul-

;;,ture, and to the kind of engineering it hasii, enjoyed. And, by narrow definition, inter-

,,r,,,, mediate technology belongs to the field ofengineering.

Because a: the economic and engineering,~_,,, overtones of intermedia te technology, people,,,.:i, seem more comfortable with the term, appro-

priate technology which represents, among, other things, the social and cultural dimensions: of this movement. In addition, appropriate,, technoiogy is a vehicle for certain positive end

i,: symbolic insights. While appropriatetechnology refers to the middle-!evelworkplace, it also refers to a kind of social and

,,~,: : cultural revolution that is evident in many parts, ,, :,,,, , of the world. According to Ken Darrow in Ap-propriote Technology Sourcebook this

technology is especially attractive because it

seems to solve a number of problems at once.

Because it involves self-reliance and localprodxtion for local needs, on B national levelthis approach can remove from the list ofobstacl,, to development many of the iuequi-ties of an internatioual system that is dominated

by the expensive technology and economicpower o f the rich countries. At the same time.the lack of well-developel iofmstiucture aadthe shortage of highly trained mapower to runlarge industrial operations become much lessimportant when people are allowed end en-courag?d to develop themselves wherever theyare. A whole army of problems can potentiallybe solved at once.

It is precisely for these seasons that the ap-propriate technology concept is spreading inpopularity so rapidly. Those who believe insmall entrepreneurial capitalism . decentialist

Marxism. European socialism, African commu-nalism, end Buddhism can all find much ofvalue in the ideas underlying appropriatetechnology. Differen t people are attracted to iibecause it seems to address so many funda-mental problem,s so directly.

Accor!!ingly, appropriate technology maybest be sew as a movement, a humanistic coun-terweight to the mechanistic view of the worldthat has prevailed for the last few centuries: asan opportunity for all citizens of the world toparticipate in new styles of architecture , achange of heart.

On the other hand, appropriate technology

may refer to specific lists of tools and tech-niques, which, as listed in AppropriateTechnology Sourcebook, share the followingcharacteristics:

1. Low in capital costs2. Use local materials whenever possible3. Er:; jobs, employing local skills and

4. ore small enough in scale to be afford-able by a small group of farmers

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5. Can be understood, controlled, andmaintained by rills ers wherever~~~~~~~.~~;~~U:=~~~igh level of

6. Can be produced out of a small metal-working shop, if not in a village itself

7. Suppose thattogether to P

eople can and will workco lectlvely bring improve-

men& to the communities, recognizingthat in most of the world, important de-cisions are made by groups rather than

by individuals

8. Involve decentralized renewableresources, such as wind power, solarenergy, water power, methane gas,animal power, and pedal power (suchas in that highly efficient machine, thebicycle]

10. Are flexible so that they can continueto be used o r adapted to fit chang ingcircumstances

11. Do not involve patents, royalties,consulting fees, import duties, ship-

ping charges, or financial wizards.

Perhaps appropriate technology can beseen as an evolving book of people-orientedideas, tools, and attitudes which bath the,developed snd developing countrie s contributeto in various ways. Undoubtedly appropriatetechnology, which can be seen as a kind ofprobe in the indwtrialized countries. has itsmodern roots in the developing world.

xiv

Introduction toAppropriate Technology

Inti;duction to Appropriate Technology,first published by tht: Committee for Interna-tional Couperation Activities of the TechnicalUniversity of Eindhoven in the Netherlands as aresult of a series of lectures organized jointlywith the CICA in the Technical University ofTwents in the Netherlands . is a comprehensivecollection of essays by eminent economists, so-ciologis ts, engineers, and others on appropriatetechnology.

Very simply, this is a revolutionary workby technical rerolutionanes. many of whomhave been asrrciated with the IntermediateTechnology Development Group, who believethat appropriate technology offers genuine al-ternatives for boih developed and developingcountries. Moreover, Introduction is a lively cri-tique of Western technology that, in the wordsof Ton de Wilde, can only aim for a societywhere people are consum ers and no longerproducers. In our Western rationality, in ourdialectic way of thinking, we distinguishbetween consumer s and producers , betweenlife and work, between capital and labor,between materialis tic things and spiritualthings or feelings. But what happens when thedecision makers base their decisions on modelsthat only recognize a part of our human being?

Now. on the one hand we have our car-sometimes with stere-ur color television,our household gadgets, our parties; on the otherhand we have our psychiatric hospitals. Andthere are simply not enough of them to cope.We da not have enough psychiatrists and

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psychologists to help the people who run theirheads against the wall-people who want towork but can only go each week to the so&lservice to be paid for doing nothing. It must heclear by now that to me technology means thelabor situation and the whole technologicalinfrastructure.

The technological network is concernedwith a mass of information, the speed of life,places crowd ed with cars, a lot of garbage in na-ture, the spoiling of our ecological system. Forsome people in same situations this sort ofsystem has its benefits, hut we must realize thatthere is also a bad side for other people in othersituations. This is hue not only at a national,hut also at a world level. One part-the 20percent in the developed countries-is well fedand has some kind of work, while the 80percent in the less developed countries is badlyfed, and there is no work for 30 to 50 percent ofthem.

Introduction to Appropriate Technology isan important, perhaps essential, handbook o ftools and techniques for r&inking develop-ment aid. Moreover, it provides specific ra-tionale and content for appropriate technology;it is full of the hardware of appropri&technology. For example, John P. Parry con-cludes his chapter in Intermediate TechnologyBuilding with the following admonition:When the people in the developing world canbuild themselves good brick and tile houseswith the masonry bonded by pozzolanicmortars, all of which materials they have madethemselves, we will have taken a major steptowards reattaining the standard ofmaintenance, insulation, and permanence ofthat excellent but scarce dwelling, the Ice Age

Introduction

cave. And such a hope is also applicable toresidents of the American Southwest who, forthese reasons, are rediscovering a traditionaland worthy building material: adobe.

To those critics who suggest that appro-priate technology is a loose collection of ideasand inventions, Introduction gives lie. Appro-priate technology, as the following chaptertitles indicnte, is applizahle in a multitude ofsituations: The Social Context for ChoosingWater Technologies, Tools for Agriculture,Intermediate Technology Building, Energyin Rural Areas. Pedal Power, IntermediateChemical Technology, Education Sys-tems, Appropriate Production Systems, In-dustrial Liaison. The Transfer of Knowiedgeand the Adoption of Technologies.

But more than exploring the hardware ofappropriate technology, Introduction expIo:esthe spirit of this movement with examples fromrevolutionary societies, such es Cuba, China,and North Vietnam, where people-orientedtechnologies are a way of life. In chapter 12The Transfer of Knowledge . HarryDickinson notes that China is feeling the ef-fects of mechanization. If you ask the people ina village what happens when they get a pump,they say that they all work less hard. But that isonly their immediate reaction to the innovation;after a while they say that they start up newsideline industries. These may give them theadded valu: from processing their own raw ma-terials; they may produce goods that the com-munity itself needs, or they may producegoodsfor sale and thus enable the community topurchase products it was not used to before.Whatever the objective of the new activities,there is no idea that anything to do with

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increased productivity could lead to any sort ofunemployment. Such a result is inconceiv-able.

Appropriate Technologyin the United States

There is an abiding belief on the part ofscores of groups in the United States that zzppro-priate technology offers real promise for a kindof cultural revolution and a basis for genuinebrotherhood. This thinking is reflected in thereport, Appropriate Technology in the United

States, prepared by Eugene Ecc li for the Na-tional Science Foundation. The problems,Eccli writes, faced by appropriate technologyinnovators and a world moving toward a re-cycling-based economy iew, thisnational interest in appropriate technology issimilar to the enr-&nmental and consumer pro-tection movements; it grw out of a specific setof circumstances, including the energyshortage, and not particularly t of events inthe Third World. Still, the National Center forAppropriate Technology should strike a cordwith appropriate technologi sts overseas. Ac-cording to the NCAT, The main goalofappro-priate technology is to enhance the self-relianceofpeople 0 local level.

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Introduction

The NCAT. which will fund end advise in-dividuals and communities on the basis of theirparticular needs, will be hardware oriented,es the following objectives indicate:

t. Improving heat-source efficiency (e.g..improved flue dampers)

2. Inw-energy cooling end venii!ation3. Reducing the cat of insulation through

manufach,ring techniques4. Weathertzing mobile homes5. Developin low-cost housing for rural

areas base Fi

materials

on mdlgenous and recycled

6. Developing community greenhouses7. Dwoloping aquaculture systems for

low-income communities8. Developing compos ting toilets and

methane digestors for rural areas9. Developing community industries

based on the manufacture of small-scaletechnologies for community and outsideuse (such as solar collectors).

In truth, the establishment of the Nationa!Center for Appropriate Technology washastened by the good work of existing appro-priate technology organizations in America andCanada. These groups, including New AlchemyInstitute, Zolseworks, Windworks, Institute forSelf-Reliance, The Farallones Ins titute,Ecotope, tbe Brace Institute. Rodele Resources,end many others are developing appropriate-technology hardware and strategies.

Interestingly, the budding inte rest inAmerica in small-scale technology would nothave surprised be country a century ago. AsNicolas Jdquier notes virtually all the indus-tries which grew up in the United States in the

nineteenth century started on a very smallscale. often as one-man operaions.

Another lesson from the Americanexperience is that. contrary to what happenedin most ~uropeen countries. a high proportionof the inventors end entrepreneurs came fromthe rural communities. Oliver Evans. the inven-tor of the automatic milling machine. xvasbrought up on a Delaware farm: Eli Wbitrey,who was to play a crucial part in the develop-ment of the textile industry . end later the ma-chine industry. grew up to manhood on hisfarm in Connecticut; Cvrus McCormick, whose

name became the m&x trademark in agri-cultural machinery, wes also a farmers son, endHenry Ford himself came from a Michiganfarm. Clearly. the American farming com-munity of the nineteenth century was very dif-ferent from the peasant societies of any othercountries: tlm farmers were free men and theyknew that the future would be what theywanted it to he. These examples are given hereto suggest that development is not necessarilyen exc!usively urban phenomenon end that theinventiveness and the entrepreneurship in therural sector are exizemely impor!aut. This pointmust be emphasized, since more than 70percent of the world population today still livesin rural communities. No society can beconsidered as truly developed unless it has ahealthy ag riculture, end the social and eco-nomic level of the agriculture sector isgenerally a good indicator of a countrys overalllevel of development.

In Small Is Beautiful Schumacher notedthat the applicability 6.f intermediatetechnology is extremely wide, even if notuniversal. and will be obvious to auyone who

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Introduction to AppropriateTechnology

takes the trouble to look for its actual applica-tions today . Examples can be found i n everydeveloping country and, indeed. in the ad-vanced countries as well. What, then, is miss-ing? It is simply that the brave and able prac-tioners o f intermediate technology do not sup-rort one another. and cannot be of assistance tothose who want to follow a similar road but do

not know how to get started.It is hoped that Introduction to AppropriateTechnology will be of great help to both !basewho do not know how to get started and allthose who are interested in the fullest applica-tion of appropriate technology at hors andabroad.

lames C. McCullagh

.

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Chapter One

An Approach forAppropriate Technolo@sts

by George McRobie1n recent years there has been an economists concept reflecting an al-

considerable effort in the area of what ternative to the very costly technologies ofmight be called people-oriented Europe and America. On the average, intechnologies, which have been variously Western Europe technology cs.ts ap-celled intermediateprogressive, and low cost: apprpriate~

proximately $6.000 per workplace. Thisfigure represents the average coSt of treat-

By virtue of the work done by the ing one workplace in a manufacturing in-Intermediate Technology Development dustry, excluding the cost of lend endGroup in London, !he phrase inter- building. Thus, it would cost $6,000 formediate technology has gained equipment for the workplace.considerable currency. Invented by E. F. Traditional technology, which is nowSchumacher after a visit to India in 1963, in use in the rural areas of developing

intermediate technology is essentially countries, costs about $2. Therefore, in the

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tntrodoc tion to Appropriate Technolwy

Photo .2. rimminghite datoeso,StarchnTaiwan,

2

simplest sense intermediate technologyrefers to the cost of a workplace betweenhigh and low technologies.

Since the average inc ome of &tiledworkers in the rich countries is $4,000, so-ciety has lit:ie di fficulty in regeneratingworkplaces at a high Level of cost. Forexample. a skilled workman who saves onemonths salary each year can buy his own

workplace in 18 yean. But if his averageincome is only 540, he would be saving forhis workshop for nearly 200 years.

Considered from this point of view,Western technology can spread only to avery small section of the population. Andthis is precisely what has happened.Development has been concentrated incities: it has bypassed the great majority ofpeople in the rural areas, and it has causeddivisions in a society which are far greaterthan those which might have occurredwithout the advent of such a technology.

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Infrastructure

The factory in the rich country isreally the outward manifestation of awhole set of societal forces. It involves veryspecialized education, highly specializedtransport systems-and the assumptionthat they are always inexpensive-m assmarkets, spe cialized fuels, and a very dis-ciplined labor force.

Merely to take this factory and transferit to a developing country does not auto-matically create the infrastructure onwhich its success depends. Not surpris-ingly, large-scale, capital-intens ive in-dustry in developing countries generallyneeds a great deal of support, and eventhen, usually runs well below capacity.

The challenge was this: How do weinterest peopla in developing (anddeveloped] technologies that aresomewhere between $40 and $400 perworkplace? Then. how do we determinewhat the characteristics of suchtechnologies would be?

---ln Approach for Appropriate Technologists

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Introd udion to Appropriate

Brickmaking in China.

chnology

First of all. we can be certain thatintermediate technologies would be theopposite of what we have now. Theywould tend to be small. they w ould be rela-tively cheap, they would be low in capitalcost, they would be relatively unsophisti-cated. and importantly. they would be non-violent. particularly in the sense that theywould be largely based on indigenousresorces and used for local needs. Thislast pairIt distinguishes them from our so-

phisticated technologies which are basedon the principles of a robber-economy,which strips resources from the face of theearth at maximum speed. turns them intoshort-lived consmer goods and sells themback at very high prices to the countriasfrom which we originally g+ the raw ma-teriais.

Secodiy, intermediate techno!ogieswould tend to work with natureratherthanagainst it. It is a historical fact that modemtechnologies and economics havecontributed to mans alienation from4

himself. his work, and from nature ingeneral. However. intermediatetechnologies, the hallmarks of which aresmallness, capital cheapness. and sim-plicity, would assure that the great ;na-jority of people should be able to actiiielyparticipate in the condwt of their ownlives.

Large-scale technologies encourageaneconondc exclusion. The real decisionabout how things are produced. where

they are produced, who produces them.and who receives income from the produc-tion, is concentrated in a relatively smallnumber of hands.

For these reasons we are askingengineers. scientists, and economists tolook at technology through a new pair ofqactacles. Instead of concentrating onlabor-saving devices, which has been thewhole trend of modern technology, canyou turn your attention to capital-savingdevices, because it is capital that is lackingin developing countries, not labor. And

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indeed, we may soon find this to he thecase in many industrialized countries.

IntermediateTechnologyDevelopment Group

On the basis of this perceived need theIntermediate Technology DevelopmentGroup was formed in 1966. initially serv.ing as a pressure group trying to changepeoples attitudes about what constitutedaid. Within the group are various panels,each of which consists of the best technicalexperts we can find in the respective areas.The panel covers subjects such as agri-cultural tools and equipment, water sup-ply, rural health, building and buildingmaterials, food technology, cooperatives,

forestry, and chemistry and chemicalengineering.

Methodology

The first thing IIDG did was toconduct a survey of what already existswithin the categories of intermediate or ap-propriate technologies. From this we triedto identify certain gaps in knowledgeabout technology which need filling.Thirdly, we hope to mobilize technicalknowledge to fill in these gaps. Fomthly,

we try to disseminate this knowledge in apractical form.Now while this might be very logical,

it is extremely difficult to carry out.Consider the type of knowledge that isreaching developing countries. In practicemost institutional forces are directedtoward giving these countries only onetype of knowledge--the knowledge of themost sophisticated technology that the richcountries have to offer. Such a process isnot only built into our official aid pro-grams, it is also built into the educationalsystems which the developing countries

6

have inherited or copied from us andwhich we continue to foster by means oftraining scientists, engineers, and adminis-tr-tors who return to their oxn countrieswith inappropriate technologies.

So at both ends-both the giving andthe receiving-peoples minds are chan-nslled almost exclusively toward theboundaries of knowledge that in-dustrialized -ountries trade in. If you lookbelow that level, you will realize that thereis no institutional or political force thatmakes known there nre alternat?technologies available for developing ordeveloped countries. Thus ITDG, as well asother appropriate technology organiza-tions in the world, is trying to fill thisknowledgegap.

Practical Alternatives

We have a good deal o f experience inthis. For example, we have been asked byvarious African countries if we can providethem with detailed information about thetechnology and the costs of small-scaleplants for sugar processing, glass manu-facturing, brickworks, and cement sub-stitutes. The only one that we were able toanswer effectively was with brickworks,because we actually had a hand in makingand running brickworks in Ghana, In the

other cases the knowledge is fragmentaryor dispersed and far away; you can in factonly get information about small-scalesugar plants in India. By tbe time the cor-respondence has gone to and fro, the bigsugar companies are there breathing downthe neck of the administrator and saying,Sign here. A turnkey project. The wholething will be operating within ayear.Theadministrator faced with the need to makesome decision quickly will opt for the hightechnology because that is given him on aplate. No one is there saying: There areplenty of alternatives and here they are,

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together, to try to start their own smallproduction unit. And above this again isthe market tow n or regional center level.which would utilize what is nowrecognized as small industry

Now all of this is below the level of

high technology as we at present peddle itto developing countries . So the gap whichwe are trying to fill is a very w ide one. Thisalso accounts for a lot of confusion aboutwhat is meant by intermediate technologyor appropriate technology. Thus somepeople have in their minds only the simplehand-tools. tbs do-ii-yourself type of tool:other people think only of small industry.And of course we are concerning ourselveswith both. and the one in the middle aswell. because these constitut e the gap. Wetry to formalize this by saying there is nosuch thing as the or an intermediate or ap-

propriate technology: there is a range ofthem. And the great thing is to provide in-formation over that range and give peoplea choice. So at the firs t level the capitalcost might he on the order of $20 to 540 perworkplace. 540 to $4UO at the next level,and then from $400 to $800 or $1,000.

and these are the costs, and here is theoperating experience of two or three mumtries where they have been tried out. Or1Iere is the team of people who will comeand put it up and train your people in run-ning it . &lone of that happens. and 20

country after country decides in favor oflarge-scale projects. although they know.as in the case of Tanzania. that that i sprecisely the wrong thing to do.

Levels of Need

The knowledge gap is a very wide oneand it ranges right down to the level that isoutslde the market. This sector below themarket level is where knowledge 3f how todo things without any recourse to themarket is most needed. I think this sectoris important and is one of the areas that

economists have totally neglected. Over alarge area of the developing world theproblem people have is not how to spendtheir money to best advantage. On theother hand, the big problem in rich c oun-tries is how to get the best bargain: we are abargain-hunting society because we haveincome, and our problem, and a great dealof the problems of economics, is how todistribute that income to greatest ad-vantage. But for the man who is unem-played and has no income, his problem isnot how to distribute his money to greatestadvantage, because he has not got any. Hisproblem is how to turn his labor intosomething useful and +&at is quite a dif-ferant problem and not one, I suggest, thatcan be studied within the context of eco-nomics as we now know it. So there is firstof all the need to cater to nonmarketeconomy by providing a technology whichenables people to turn their labor intosomething useful with the minimum posni-ble of imported materials.

Above this, of course. there is the nextlewl, which we might call the communitylevel, where a group of people can get

Identifying the Gaps

The problem of identifying these gapsis of course a very real one, because youneed to begin wi th some knowledge ofwhat exists and a fair knowledge, at least,of what could be done. Again I think it isvery easy to fall into the trap that the of-ficial aid-agencies have deliberately falleninto and this is to say, We cannot doanything until we have received reqilestsfrom developing countries. When westarted the group the Minister said. Justshow us the demand for this simple levelof technology and we will respond im-mediately. But the fallacy lies in the firstpart of the statement: Show us the de-mand. because the only thing that the

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Thlr sketch ashows hw a catchment tank sand,and tricklea down into the cavitle~ u nderwalks. When rain falls, the water run8 0 the the dJ,e8. To get water out, a bucket IS low-sloping ca tchment apron. I, co,,ects on top of e,ec* Into the open w ell. Or a hand pump ml gh:the sand, which is piled a foot or 80 deep on be used. Sand filters the water both a8 It enters~ODof the domes. The water 80akS through the the tank. and agaln as It enters the well.

,in

I

Figwe 1.1. Fainwater catchmenf anks.

developing countries have knowledge of isthe highest level of technology. Now sincethey do not know that there are alterna-tives. how c:m they be expected to ask forthem? And this is really one of the firstandmost long-lived disputes that we have hadnrith the official aid-agencies. If a man incentral Africa. India. or Latin Americawants an animal-drawn harrow, he hadfirst of all to invent it in his own mindbefore he can ask for it. And if he can in-vent it. he would probably not be asking i nany case. So the first task is to make knownthat there are alternatives and then a de-mand might be forthcoming. But then ofcourse. one encounters the familiar argu-ment used by the officia l aid-agencies.We cannot do anything without a specificdemand or request, and !hat requesi mustcome from the governmen!. We only dealon a government- to-goverilment basis andit must be a demand which is generatedwithin the country itself.

Thus, there is a real task in makingknown that information exists, and such aprocess of mobilizing information cannotwait for specific demands to arise fromdeveloping countries . Fortunately, there is

8

a very wide range of activities which manypeople throughout the world are trying t operform in ow way or another and theseactivities relate broadly to the activities ofgrowing and consuming food, clothing,shelter, health. cul ture. and certain basiccommunity services. If you take these suh-jects alone and spell them out in terms ofthe manufacturing actirir%s they imply,you get a very respectable range of indus-tries for which information is needed allover the world.

Assembling and

Disseminating InformationNow, until such information is made

available, people will not be able to takehoid d it and adapt it to their own circum-stawxs. What the rich countries cannot dois to adapt technology to suit precisely theneeds of particular areas. but lhey con atleast make known that these alternativesexist and give some assistance in theprocess of adapting them to meetparticular needs in particular areas.

There are different ways. of course, oftrying to get this knowledge together. We

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have concentrated on bringing togethergroups for this purpose. We are also tryingto bring in tire universities. technicalcolleges, schools of art, design centers,professional associations, and quiterecently, I am happy to say, a number ofgovernment research institutions. Anumber of such insti:utions which weresupposed to be dealing with developingcount&&have now shown signs of begin-ning tti collaborate with us in what we aretrying to do.

Finally there is :he dissemination ofthe information and this can take a numberof forms. If the information is notpublished, nothing can happen at all be-cause until the information is published, itdoes not rsally exist. So how do youpublish it and to urhom do you addressthese publications? We are trying to do thisin various ways, particularly through ajournal, Appropriate Technology. We are

trying to use it as a vehicle for bringingtogether people who am working in thisfield. But there are much more effectiveways of disseminating information andone is actual field demonstration. 1 do notmean carrying out enormous programs ofdevelopment, that is the job of govern-ments, United Nations agencies. and someof the very big agencies dealing with aidand relief. I mean demonstrating that thesetechnologies actually work in practice: thismeans forming linka with countries~aseas.

Overseas Links

Each country has iis own ways ofmak-ing linlts. The Netherlands has obvioushistorical links with !ndonesia, and has aparticularly great advantage in dealingv?F most other countries, in that it is noi

I d i A i T h l

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seen es an ex-colonial power. for exempiein India, or Ceylon, or Latin America.Wherever these links can be formed theyshould he, in order to carry out demonstra-tions of the utility of particulartechnologies . They can be formed in awhole variety of ways. They may be inuniversitie s, they may be with interestedgovernment departments, they may bewith voluntary agenr:es or with missions.In fact I would go so far as to say thar theactual publication of information should,wherever possible, follow field testing.One should not publish information thathas not been field-tested somewhere, notnecessarily by yoursetves but by some-body.

Overseas links, of course, are alsoessential for identifying and understand-ing local needs, attitudes, and conditions.In the case of agricultural equipment, for

instance, virtually no work at all has beendone on the identification of needs in ruralareas for equipment, not even for tractors.We were astonished to find, when westarted our work on agricultural equip-ment, that in spite of something like 20years work by British universities on agri-culture in developing countrie s, nobodyhad ever gone into a rurai community andsaid, What are your problems? We hadalways gone in and said. We know whatthe answew are; the answer consists of atractor. Please sign here. When they call itaid, 1 wonder who aids whom. Certainly a

lot o f aid has gone to tractor manufacturersin Britain.

Surveying Local Needs

The pattern of labor used in a typicalrural community may be represented bpthe graph in figure 1.3. Although grosslyoversimplified it shows the demand forlabor throughout the agricu!!ural year.Frequently, of course, there may be double-cropping which would bring two labor

peaks close together: the second task maynot be started until :he first is completed,and naturally weather and the seasons willnot wait for men to sort out his labor bottle-necks.

The problem of these communitiesreally is to find ways of breaking these boi-tlenecks on increased production. At thepoints A, B. and C the whole com munity isinvolved, and with the existing level oftechno!ogy they cannot produce more thanthey are doing. During the periods D and Ethey are grossly underem ployed and this isthe period when new activities need to beintroduced into the rural area. They maynot be farming activities but they will ob-viously be linked with farming. Now inorder to discover what these bottlenecksare and precisely whet they cons ist of, youwill have to go into a rural ae?. andexamine it in great de tail for at least a year,

preferahiy two or three years, so that youcover a couple of good seasons and badseasons. Not until you have done that canyou have a picture of what the ir problem sare. And our work so far has very clearlybrought out this s ort of pattern and theneed at peak labor times to introduceimproved mechanical equipment. Thismust be cheap enough to stand idle forlong pe- i,>ds of the year, because it is onlygoing to be used for a short time, endsimple enough for people to make i: duringthe slack period. If they have to importequipment, such as tiecio~s . the develop-

ment process is far more restricied. Trac-tors of course are indiscriminate; they putpeople out of work not only at A, B, and Cbut also at D and E.

Yet none o f this work has been donefor agriculture and it is likely that in al-most every other fieid you consider a gooddeal of this kind of work would have to bedone first. The alternative is to go in withour ready-made solutions. For instance,the classic argument about the tractor isthat the ground is so hard after the dryseason that only a tractor will break it

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seen as an ex-colonial power. for exampiein India, or Ceylon, or Latin America.Wherever these links can be formed theyshould be, in order to carry out demonstra-tions of the utility of particulartechnologies . They can he formed in awhole variety of ways. They map be inuniversitie s, they may be with interestedgovernment departments, they may bewith voluntary agenr:es or with missions.In fact I would go so far as to say thar theactual publication of information should,wherever possible, follow field testing.One should not publish information thathas not been field-tested somewhere, notnecessarily by yoursetves but by some-body.

Overseas links, of course, are alsoessential for identifying sod understand-ing local needs, attitudes, and conditions.In the case of agricultural equipment, for

instance, virtually no work at all has beendone on the identification of needs in ruralareas for equipment, not even for tractors.We were astonished to find, when westarted our work on agricultural equip-ment, that in spite of something like 20years work by British universities on agri-culture in developing countrie s, nobodyhad ever gone into a rurai community endsaid, What are your problems? We hadalways gone in and said. We know whatthe answew are; the answer consists of atractor. Please sign here. When they call itaid, 1 wonder who aids whom. Certainly a

lot o f aid has gone to tractor manufacturersin Britain.

Surveying Local Needs

The pattern of labor used in a typicalrural community may be represented bpthe graph in figure 1.3. Although grosslyoversimplified it shows the demand forlabor throughout the agricu!!ural year.Frequently, of course, there may be double-cropping which would bring two labor

peaks close together: the second task maynot he started until :he first is completed,and naturally weather and the seesons willnot wait for man to sort out his laborbottle-necks.

The problem of these communitiesreally is to find ways of breaking these boi-tlenecks on increased production. At thepoints A, B. and C the whole com munity isinvolved, and with the existing level oftechno!ogy they cannot produce more thanthey are doing. During the periods D and Ethey are grossly underem ployed and this isthe period when new activities need to heintroduced into the rural area. They maynot be farming activities but they will oh-viously be linked with farming. Now inorder to discover what these bottlenecksare and precisely what they cons ist of, youwill have to go into a rural ae?. andexamine it in great de tail for at least a year,

preferabiy two or three years, so that youcover a couple of good seasons and badseasons. Not until you have done that canyou have a picture of what the ir problem sare. And our work so far has very clearlybrought out this s ort of pattern and theneed at peak labor times to introduceimproved mechanical equipment. Thismust be cheap enough to stand idle forlong PP- ,>ds of the year, because it is onlygoing to he used for a short time, endsimple enoogb for people to make i: duringthe slack period. If they have to importequipment, such as tiacio~s . the develop-

ment process is far more restricied. Trac-tors of coarse are indiscriminate; they putpeople out of work not only at A, B, and Chut also at D and E.

Yet none o f this work has been donefor agriculture and it is likely that in al-most every other fieid you consider a gooddeal of this kind of work would have to bedone first. The alternative is to go in withour ready-made solutions. For instance,the classic argument about the tractor isthat the ground is so hard after the dryseason that only a tractor will break it

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I Planting Weeding HarvestingA, B, and C are the barriers to increased productio n.D and E are the areas of un- and underemplo yment whichrequire low-cost and small-scale local manuta cturing .

quickly enough to allow plan ting, the tim-

ing of which is absolutely critical to withina few days . The obvious answer to this i s tochange slightly the pattern of agricultureso as to avoid the need for a tractor. Our ag-ricultura l people, who have worked in EastAfrica for a long time, tell us that this hasbeen done and is being done on increasingscale. You do not, in tact, turn under orclear away the rubbish lying on the groundimmediately after the harvest. The answeris to run duck%foot tines through the soil,just breaking up the first few inches o f thesoil and leaving all the rubbish on top. You

leave it like that till the rains come , which

then dont ran off the soil. The rubbish be-comes part of the humus and the ground isalready broken up. There i s no need fortractors provided one approaches L&esystem intelligently. In addition, theequipment is very simple and can he madelocally. So in almost every case the argu-ments that are used for high technology donot stand up to any sort of investigation.

And yet this sort of approach has onlyjust begun, 1 think our group was the firstto adopt it, but it is xow being taken up byother people and one hopes it is going to be

11

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done on B much larger scale. The chancesare that one needs to do the same sort ofcareful investigation for other activities inorder to arrive at precisely what will suitthe commun ity. And there is every reasonto suspect that similar questions are goingtG be raised more frequentI,, in in-dustrialized countries.

In order to arrive at precisely what willsuit the communi ty you have to undertakethe tvpe of investigation we have jut beenconsidering. But in order to make availabrethe range of choice!; which will s&o thoseproblems, you can begin work withoutwaiting for the demand . When mr peoplewent out to Zambia for this agriculturalinvestigation. they took with them 40designs af equipme nt which looked ap-plicable to the local problems. Thesedesigns were drawn from 50 different agri-

cultural research centers throughout theworld. Not all the designs were of any usebut sxne were, at least by giving peopleideas of how the equipme nt might headapted or developed further. A daptationis important. There are plows that havebeen developed for use on the east coast ofIndia. where ths bullocks migh about aton and stand six feet at the shoulder. Thebullocks in drier parts of Zambia more re-semble greyhou nds. So the sort of equip-ment they can draw has to be quite d if-ferent from the sort that big animals candraw Then you have to take into accountsoil conditions and climate. socia l condi-tions and community obligations in adapt-ing equipme nt precisely to local needs.And you need people who speak the lan-guage and understand the local com-munity. But more generally one can

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recognize the extent of the breakthrou ghwhen I say that Kumasi is actually buildin gprototype small workshops on itscampus-the holy campus itself. It ,vasoriginally designed to look es much like acampus in the United Kingdom as possi-b!e, but is now dosec rated by actually bev-ing things built on it, such as smallworkshops, looms, and brickworks. This isa major break with tradition and we arevery proud of it. It might spread.

In other cases governments have takenup the responsibility. Pakistan has set upwhat pr omises to be a very large. perhapstoo large. center for the development of ap-propriate technologies. Tanzania alreadyhas something similar in the Small Indus-tries Development Organizatio n, and fgather that very soon the Endhover! Tech-nische Hogescbool will he having i.nks

with the r)evelopment Technology Centerat the Bandung institute of Technology.These overseas points are absolutelyessential. b ecause without them to whomarc yau addressing yourself? You can ad-dress yourself piecemeal to administra torsand fieldworkers. but in order to workwithin developing countries on mobilizingtheir own resources for technologicaldevelopment, this sort of center is. I think.absolutely essential.

New Developments

I want now to mention some possi-bilities for new work that needs to be done.I mentione d earlier the basic needs: food,clothing. shelter. basic communitysewices. and so on. On the basis of ourexperience I think if anyone said to us.You cmnot make it small. we wouldmu reply. Prove it! Although I da notwant to exaggerate how m uch has actuallybeen done, w,hat experience we have hadindicates that anything can be made smalland still be efficient. I was delighted

recently by our ,nter engineer who hasbeen working an the hydraulic ram. YOUcan put this in any slowmoving body ofwater a nd it uses the porrer of the wafer it-self gradually to pump ,rater up to adistance of mrybe 40 meters. very expen-sive: the cheapest one made in Brisincosts $400 and by the time it reaches ihedewloping country you can be quite sure itCOS,S 800. Simon Watt has no,,. producedone costing less than $20 which can bemade out of galvanized iron pipi ng.

This is the smt of information we wantto assemble. We shouid try to produce in-formation on a technological spectrum . tohave one of $8. one of $2. and one of $,oo.That is what would fit into my range. Makethe range and then produce detailedpractical informatio n and make it freelyavailable to developing countries. As

another example we have our agriculturalengineer who made a metal-bending ma-chine. The nearest thing to it made inBritain cost $1.400 and he produced onefor $14. Using principl es that are perfectlywell known. wheels up to 1.2 meterr indiameter can now be made by any black-smith with the assistance of this simpleequipment.

Another area of considerable interestis the manufacture of cement. We areinterested in txro things: one is the scalingdown of big cement plants and the other ismaking cement substitutes. The scientistsemployed by the cement ind usby are very

angry about this because they say that out-siders have no business !o meddle in themaking of cement. From what little I knowabat it. the process is so simple that Idont know what they feel so worriedabout. But of COUTS~t is not really quitesosimple. A remarkable man. M. K. Garg inIndia has done a lot of work on this subjectand has produced a small-scale cementplant that works, but does not ql;iteproduce the right quality of cement. He hasproblem s of femperatu~e control and so on.

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His work needs to be continued until asmall-scale unit is perfected that isperfectly possible. There may be suchcases. in which case the thing is to look foran alternative to cement. We are trying topursue both approaches at the moment.There are alternative cement substiwessuch as mortar mixes, which are perfectlywell known-they L ed a bit more experi-mental work dole on them-w hich can beused on buildings up to two or three storieshigh. gust es good as cement. but such isthe power of the idea that you cannot doanything until you have got a cementplant. that developing countries all overthe world have sat crippled and helplessbecause the big cement plant has not comeinto produc!io.

Limits to Large Scale

The day of the large-scale unit isprobably coming to a end because ofenergy transport COSTS.We have developedthese huge technologies on the basis ofcheap transport. I cannot otherwiseexplain the phenomen on that you can ob-serve anywhere in Britain. and I am quitesore in Holland too: you stand o a mo-torway and you will see lorries fromLondon to Glasgow carrying biscuits an dlorries f rom Glasgow to London carryingbiscuits (or any other product you like tothink of). And the only conclusion you caocome to is that there is something in the

nature, the character, of biscuits that re-quires them to travel 500 miles before !h eyare properly mature. There is no otherlogical explanation for the phenomen on.And such a system is only po ssible becauseof large-scale p roduction. the curious formof competitive situation that we havedeveloped. with tranrporl and energy coststhat were minimal. Until recently thecostsof energy in manufac turing industry allover Europe was a almost insignificantproportion of the total cost. For a average

manufacturing industry in Britain it wasabout four percet, so they did not .ind atall if it went up by 10 percent or not. Now,of course. energy costs are not insignific antnor are transport axts. As a result one cansee that all sorts of ideas about large-scaleinduswy and about agriculture are going :ochange very rapidly.

Perhaps f should end off with thecheerful thought that what we in the Westhave really done is to create a societywhich is based totally o the assumpti on ofcheap and almost ni l-cost energy. That iswhet gave rise to the growth of cities.Cities can only becomevan large if it takesonly a very small prop ortion of the totalpopulation. food producers. to feed on-food prod ucers. If it takes 80 percent ofyou population to feed 20 percent. theonly 2 0 percent can live in the cities. But ifyou introduce a system of production . asWC have done, based on cheap oil, whichhas a very high productivity p?r ma(which is not the same as productivity perhectare). you can the have four percent ofyour population feeding 96 percent. andthose 96 percent can live in cities. Bu t thesystem of agriculture o which thi sprocess is based does not seem to me to bea permanent one. because it dependsentirely on oil for its opemtio. Some workrecently done in the United States showsthat for several food crops ,it takes roughlyone unit of oil energy to produce one unitof food energy. Now whatever else that is.

it in not a permanent system of agriculture.BUM t is what we were on the threshold ofexporting to developing countries on avery big scale under the name of theGreen Revolution and other similar%hemes.

Fortunately those intelligent me ofthe Organization of Petroleum ExportingCountries have saved us from such acourse, and they may very well have savedus in other ways as well, unless of coursethey drive us to the eve great er lunacy of

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atomic energy. We may be hooked o nenergy-intensive technologies. but at leastdeveloping countries have an option.There is no need for them to followprecisely the fame path. and if there isnothing else we can be doing, at least wecan be saying. You nay go in oilr direc-tion: yau may want to do as we have done.but at least we can offer you opti ons. Wecan offer you a choice. And I think this isbasically the question IW are trying toanswer-How da you actually set about thejob of offering choices w hich are nottheories, which are tested out and areyc$d as far as it is possible to make

e

But ihere is another dimension to ap-propriate technology that many of us arebeginning to perceive. In the best sense ap-propriate technology offers alternatives toindividuals and communitiess. Nonetbe-less. in the early years of this m ovement,the emphasis was on deriving alternativesfor developing nations. Recently, however,pnrticul dg with the advent of a Nationa!center for Appropriate Technology inAmerica. there is a budding awareness thateven highly industrialized communi tiesmight well need mme ,~ltcmativetechnologies. that even Americans mightbe looking for alternatives to high-technology living.

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Chapter Two

The Social Context for ChoosingWater Technologies

bv Simon B. Watt

At first sight it leaks as thoilgh mychapter should sim ply be concerned w ithcivil en gineering hm the paint of view ofw&r supply. But 1 hope you wilt ap-preciate by the eild that I really believe thatthe actual techn ique or skit, cf engineeringis one of the least important considera-tions. I want to concentrate much more onthe attitudes and motivations of theengineer trying to implem ent an appro-priate technology-in this case, a

technology for rural water supply. I alsowant to examine ways in which the broadobjectives of the research or impleme ntstion can be better understood by theengineers involved in it. This is particu-larly impo rtant in relation to the ways inwhich preconceiwd ideas of standards orefficiency can limit the extent to whichthe objectives can be met.

Know Yourself

I am not going to give a systematicdescription of appropriate techniques. noran evaluatian of the available technology. Ithink this would be misleading. Anycompetent engineer. with the rightexperience can locate and utilize cam-mercial hardware, or if this is not appro-priate. he can design and build su itablesystems and equipment. Rather, I want toconcentrate on his education. how he istrained to conceive the problem. and howfar he is able to look beyond conventionalsnlutians.

The message of the childrens storyabout the small boy who was not afraid topoint nut that the emperor wore no

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r

What this littl e parable shows is that anwer I can ever give is that be sbthe first roquiremcnt in the developmentpracess is that you should discover whoyau really are yourself. and what are theassumptions and prejudices that influenceyour psition and subsequent work. Wh enI am asked what is the mst importantqualification and training a person needsbefare he is fit t work ve~seas. the only

Simply be a human being. B ut tile ce-tional engineering approach viewstechnical problems much more in thefashion of the first sketch in figure 2 .1.Engineers tend t sax themselves as mas-termind s having an objective picture ofthe world and its problems . The secondsketch is in my view mre r ealistic. It

ould

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me Social Content or Ctmsing WaterTecho*ogies

mance and low-performance technology.The difference between the two is thequick fall-off in the benefits derived fromhigh technology when its operationalparameters are not favorable. This is only

another way of saying that high technologyis generally conceived in, and designedfor. a particuiar society and a particular setof circumstances . One should. then. not besurprised if it fails to produce the intendedresults in different circumstance s.

Figure 2.3 takes the notion a stepfurther and portraw a spectrum oftechnology And in eva,uating the benefitsof a technolagy-performance, output. eff-ciency-one should be continually mind-ful of the ;econd law of thermodynam ics:one cannot get something for nothing. Of

depicts the objects of technology andourselves as being all part of one social ma-trix. Technolog y in this sense is not neu-tral: it is a social operator.

The analysis of the effects of

technology on society. and the reverse ef-fects. has only just begun. Little change hasyet come to the way engineers are trained.We do not yet see an interaction betweensociety and technology. Nor do we yet ap-preciate the range of alternatives that areopen to us if we are prepared to change ourlife-sty&s.

Now there i s. of course, a range oitechnologies from which it is possible.though it is not often do ne. to choose themost appropriate in any situation. Figure2.2 compares the atbibutes of high-perfor-

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The Social Content or ChoosingWaterTechnologies

mance and low-performance technology.The difference between the two is thequick fall-off in the benefits derived fromhigh technology when its operationalwwmeters are not favorable. This is only

another way of saying that high technologyis generally conceived in. and designedfor. a particular society and a particular setof circumstances . One should. then. not besurprised if it fails to produce the intendedresults in different circumstance s.

Figure 2.3 takes the notion a stepfurther and portra.,~ a spectrum oftechnology And in evaluating the benefitsof a technolagy-performance, output. eff-ciency-one should be continually mind-ful of the ;econd law of thermodynam ics:one cannot get something for nothing. Of

depicts the objects of technology andourselves as being all part of one social ma-trix. Technolog y in this sense is not neu-tral: it is a social operator.

The analysis of the effects of

technology on society. and the reverse ef-fects. has only just begun. Little change hasyet come to the way engineers are trained.We do not yet see an interaction betweensociety and technology. Nor do we yet ap-preciate the range of alternatives that areopen to us if we are prepared fo change ourlife-sty&s.

Now there i s. of course, a range oitechnologies from which it is possible.though it is not often do ne. to choose themost appropriate in any situation. Figure2.2 compares the atiibutes of high-perfor-

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,n,mduction to ~ppmpriate Technology

Highelformance!a!ermedia,e

/ITraditional- CL-a:Cash. energy, Skills. suffering

These are separate relatianships. Ccmlbining hem s verydifficult. We ham no quality-o-living index.

Figure 23.

course I should not give the impression of the relationships that exist between thethat all technological progress is various facrors. Su ch an analysis is furtheruniversally acclaimed. People generally complicated by the fact that not every fac-are a little conservative and afraid in their tar is capable of hning measured. In spite ofmaction to lechnology-Are we actually this the things that can be measured are notgoing to gain anything by this devslop- always accepted. or acceptable. Forment. how will it affect our lwel of example. s,,me transport studies th a: havewelfare? Or. if people really talked in the hesn carried out in Britain show that 80language of the economist. they might say percent of the COSTS pent on improvingWhat degree of disbenefit do we expect? transport benefit only 15 percent of the

To be able to evalwate these c,xts and countrys pnpulation. This does not seembenefits in quantitative terms is. of coume, very equita ble. and one hopes that such aextremely dif%ult. And indeed the objec- result was not the original inte ntion. Therethe of this discussion is only to show some are various devices that can be used to

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overcome some of ihe problems cf compar-ing dissimilar things, such as theeconomists technique of shadow pricing.But techniques like this do not really seemfo face up to fbe reality of the problemsthey are being used o n. And the conse-quences of this way of thinking simply innumerical term can be more or less disas-tmus. There has been discussion recentlyin Britain over the policy of shootinglame ducks, w hich sug gasts failing indus-tries should receive no government sup-port and should simply be allowed to gobankrupt, an the basis that if they are inef-ficient. they do not deserve IO survive. Op-ponents of this policy, rightly in my view.point to the costs of unemploy ment whichresult from su ch a policy. To take anotherexample of this numerical neurosis, theUnited Nations has tried to devise an index

by which the quality of life may bemeasured. The result of this exercise wasto show that a life in the United States wasworth approximately five tima a life inIndia. Not unnaturally this led to same-thing of a conflict, and the discussion wasabruptly stopped.

Choosing Appropriately

It is now time tc mrxe on from thesegeneral considerations to see what impactthey hwe on tie developing world and toexplore what possibilities they have for

making us look at development in a dif-ferent. and perhaps more sympathetic,way. One example that I have been in-volved in is the scheme supported by theCzarld Bank for pumps to be used in Ban-gladesh to snpply water i n the dry seasonthrough a,, average head of three meters.The various alter natives that wereconsidered. together with their shadowprices. are shown in figure 2.4. A shadowprice simply means that $X in country Acan be considered as equivalent to $Y in

The Social Context for Choosing Water Technologies

country B, and this can be used to dif-ferentiate between real and local costs.The World B anks choice was for thesecond of the alternatives shown in thefigure. while I suggested that a cheaper so-lution should be sought. Actu al experienceof tbe implemented rcheme has shown thatonly about one in every one hundred in-stallations has remained in use. This is be-cause of various shortages in spares, COT-ruption. lack of maintenan ce, and so on. Inthis scheme a lot of the mrmey of theoriginal in vestment has effeclively beenlost, but rather than become introspectiveover past failures, we should ask what wecan do to prevent a similar type of situationarising again. At rhe very leas in thisexample we should be studying bow low-skill maintenance in high-perform ancetechnology will inevitably lead to a fast re-

duction in output.Figure 2.5 shows the sort of solution

that I would favor. Th is fxw,icularso,u,ionillustrates a simply dug well and acheapand simple pumpperhaps a chain pumppowered by humans . Figu re 2 .6 illustratesa similar sort of approach for a well sm een.It was originated or invented by afarmer, but the idea of such a primitivebamboo screen was rejected, almost ou, ofhand. by the expxts. Nonetheless thisinnovation works and has achievedwidespread acceptance. So much so that.unlikely as it seems, it is a solution beingrecommended by the United Kingdoms

Atomic Ener gy Authority whose govern-ment scientists now find their underem-ployed skills being directed towards theThird World.

Such a fundamentalist approachshould give us ideas about the way owown development could proceed in the in-dustriaiired countries. It is not a foregoneconclusion that a technical possibilitymust lead to a particular form of imple-mentation . After all the Chinese knew allabout gunpowder long before it WASused

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dri,iing -scmell -Pm* -rnaine -

3U ,150,

1.440 ,720,

2.4C ,2.400,

4.50 ,4.500,

7.5ol ,13.3,

1.800 ,P.60, 4.800 ,9.600,

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Alternative* i n well constructionAnimal-drivechain DnlD

.-,..i I,:.,: Aquifer .,I

.. .

Ftgwe2.5.Al,elativ*S n vmll costrction.in warfare. And other countries can, and of someth ing ~hhat aaks superficially like acwse do, evaluate their costs nnd hsefits simple and conventional engineering pro-in different ways. The Chinese. for blem may ttlm O, to bs far mre cmnpli-example, dont shoot lame ducks: instead cated. Suppose, for example, tha t we arethey walk tw legs which represents trying to develop a cheaper p-pthe policy f encouraging ~er4opme t maximking the use of local materials. Thiswherever it can take place, whether in the may very well lead to the partial p roblemurban or the rural areas. I other words of developing a suitable flywheel.China encourages br oad-based. and Generally in Europe we would approachtherefore- decentralized. growth while the design of a flywheel in terms of ma-Europe tends, on political grounds, to cut terials like iron or steel which have suffi-offthe weaker parts. cient streng th to enable large-sized wheels

t be built. But if we translate our designinto ther materials which have less

Problem Ijefinition weight and less strength. the design willbecame mre expensive because the size

Another con sequence of studying the and the weight w ill increase without thehidden implicati ons of the problem is that strength being increased. This means that

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Relative Costs of Brewing (per top Pint)

Home Brew Charles Wells

Raw materials 0.32 0.80Brewing costs 2.50 mite Oft 2.90

(labor. transport, equipment at 1 pintoverhead. equipme nt) per day for 1 yea,

and 6 minuteslpint tomake bee,

Brewers profit 2.10Licensees profit 4.30Tax: at 1.50

Excise duty 3.40cost - 2 .8 pence - 15.0 pence

we ShOldask what am the m3cts Of hese methad* 0 production on:local emp,0yme**and idStry. !,OWOf materials. quality and quantity Ofbee,. cost to imbibe,. cost to commun ity. toss to t,ezswy, e&c! onsmial habits. etc.

r,gure 2.7.

we would bavc to investigate WVconstructions for flywheels. And to do thisit would be necessary to understand thereal purpose of a flywheel. So what lookedlike a simple redesign of B pump hasresulted in our exploring the range ofpossible energy accumulators.

Perhaps the rather down-to-earthexample in figure 2.7 will h4p to clarifythis general poin t a bout the need t under-stand not only the objectives of theexercise hut C&O the impiicatians of thechosen techxdogy. To arrive at a compare-ble state of inebtiriatio the cost of home-

24

brewed beer is approximateiy six centswhile co mmerci2 beer would c ost thirtycents. But one cannot s imply make thecomparison in terms of the same benefitsfor differing costs.* W C shauld also inves-tigate the implicatior;s of the chosenmethod cf production. md the effects itwill have on such factors as laml employ-ment. industrializatio n. the flow of ma-terials, transpo rt, end many other suchthings. One has to be able to have anoverview of the whole s pectrum oftechnology that is available for solving theproblem and then to make a thorough

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costibenefit analysis before e is in a posi-tim to be able to select the proper, or mm. !appropriate. tech7ology.

Standards

Same people maintain that an appro-priate solution wauld be incampatiblewith the idea af a piped m.ater supply. Butif one studies these criteria, one sees thatthis is not in fact the case. Theappropriate-es5 of different technologies will varywith each situation. A range of sme of thealternatives is show in figure 2.8. Thisdisplays relative cst a or various levels oftechnique. There is a tendency for atten-tion to be give t the msi saphis ticatedsystems. For instance the World Health Or-ganization demands that certain standardsof water supply shauld be met in any newscheme. Clearly to enpllre that all those inneed of improvement in their v&m supplyand sanitation have a sys!en; which meetsthese high standa rds wauld be prohibi-tively expensive. At that level oftecho!ogy. and cast, it would he bzpcssi-ble to connect all houses to centralizedwater supply. drainage, and sewagesystems. And there is no guarantee that do-ing this would p roduce the benefits ex-petted. As an illustration I feet that thesocial fcnction that accrues to a villagewell needs t be re-investigated . I,. real lifemany village women prefer t walk threekilometers to a traditional water supply soas to be able to cmtinue their csual pattemof meeting and chatting t other wmnenrather than use a r~ewly built village well.

The imprtant lessm t learn is thatthere is no uniquely applicable appropriatetechnology. noonesot utian that will applyin all circmsta ces. Appropriatetechnology implies a step-wise develop-ment, and investment will have t be madeover a wide range of levels. I this sensethe choice is a matter of the allocation of

The Social conicxt for Choosing water Technologies

scarce resou,ces. It is thus much mare aprlitical thanatecbnn logical choice.

crtteria *or anApprpriateT.chntogy

The water supply and sanitationtecbnnlagy chosen lr developed hy m-search) for rural areas and small commu-nitiesshould:

1. Facilitate *ivificant improve-ment in q&y and quantity ofservice without necessarily seek-ing tn obtain the near-perfect

2. me ow i n cost: as low as passible

high level of technical skill4. ,Make as much se as possible of

locsIly available materials, andrely as little as possible on im-ported supplies, spare parts, andeliiment

capttal ,eqipm.ent unless it isd.$~urPeav~!p& SO. e.g..

6. Encourage the growth of lacslmanufacture t supply the needfor equipment and parts under theleadership of local entrepreneurs

7. Be compatib le with local and servalues. attitudes. and preferences

8. Pmvide opportunity for incre-mental adooti an stewbv-steimprovemeht

9. Have a capacity for producin g acontagian effect and SD diffusingto other cornunities and indi-viduals

10. Facilitate commu nity invalve-men! and participation.

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lntroductio to AppropriateTechnology

Technique

None

spring,well. ond,MiCOll~CtiO

spring, we,,pond. rainCCJll~CtiO.pipetine

Piped totaps andShdPiPW

Piped totaps an*standpipes

Piped toindividualhouseholds

Piped tohouseholds,fllltipletaps

i

Quality lhrlanagemen

NO Individualprotection

Curb Individual

-t

majorpollution

Moderate UnskilledpP&CtiO

-t-

but regularoperator

by operatorsdisinfection

Good SkilledXOtWtiO trained

I-Y operators

Wnfection

Good Skillednotection tmiainsd-I-Y operatorslisinfection

10

0

20

ET

-4 Is7

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Health

In the details of safe \rater supplyshown in figure 2.9, ,Ye can see that in

,970, 88 percent of the population indeveloping coun,ries had no acce55 to safewater. The prediclio for ,980 shows a~nperfi~ially spectacular incr ease in thepercentage expected to have such BCCBFS.but virtually no impro\wment in the urn-hers without a safe suppl\*. This is a ES,,of ppnlation increasing faster thanimproved supply can keep pace. Thesketches included ia this figure show there,atiS of health benefit t water supply.we rnSl consider about two liters per dayas the minimum requiremenl. whereas inthe West approximately sixty lifers ,,erhead per day is used. This is considerablymore than is actually needed. or at least we

can say that the improvement in healthbenefit above a consump tion of about 20Mm per day is negligible . I the face oftile great disparity in consumpf ia rates.and the increasing cost and difficlty ofmeeting the westk cantinually rising de-mand, it would be a major achievement tochange from a policy of supply increase toOne of llemand decrease. A reduction afconsumptinn would at least uelccme thewestk water-supply problem s. even if anincreas* in consumpti an. so necessary forthe developing world. would be michmoredifficult toachieve.

It is reasonable to suppose that healthis a function at least of the volume and

quality of the water available. If only smallimpravements were mde in many exktingsupplies much currer>t illness and diseasecuuld be controlled. We must. therefore.not look -in water as being only fm the pur-poses of cooking and cleaning in thehouse: it aim has an imporlant role inhealth care in the illness prevenlion sense.

Now the cost of water per liter perhaad of population increases sharply asone increases t he praportio,, of time for

which the supply is maintained. One a~-proacb to safe waersupply. ,,ien, might be10 admit that during certaip, periods &the!ear we cuu!d bear mpleasant conditionsor a little bit of illness. In other words wemight think of increasing the periods ofhealth by increasing the periods in whichgood ,vater is available.

I, teems clear, then. that when oneexamines the question af the standards thatone is going to adopt in new water-supplyscbwnes. one r,,ust choose an imymve-menf fba, will in reality enable the desiredbenefits t o be attained. and that will allowLhe maximum number of fxo~le to enjo>these benefits. Unless one adopts an awra-priate approach that can lakethesebenefitsto the rural areas. it is inevilable that thetrends of urbanization will contin ue andwe will end up with one-half of the pop-lation in overloaded cities and at least one-third of the population without any job orincome.

Hygiene vs. Medicine

Figure 2. LOshows the mortality trendsin Britain. For a good numbe r of years theimportan ce of hygiene in this respect hasbeer. we,, understm d. Of course water isnot the only requir ement for good hy-giene-educatio n about the se of soapand the washing of hands. or the control oftuberculosis in milk are ako significant. Infact. we have to introduce a wholesystem-water supply. users fxililies.disposs,. ,soap. and so on. It achieves noth-ing to set up inst one small part of thesysfem as development aid.

But an examination of the system inthe United Kingdom shows that lb3 invest-ment has now become involved in whatmight be called death prevention. ratherthan what should he called hea lthimprove,,,ent. h figure 2.1, we see the re-duction in the mortality rate