Appropriate technology
Encyclopedia
Appropriate technology is an ideological movement (and its manifestations) originally articulated as "intermediate technology" by the economist Dr. Ernst Friedrich "Fritz" Schumacher
in his influential work, Small is Beautiful. Though the nuances of appropriate technology vary between fields and applications, it is generally recognized as encompassing technological choice and application that is small scale, labor intensive, energy efficient, environmentally sound and locally controlled. Both Schumacher and many modern-day proponents of appropriate technology also emphasize the technology as people centered.
Appropriate technology is most commonly discussed in its relationship to economic development and as an alternative to transfers of capital-intensive technology from industrialized nations to developing countries. However, appropriate technology movements can be found in both developing and developed countries. In developed countries, the appropriate technology movement grew out of the energy crisis of the 1970s and focuses mainly on environmental and sustainability issues.
Appropriate technology has been used to address issues in a wide range of fields. Well-known examples of appropriate technology applications include: bike- and hand-powered water pumps (and other self-powered equipment
), the universal nut sheller, self-contained solar-powered light bulbs and streetlights, and passive solar building design
s. Today appropriate technology is often developed using open source
principles, which have led to open-source appropriate technology (OSAT) and thus many of the plans of the technology can be freely found on the Internet
.
China also implemented policies similar to appropriate technology during the reign of Mao Tse-tung and the following Cultural Revolution
. During the Cultural Revolution, development policies based on the idea of "walking on two legs" advocated the development of both large-scale factories and small-scale village industries.
is credited as the founder of the appropriate technology movement. A well-known economist, Schumacher worked for the British National Coal Board for more than 20 years, where he blamed the size of the industry's operations for its uncaring response to the harm black-lung disease inflicted on the miners. However it was his work with developing countries, such as India
and Burma, that helped Schumacher form the underlying principles of appropriate technology.
Schumacher first articulated the idea of "intermediate technology," now known as appropriate technology, in a 1962 report to the Indian Planning Commission in which he described India as long in labor and short in capital, calling for an "intermediate industrial technology" that harnessed India's labor surplus. Schumacher had been developing the idea of intermediate technology for several years prior to the Planning Commission report. In 1955, following a stint as an economic advisor to the government of Burma, he published the short paper "Economics in a Buddhist Country," his first known critique of the effects of Western economics on developing countries. In addition to Buddhism, Schumacher also credited his ideas to Gandhi.
Initially, Schumacher's ideas were rejected by both the Indian government and leading development economists. Spurred to action over concern the idea of intermediate technology would languish, Schumacher, George McRobie, Mansur Hoda
and Julia Porter brought together a group of approximately 20 people to form the Intermediate Technology Development Group (ITDG) in May of 1965. Later that year, a Schumacher article published in the Observer garnered significant attention and support for the group. In 1967, the group published the Tools for Progress: A Guide to Small-scale Equipment for Rural Development and sold 7,000 copies. ITDG also formed panels of experts and practitioners around specific technological needs (such as building construction, energy and water) to develop intermediate technologies to address those needs. At a conference hosted by the ITDG in 1968 the term "intermediate technology" was discarded in favor of the term "appropriate technology" used today. Intermediate technology had been criticized as suggesting the technology was inferior to advanced (or high) technology and not including the social and political factors included in the concept put forth by the proponents. In 1973, Schumacher described the concept of appropriate technology to a mass audience in his influential work, Small is Beautiful: Economics as if People Mattered.
Between 1966 and 1975 the number of new appropriate technology organizations founded each year was three times higher than the previous nine years. There was also an increase in organizations focusing on applying appropriate technology to the problems of industrialized nations, particularly issues related to energy and the environment. In 1977, the OECD identified in its Appropriate Technology Directory 680 organizations involved in the development and promotion of appropriate technology. By 1980, this number had grown to more than 1,000. International agencies and government departments were also emerging as major innovators in appropriate technology, indicating its progression from a small movement fighting against the established norms to a legitimate technological choice supported by the establishment. For example, the Inter-American Development Bank
created a Committee for the Application of Intermediate Technology in 1976 and the World Health Organization
established the Appropriate Technology for Health Program in 1977.
Appropriate technology was also increasingly applied in developed countries. For example, the energy crisis of the mid-1970s led to the creation of the National Center for Appropriate Technology (NCAT) in 1977 with an initial appropriation of $3 million from the U.S. Congress. The Center sponsored appropriate technology demonstrations to "help low-income communities find better ways to do things that will improve the quality of life, and that will be doable with the skills and resources at hand." However, by 1981 the NCAT's funding agency, Community Services Administration, had been abolished. For several decades NCAT worked with the US departments of Energy and Agriculture on contract to develop appropriate technology programs. Since 2005, NCAT's informational web site is no longer funded by the US government.
, founder of International Development Enterprises
(an organization that designs and manufactures products that follow the ideals of appropriate technology), declared appropriate technology dead in a 2010 blog post.
Polak argues the "design for the other 90 percent" movement has replaced appropriate technology. Growing out of the appropriate technology movement, designing for the other 90 percent advocates the creation of low-cost solutions for the 5.8 billion of the world's 6.8 billion population "who have little or no access to most of the products and services many of us take for granted."
Many of the ideas integral to appropriate technology can now be found in the increasingly popular "sustainable development
" movement, which among many tenants advocates technological choice that meets human needs while preserving the environment for future generations. In 1983, the OECD published the results of an extensive survey of appropriate technology organizations titled, The World of Appropriate Technology, in which it defined appropriate technology as characterized by "low investment cost per work-place, low capital investment per unit of output, organizational simplicity, high adaptability to a particular social or cultural environment, sparing use of natural resources, low cost of final product or high potential for employment." Today, the OECD web site redirects from the "Glossary of Statistical Terms" entry on "appropriate technology" to "environmentally sound technologies." The United Nations' "Index to Economic and Social Development" also redirects from the "appropriate technology" entry to "sustainable development."
Despite the decline, several appropriate technology organizations are still existence, including the ITDG which became Practical Action
after a name change in 2005.
A variety of competing definitions exist in academic literature and organization and government policy papers for each of these terms. However, the general consensus is appropriate technology encompasses the ideas represented by the above list. Furthermore, the use of one term over another in referring to an appropriate technology can indicate ideological bias or emphasis on particular economic or social variables. Some terms inherently emphasize the importance of increased employment and labor utilization (such as labor-intensive or capital-saving technology), while others may emphasize the importance of human development (such as self-help and people's technology).
It is also possible to distinguish between hard and soft technologies. According to Dr. Maurice Albertson and Audrey Faulkner, appropriate hard technology is “engineering techniques, physical structures, and machinery that meet a need defined by a community, and utilize the material at hand or readily available. It can be built, operated and maintained by the local people with very limited outside assistance (e.g., technical, material, or financial). it is usually related to an economic goal.”
Albertson and Faulkner consider appropriate soft technology as technology that deals with “the social structures, human interactive processes, and motivation techniques. It is the structure and process for social participation and action by individuals and groups in analyzing situations, making choices and engaging in choice-implementing behaviors that bring about change.”
M K Ghosh, B.V. Doshi, Buckminster Fuller
, William Moyer
(1933–2002), Amory Lovins
, Sanoussi Diakité, Victor Papanek
, Johan Van Lengen, Frithjof Bergmann
, Arne Næss
(1912–2009) and Mansur Hoda
.
(GDP). Developed countries became aware of the situation of developing countries during and in the years following World War II
. Based on the continuing rise in income levels in Western countries since the Industrial Revolution, developed countries embarked on a campaign of massive transfers of capital and technology to developing countries in order to force a rapid industrialization intended to result in an economic "take-off" in the developing countries.
However, by the late 1960s it was becoming clear this development method had not worked as expected and a growing number of development experts and national policy makers were recognizing it as a potential cause of increasing poverty and income inequality in developing countries. In many countries, this influx of technology had increased the overall economic capacity of the country. However, it had created a dual or two-tiered economy with pronounced division between the classes. The foreign technology imports were only benefiting a small minority of urban elites. This was also increasing urbanization with the rural poor moving to urban cities in hope of more financial opportunities. The increased strain on urban infrastructures and public services led to "increasing squalor, severe impacts on public health and distortions in the social structure."
Appropriate technology was meant to address four problems: extreme poverty, starvation, unemployment and urban migration. Schumacher saw the main purpose for economic development programs was the eradication of extreme poverty and he saw a clear connection between mass unemployment and extreme poverty. Schumacher sought to shift development efforts from a bias towards urban areas and on increasing the output per laborer to focusing on rural areas (where a majority of the population still lived) and on increasing employment.
asserts that such technology, described in the book Small is Beautiful
tends to promote values such as health
, beauty
and permanence, in that order.
Often the type of appropriate technology that is used in developed countries is "Appropriate and Sustainable Technology" (AST); or appropriate technology that, besides being functional and relatively cheap (though often more expensive than true AT), is also very durable and lasts a long time (AT does not include this; see Sustainable design
).
s, ...), the city itself must first be built correctly. In the developing world, many cities are expanding rapidly and new ones are being built. Looking into the cities design
in advance is a must for every developing nation.
The local context must be considered as, for example, mudbrick
may not be durable in a high rainfall area (although a large roof overhang and cement
stabilisation can be used to correct for this), and, if the materials are not readily available, the method may be inappropriate. Other forms of natural building
may be considered appropriate technology, though in many cases the emphasis is on sustainability
and self-sufficiency rather than affordability or suitability. As such, many buildings are also built to function as autonomous building
s (e.g. earthship
s, ...). One example of an organisation that applies appropriate earthbuilding techniques would be Builders Without Borders.
The building structure must also be considered. Cost-effectiveness is an important issue in projects based around appropriate technology, and one of the most efficient designs herein is the public housing
approach. This approach lets everyone have their own sleeping/recreation space
, yet incorporate communal spaces e.g. mess halls, Latrine
s, public showers, ...
In addition, to decrease costs of operation (heating, cooling, ...) techniques as Earth sheltering
, Trombe wall
s, ... are often incorporated.
Organizations as Architecture for Humanity
also follows principles consistent with appropriate technology, aiming to serve the needs of poor and disaster-affected people.
As of 2006, waterborne diseases are estimated to cause 1.8 million deaths each year while about 1.1 billion people lack proper drinking water.
Water generally needs treatment before use, depending on the source and the intended use (with high standards required for drinking water). The quality of water from household connections and community water points in low-income countries is not reliably safe for direct human consumption. Water extracted directly from surface waters and open hand-dug shallow wells nearly always requires treatment.
Appropriate technology options in water treatment include both community-scale and household-scale point-of-use (POU) designs.
The most reliable way to kill microbial pathogenic agents is to heat water to a rolling boil. Other techniques, such as varying forms of filtration, chemical disinfection, and exposure to ultraviolet radiation (including solar UV) have been demonstrated in an array of randomized control trials to significantly reduce levels of waterborne disease among users in low-income countries.
Over the past decade, an increasing number of field-based studies have been undertaken to determine the success of POU measures in reducing waterborne disease. The ability of POU options to reduce disease is a function of both their ability to remove microbial pathogens if properly applied and such social factors as ease of use and cultural appropriateness. Technologies may generate more (or less) health benefit than their lab-based microbial removal performance would suggest.
The current priority of the proponents of POU treatment is to reach large numbers of low-income households on a sustainable basis. Few POU measures have reached significant scale thus far, but efforts to promote and commercially distribute these products to the world's poor have only been under way for a few years.
On the other hand, small-scale water treatment is reaching increasing fractions of the population in low-income countries, particularly in South and Southeast Asia, in the form of water treatment kiosks (also known as water refill stations or packaged water producers). While quality control and quality assurance in such locations may be variable, sophisticated technology (such as multi-stage particle filtration, UV irradiation, ozonation, and membrane filtration) is applied with increasing frequency. Such microenterprises are able to vend water at extremely low prices, with increasing government regulation. Initial assessments of vended water quality are encouraging.
Whether applied at the household or community level, some examples of specific treatment processes include:
Some appropriate technology water supply measures include:
(or alternatively small-scale treatment systems) need to be provided.
Ecological sanitation
can be viewed as a three-step process dealing with human excreta: (1) Containment, (2) Sanitization
, (3) Recycling
. The objective is to protect human health and the environment while limiting the use of water in sanitation systems for hand (and anal) washing only and recycling nutrients to help reduce the need for synthetic fertilizers in agriculture
.
Small scale systems include:
The term soft energy technology
was coined by Amory Lovins
to describe "appropriate" renewable energy.
"Appropriate" energy technologies are especially suitable for isolated and/or small scale energy needs. Electricity can be provided from:
Some intermediate technologies include:
Finally, urine
can also be used as a basis to generate hydrogen (which is an energy carrier). Using urine, hydrogen production
is 332% more energy efficient than using water.
Electricity distribution could be improved so to make use of a more structured electricity line arrangement
and universal AC power plugs and sockets (e.g. the CEE 7/7 plug). In addition, a universal system of electricity provisioning (e.g. universal voltage, frequency, ampère; e.g. 230 V with 50 Hz), as well as perhaps a better mains power system (e.g. through the use of special systems as perfected single wire earth return
s; e.g. Tunisia's MALT-system, which features low costs and easy placement)
Electricity storage (which is required for autonomous energy systems) can be provided through appropriate technology solutions as deep-cycle and car-batteries
(intermediate technology), long duration flywheels, electrochemical capacitors, compressed air energy storage (CAES), liquid nitrogen and pumped hydro. Thanks to Daniel Nocera, and other hydrogen home station manufacturers, low-cost hydrogen storage is now also possible as a mid to short-term storage solution. Many solutions for the developing world are sold as a single package, containing a (micro) electricity generation power plant and energy storage. Such packages are called remote-area power supply
Human powered-vehicles
include the bicycle
(and the future bamboo bicycle
), which provides general-purpose transportation at lower costs compared to motorized vehicles, and many advantages over walking, and the whirlwind wheelchair
, which provides mobility for disabled people who cannot afford the expensive wheelchairs used in developed countries. Animal powered vehicles/transport
may also be another appropriate technology.
Certain zero-emissions vehicle
s may be considered appropriate transportation technology, including compressed air cars, liquid nitrogen
and hydrogen-powered
vehicles. Also, vehicles with internal combustion engines may be converted to hydrogen or oxyhydrogen combustion.
Bicycles can also be applied to commercial transport of goods to and from remote areas. An example of this is Karaba, a free-trade coffee co-op in Rwanda, which uses 400 modified bicycles to carry hundreds of pounds of coffee beans for processing. Other projects for developing countries include the redesign of cycle rickshaws to convert them to electric power. However recent reports suggest that these rickshaws are not plying on the roads.
, rather than the use of professionally schooled doctors, the training of villagers to remedy most maladies in towns in the developing world is most appropriate. Trained villagers are able to eliminate 80% of the health problems. Small (low-cost) hospitals - based on the model of the Jamkhed hospital – can remedy another 15%, while only 5% will need to go to a larger (more expensive) hospital.
Note that many Appropriate Technologies benefit public health
, in particular by providing sanitation and safe drinking water. Refrigeration may also provide a health benefit. (These are discussed in the following paragraphs.) This was too found at the Comprehensive Rural Health Project
and the Women Health Volunteers projects in countries as Iran, Iraq and Nepal.
projects to provide security. Skilled, intensive garden
ing can support an adult from as little as 15 square meters of land. Some proven intensive, low-effort food-production systems include urban gardening
(indoors and outdoors). Indoor cultivation
may be set up using hydroponics
with Grow light
s, while outdoor cultivation may be done using permaculture
, forest gardening
, no-till farming
, Do Nothing Farming, etc. In order to better control the irrigation
outdoors, special irrigation systems may be created as well (although this increases costs, and may again open the door to cultivating non-indigenous plants; something which is best avoided). One such system for the developing world is discussed here.
Crop production tools are best kept simple (reduces operating difficulty, cost, replacement difficulties and pollution, when compared to motorized equipment). Tools can include scythe
s, animal-pulled plows (although no-till farming should be preferred), dibber
s, wheeled auger
s (for planting large trees), kirpi
s, hoes
, ...
Greenhouse
s are also sometimes included (see Earthship Biotincture). Sometimes they are also fitted with irrigation systems, and/or heat sink
-systems which can respectively irrigate the plants or help to store energy from the sun and redistribute it at night (when the greenhouse starts to cool down).
According to proponents, Appropriate Technologies can greatly reduce the labor required to prepare food, compared to traditional methods, while being much simpler and cheaper than the processing used in Western countries. This reflects E.F. Schumacher's concept of "intermediate technology," i.e. technology which is significantly more effective and expensive than traditional methods, but still an order of magnitude (10 times) cheaper than developed world technology. Key examples are:
). In other systems, people for a Rotating Savings and Credit Association
or ROSCA to purchase costly material together (such as Tontine
s and Susu account
s). Organisations, communities, cities or individuals can provide loans to other communities/cities (such as with the approach followed by Kiva
, World Vision Microloans MicroPlace
and LETS). Finally, in certain communities (usually isolated communities such as small islands or oases) everything of value is shared. This is called gift economy
.
. For that reason, these technologies are sometimes used and promoted by advocates of sustainability and alternative technology
.
Besides using natural, locally available resources (e.g. wood or adobe), waste materials imported from cities using conventional (and inefficient) waste management may be gathered and re-used to build a sustainable living environment. Use of these cities' waste material allows the gathering of a huge amount of building material at a low cost. When obtained, the materials may be recycled over and over in the own city/community, using the cradle to cradle design method. Locations where waste can be found include landfill
s, junkyards, on water surfaces and anywhere around towns or near highways. Organic waste that can be reused to fertilise plants can be found in sewages. Also, town districts and other places (e.g. cemeteries
) that are subject of undergoing renovation or removal can be used for gathering materials as stone, concrete, or potassium.
E. F. Schumacher
Ernst Friedrich "Fritz" Schumacher was an internationally influential economic thinker, statistician and economist in Britain, serving as Chief Economic Advisor to the UK National Coal Board for two decades. His ideas became popularized in much of the English-speaking world during the 1970s...
in his influential work, Small is Beautiful. Though the nuances of appropriate technology vary between fields and applications, it is generally recognized as encompassing technological choice and application that is small scale, labor intensive, energy efficient, environmentally sound and locally controlled. Both Schumacher and many modern-day proponents of appropriate technology also emphasize the technology as people centered.
Appropriate technology is most commonly discussed in its relationship to economic development and as an alternative to transfers of capital-intensive technology from industrialized nations to developing countries. However, appropriate technology movements can be found in both developing and developed countries. In developed countries, the appropriate technology movement grew out of the energy crisis of the 1970s and focuses mainly on environmental and sustainability issues.
Appropriate technology has been used to address issues in a wide range of fields. Well-known examples of appropriate technology applications include: bike- and hand-powered water pumps (and other self-powered equipment
Self-powered equipment
Human-powered equipment describes electrical appliances which can be powered by electricity generated by human muscle power as an alternative to conventional sources of electricity such as primary batteries and the power grid....
), the universal nut sheller, self-contained solar-powered light bulbs and streetlights, and passive solar building design
Passive solar building design
In passive solar building design, windows, walls, and floors are made to collect, store, and distribute solar energy in the form of heat in the winter and reject solar heat in the summer...
s. Today appropriate technology is often developed using open source
Open source
The term open source describes practices in production and development that promote access to the end product's source materials. Some consider open source a philosophy, others consider it a pragmatic methodology...
principles, which have led to open-source appropriate technology (OSAT) and thus many of the plans of the technology can be freely found on the Internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
.
Predecessors
Indian ideological leader Mahatma Gandhi is often cited as the "father" of the appropriate technology movement. Though the concept had not been given a name, Gandhi advocated for small, local and predominantly village-based technology to help India's villages become self reliant. He disagreed with the idea of technology that benefited a minority of people at the expense of the majority or that put people out of work to increase profit. In 1925 Gandhi founded the All-India Spinners Association and in 1935 he retired from politics to form the All-India Village Industries Association both organizations focused on village-based technology similar to the future appropriate technology movement.China also implemented policies similar to appropriate technology during the reign of Mao Tse-tung and the following Cultural Revolution
Cultural Revolution
The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, commonly known as the Cultural Revolution , was a socio-political movement that took place in the People's Republic of China from 1966 through 1976...
. During the Cultural Revolution, development policies based on the idea of "walking on two legs" advocated the development of both large-scale factories and small-scale village industries.
E.F. Schumacher
Despite these early examples, Dr. Ernst Friedrich "Fritz" SchumacherE. F. Schumacher
Ernst Friedrich "Fritz" Schumacher was an internationally influential economic thinker, statistician and economist in Britain, serving as Chief Economic Advisor to the UK National Coal Board for two decades. His ideas became popularized in much of the English-speaking world during the 1970s...
is credited as the founder of the appropriate technology movement. A well-known economist, Schumacher worked for the British National Coal Board for more than 20 years, where he blamed the size of the industry's operations for its uncaring response to the harm black-lung disease inflicted on the miners. However it was his work with developing countries, such as India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
and Burma, that helped Schumacher form the underlying principles of appropriate technology.
Schumacher first articulated the idea of "intermediate technology," now known as appropriate technology, in a 1962 report to the Indian Planning Commission in which he described India as long in labor and short in capital, calling for an "intermediate industrial technology" that harnessed India's labor surplus. Schumacher had been developing the idea of intermediate technology for several years prior to the Planning Commission report. In 1955, following a stint as an economic advisor to the government of Burma, he published the short paper "Economics in a Buddhist Country," his first known critique of the effects of Western economics on developing countries. In addition to Buddhism, Schumacher also credited his ideas to Gandhi.
Initially, Schumacher's ideas were rejected by both the Indian government and leading development economists. Spurred to action over concern the idea of intermediate technology would languish, Schumacher, George McRobie, Mansur Hoda
Mansur Hoda
Mansur Hoda: was born in a middle class Muslim family in eastern Indian state of Bihar. Mansur Hoda as a student, had worked as a research volunteer for the Intermediate Technology Group. After working for Indian Railway for 10 years, he joined Bihar government as Inspector of Factories.Mansur...
and Julia Porter brought together a group of approximately 20 people to form the Intermediate Technology Development Group (ITDG) in May of 1965. Later that year, a Schumacher article published in the Observer garnered significant attention and support for the group. In 1967, the group published the Tools for Progress: A Guide to Small-scale Equipment for Rural Development and sold 7,000 copies. ITDG also formed panels of experts and practitioners around specific technological needs (such as building construction, energy and water) to develop intermediate technologies to address those needs. At a conference hosted by the ITDG in 1968 the term "intermediate technology" was discarded in favor of the term "appropriate technology" used today. Intermediate technology had been criticized as suggesting the technology was inferior to advanced (or high) technology and not including the social and political factors included in the concept put forth by the proponents. In 1973, Schumacher described the concept of appropriate technology to a mass audience in his influential work, Small is Beautiful: Economics as if People Mattered.
Growing Trend
Inter-American Development Bank
The Inter-American Development Bank is the largest source of development financing for Latin America and the Caribbean...
created a Committee for the Application of Intermediate Technology in 1976 and the World Health Organization
World Health Organization
The World Health Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations that acts as a coordinating authority on international public health. Established on 7 April 1948, with headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, the agency inherited the mandate and resources of its predecessor, the Health...
established the Appropriate Technology for Health Program in 1977.
Appropriate technology was also increasingly applied in developed countries. For example, the energy crisis of the mid-1970s led to the creation of the National Center for Appropriate Technology (NCAT) in 1977 with an initial appropriation of $3 million from the U.S. Congress. The Center sponsored appropriate technology demonstrations to "help low-income communities find better ways to do things that will improve the quality of life, and that will be doable with the skills and resources at hand." However, by 1981 the NCAT's funding agency, Community Services Administration, had been abolished. For several decades NCAT worked with the US departments of Energy and Agriculture on contract to develop appropriate technology programs. Since 2005, NCAT's informational web site is no longer funded by the US government.
Decline
In more recent years, the appropriate technology movement has continued to decline in prominence. Germany's German Appropriate Technology Exchange (GATE) and Holland's Technology Transfer for Development (TOOL) are examples of organizations no longer in operation. Paul PolakPaul Polak
Paul Polak is the co-founder and CEO of Windhorse International, a for-profit social venture with the mission of inspiring and leading a revolution in how companies design, price, market and distribute products to benefit the 2.6 billion customers who live on less than $2 a day...
, founder of International Development Enterprises
International Development Enterprises
IDE - International Development Enterprises, founded in 1981 by Paul Polak, is an international not-for-profit corporation devoted to the manufacture, marketing, and distribution of affordable, scalable micro-irrigation and other low-cost water recovery systems throughout the developing world...
(an organization that designs and manufactures products that follow the ideals of appropriate technology), declared appropriate technology dead in a 2010 blog post.
Polak argues the "design for the other 90 percent" movement has replaced appropriate technology. Growing out of the appropriate technology movement, designing for the other 90 percent advocates the creation of low-cost solutions for the 5.8 billion of the world's 6.8 billion population "who have little or no access to most of the products and services many of us take for granted."
Many of the ideas integral to appropriate technology can now be found in the increasingly popular "sustainable development
Sustainable development
Sustainable development is a pattern of resource use, that aims to meet human needs while preserving the environment so that these needs can be met not only in the present, but also for generations to come...
" movement, which among many tenants advocates technological choice that meets human needs while preserving the environment for future generations. In 1983, the OECD published the results of an extensive survey of appropriate technology organizations titled, The World of Appropriate Technology, in which it defined appropriate technology as characterized by "low investment cost per work-place, low capital investment per unit of output, organizational simplicity, high adaptability to a particular social or cultural environment, sparing use of natural resources, low cost of final product or high potential for employment." Today, the OECD web site redirects from the "Glossary of Statistical Terms" entry on "appropriate technology" to "environmentally sound technologies." The United Nations' "Index to Economic and Social Development" also redirects from the "appropriate technology" entry to "sustainable development."
Despite the decline, several appropriate technology organizations are still existence, including the ITDG which became Practical Action
Practical Action
Practical Action is a development charity registered in the United Kingdom which works directly in four regions of the developing world – Latin America, East Africa, Southern Africa and South Asia, with particular concentration on Peru, Kenya, Sudan, Zimbabwe, Sri Lanka and Nepal.In these countries,...
after a name change in 2005.
Terminology
Appropriate technology frequently serves as an umbrella term for a variety names for this type of technology. Frequently these terms are used interchangeably; however, the use of one term over another can indicate the specific focus, bias or agenda of the technological choice in question. Though the original name for the concept now known as appropriate technology, "intermediate technology" is now often considered a subset of appropriate technology that focuses on technology that is more productive than "inefficient" traditional technologies, but less costly than the technology of industrialized societies. Other types of technology under the appropriate technology umbrella include:- Capital-saving Technology
- Labor-intensive Technology
- Alternate Technology
- Self-help Technology
- Village-level Technology
- Community Technology
- Progressive Technology
- Indigenous Technology
- People’s Technology
- Light-engineering Technology
- Adaptive Technology
- Light-capital Technology
- Soft Technology
A variety of competing definitions exist in academic literature and organization and government policy papers for each of these terms. However, the general consensus is appropriate technology encompasses the ideas represented by the above list. Furthermore, the use of one term over another in referring to an appropriate technology can indicate ideological bias or emphasis on particular economic or social variables. Some terms inherently emphasize the importance of increased employment and labor utilization (such as labor-intensive or capital-saving technology), while others may emphasize the importance of human development (such as self-help and people's technology).
It is also possible to distinguish between hard and soft technologies. According to Dr. Maurice Albertson and Audrey Faulkner, appropriate hard technology is “engineering techniques, physical structures, and machinery that meet a need defined by a community, and utilize the material at hand or readily available. It can be built, operated and maintained by the local people with very limited outside assistance (e.g., technical, material, or financial). it is usually related to an economic goal.”
Albertson and Faulkner consider appropriate soft technology as technology that deals with “the social structures, human interactive processes, and motivation techniques. It is the structure and process for social participation and action by individuals and groups in analyzing situations, making choices and engaging in choice-implementing behaviors that bring about change.”
Appropriate technology practitioners
Some of the well known practitioners of the appropriate technology-sector include:M K Ghosh, B.V. Doshi, Buckminster Fuller
Buckminster Fuller
Richard Buckminster “Bucky” Fuller was an American systems theorist, author, designer, inventor, futurist and second president of Mensa International, the high IQ society....
, William Moyer
William Moyer
Bill Moyer , was a United States social change activist who was a principal organizer in the 1966 Chicago Open Housing Movement...
(1933–2002), Amory Lovins
Amory Lovins
Amory Bloch Lovins is an American environmental scientist and writer, Chairman and Chief Scientist of the Rocky Mountain Institute. He has worked in the field of energy policy and related areas for four decades...
, Sanoussi Diakité, Victor Papanek
Victor Papanek
Victor Papanek was a designer and educator who became a strong advocate of the socially and ecologically responsible design of products, tools, and community infrastructures. He disapproved of manufactured products that were unsafe, showy, maladapted, or essentially useless...
, Johan Van Lengen, Frithjof Bergmann
Frithjof Bergmann
Frithjof Bergmann is a Professor Emeritus of philosophy at the University of Michigan, where he regularly taught classes on existentialism and continental philosophy.-Background:...
, Arne Næss
Arne Næss
Arne Dekke Eide Næss was a Norwegian philosopher, the founder of deep ecology. He was the youngest person to be appointed full professor at the University of Oslo....
(1912–2009) and Mansur Hoda
Mansur Hoda
Mansur Hoda: was born in a middle class Muslim family in eastern Indian state of Bihar. Mansur Hoda as a student, had worked as a research volunteer for the Intermediate Technology Group. After working for Indian Railway for 10 years, he joined Bihar government as Inspector of Factories.Mansur...
.
Appropriate Technology and Development
Schumacher's initial concept of intermediate technology was created as a critique of the currently prevailing development strategies which focused on maximizing aggregate economic growth through increases to overall measurements of a country's economy, such as gross domestic productGross domestic product
Gross domestic product refers to the market value of all final goods and services produced within a country in a given period. GDP per capita is often considered an indicator of a country's standard of living....
(GDP). Developed countries became aware of the situation of developing countries during and in the years following World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. Based on the continuing rise in income levels in Western countries since the Industrial Revolution, developed countries embarked on a campaign of massive transfers of capital and technology to developing countries in order to force a rapid industrialization intended to result in an economic "take-off" in the developing countries.
However, by the late 1960s it was becoming clear this development method had not worked as expected and a growing number of development experts and national policy makers were recognizing it as a potential cause of increasing poverty and income inequality in developing countries. In many countries, this influx of technology had increased the overall economic capacity of the country. However, it had created a dual or two-tiered economy with pronounced division between the classes. The foreign technology imports were only benefiting a small minority of urban elites. This was also increasing urbanization with the rural poor moving to urban cities in hope of more financial opportunities. The increased strain on urban infrastructures and public services led to "increasing squalor, severe impacts on public health and distortions in the social structure."
Appropriate technology was meant to address four problems: extreme poverty, starvation, unemployment and urban migration. Schumacher saw the main purpose for economic development programs was the eradication of extreme poverty and he saw a clear connection between mass unemployment and extreme poverty. Schumacher sought to shift development efforts from a bias towards urban areas and on increasing the output per laborer to focusing on rural areas (where a majority of the population still lived) and on increasing employment.
Appropriate technology in developed countries
The term appropriate technology is also used in developed nations to describe the use of technology and engineering that results in less negative impacts on the environment and society. E. F. SchumacherE. F. Schumacher
Ernst Friedrich "Fritz" Schumacher was an internationally influential economic thinker, statistician and economist in Britain, serving as Chief Economic Advisor to the UK National Coal Board for two decades. His ideas became popularized in much of the English-speaking world during the 1970s...
asserts that such technology, described in the book Small is Beautiful
Small Is Beautiful
Small Is Beautiful: Economics As If People Mattered is a collection of essays by British economist E. F. Schumacher. The phrase "Small Is Beautiful" came from a phrase by his teacher Leopold Kohr...
tends to promote values such as health
Health
Health is the level of functional or metabolic efficiency of a living being. In humans, it is the general condition of a person's mind, body and spirit, usually meaning to be free from illness, injury or pain...
, beauty
Beauty
Beauty is a characteristic of a person, animal, place, object, or idea that provides a perceptual experience of pleasure, meaning, or satisfaction. Beauty is studied as part of aesthetics, sociology, social psychology, and culture...
and permanence, in that order.
Often the type of appropriate technology that is used in developed countries is "Appropriate and Sustainable Technology" (AST); or appropriate technology that, besides being functional and relatively cheap (though often more expensive than true AT), is also very durable and lasts a long time (AT does not include this; see Sustainable design
Sustainable design
Sustainable design is the philosophy of designing physical objects, the built environment, and services to comply with the principles of economic, social, and ecological sustainability.-Intentions:The intention of sustainable design is to "eliminate negative environmental...
).
Building and Construction
In order to increase the efficiency of a great number of city services (efficient water provisioning, efficient electricity provisioning, easy traffic flow, water drainage, decreased spread of disease with epidemicEpidemic
In epidemiology, an epidemic , occurs when new cases of a certain disease, in a given human population, and during a given period, substantially exceed what is expected based on recent experience...
s, ...), the city itself must first be built correctly. In the developing world, many cities are expanding rapidly and new ones are being built. Looking into the cities design
Urban planning
Urban planning incorporates areas such as economics, design, ecology, sociology, geography, law, political science, and statistics to guide and ensure the orderly development of settlements and communities....
in advance is a must for every developing nation.
- AdobeAdobeAdobe is a natural building material made from sand, clay, water, and some kind of fibrous or organic material , which the builders shape into bricks using frames and dry in the sun. Adobe buildings are similar to cob and mudbrick buildings. Adobe structures are extremely durable, and account for...
(including the variation called Super AdobeSuper AdobeSuperadobe is a form of earthbag construction that was developed by Iranian architect Nader Khalili. The technique uses layered long fabric tubes or bags filled with adobe to form a compression structure. The resulting beehive shaped structures employs arches, domes, and vaults to create single and...
), - Rammed earthRammed earthRammed earth, also known as taipa , tapial , and pisé , is a technique for building walls using the raw materials of earth, chalk, lime and gravel. It is an ancient building method that has seen a revival in recent years as people seek more sustainable building materials and natural building methods...
, - Compressed earth blockCompressed earth blockCompressed Earth Block often referred to simply as CEB, is a type of manufactured construction material formed in a mechanical press that forms an appropriate mix of dirt, non-expansive clay, and an aggregate into a compressed block...
, - Dutch brickDutch brickDutch bricks are building-blocks made, not of brick, but of a mixture of concrete, sand and soil. They are not Dutch; rather, the name results from the use of the word "Dutch" to mean "inferior"...
, - AnimalAnimalAnimals are a major group of multicellular, eukaryotic organisms of the kingdom Animalia or Metazoa. Their body plan eventually becomes fixed as they develop, although some undergo a process of metamorphosis later on in their life. Most animals are motile, meaning they can move spontaneously and...
products, - CobCob (building)Cob or cobb or clom is a building material consisting of clay, sand, straw, water, and earth, similar to adobe. Cob is fireproof, resistant to seismic activity, and inexpensive...
- and/or other green building materials could be considered appropriate earth building technology for much of the developing world, as they make use of materials which are widely available locally and are thus relatively inexpensive.
The local context must be considered as, for example, mudbrick
Mudbrick
A mudbrick is a firefree brick, made of a mixture of clay, mud, sand, and water mixed with a binding material such as rice husks or straw. They use a stiff mixture and let them dry in the sun for 25 days....
may not be durable in a high rainfall area (although a large roof overhang and cement
Cement
In the most general sense of the word, a cement is a binder, a substance that sets and hardens independently, and can bind other materials together. The word "cement" traces to the Romans, who used the term opus caementicium to describe masonry resembling modern concrete that was made from crushed...
stabilisation can be used to correct for this), and, if the materials are not readily available, the method may be inappropriate. Other forms of natural building
Natural building
A natural building involves a range of building systems and materials that place major emphasis on sustainability. Ways of achieving sustainability through natural building focus on durability and the use of minimally processed, plentiful or renewable resources, as well as those that, while...
may be considered appropriate technology, though in many cases the emphasis is on sustainability
Sustainable architecture
Sustainable architecture is a general term that describes environmentally conscious design techniques in the field of architecture. Sustainable architecture is framed by the larger discussion of sustainability and the pressing economic and political issues of our world...
and self-sufficiency rather than affordability or suitability. As such, many buildings are also built to function as autonomous building
Autonomous building
An autonomous building is a building designed to be operated independently from infrastructural support services such as the electric power grid, gas grid, municipal water systems, sewage treatment systems, storm drains, communication services, and in some cases, public roads.Advocates of...
s (e.g. earthship
Earthship
An earthship is a type of passive solar house made of natural and recycled materials. Designed and marketed by Earthship Biotecture of Taos, New Mexico, the homes are primarily constructed to work as autonomous buildings and are generally made of earth-filled tires, using thermal mass...
s, ...). One example of an organisation that applies appropriate earthbuilding techniques would be Builders Without Borders.
The building structure must also be considered. Cost-effectiveness is an important issue in projects based around appropriate technology, and one of the most efficient designs herein is the public housing
Public housing
Public housing is a form of housing tenure in which the property is owned by a government authority, which may be central or local. Social housing is an umbrella term referring to rental housing which may be owned and managed by the state, by non-profit organizations, or by a combination of the...
approach. This approach lets everyone have their own sleeping/recreation space
Condominium
A condominium, or condo, is the form of housing tenure and other real property where a specified part of a piece of real estate is individually owned while use of and access to common facilities in the piece such as hallways, heating system, elevators, exterior areas is executed under legal rights...
, yet incorporate communal spaces e.g. mess halls, Latrine
Latrine
A latrine is a communal facility containing one or more commonly many toilets which may be simple pit toilets or in the case of the United States Armed Forces any toilet including modern flush toilets...
s, public showers, ...
In addition, to decrease costs of operation (heating, cooling, ...) techniques as Earth sheltering
Earth sheltering
Earth sheltering is the architectural practice of using earth against building walls for external thermal mass, to reduce heat loss, and to easily maintain a steady indoor air temperature...
, Trombe wall
Trombe wall
A Trombe wall is a sun-facing wall separated from the outdoors by glass and an air space, which absorbs solar energy and releases it selectively towards the interior at night. The essential idea was first explored by Edward S. Morse and patented by him in 1881...
s, ... are often incorporated.
Organizations as Architecture for Humanity
Architecture for Humanity
Architecture for Humanity is a charitable organization that seeks architectural solutions to humanitarian crises and brings professional design services to communities in need...
also follows principles consistent with appropriate technology, aiming to serve the needs of poor and disaster-affected people.
- Natural ventilationNatural ventilationNatural ventilation is the process of supplying and removing air through an indoor space without using mechanical systems. It refers to the flow of external air to an indoor space as a result of pressure or temperatures differences. There are two types of natural ventilation occurring in...
can be created by providing vents in the upper level of a building to allow warm air to rise by convectionConvectionConvection is the movement of molecules within fluids and rheids. It cannot take place in solids, since neither bulk current flows nor significant diffusion can take place in solids....
and escape to the outside, while cooler air is drawn in through vents at the lower level. - Electrical powered fans (e.g. ceiling fanCeiling fanA ceiling fan is a fan, usually electrically powered, suspended from the ceiling of a room, that uses hub-mounted rotating paddles to circulate air....
s) allow efficient cooling, at a far lower electricity consumption as airconditioning systems. - A solar chimneySolar chimneyA solar chimney — often referred to as a thermal chimney — is a way of improving the natural ventilation of buildings by using convection of air heated by passive solar energy...
often referred to as thermal chimney improves this natural ventilationVentilation (architecture)Ventilating is the process of "changing" or replacing air in any space to provide high indoor air quality...
by using convectionConvectionConvection is the movement of molecules within fluids and rheids. It cannot take place in solids, since neither bulk current flows nor significant diffusion can take place in solids....
of air heated by passive solar energyPassive solar building designIn passive solar building design, windows, walls, and floors are made to collect, store, and distribute solar energy in the form of heat in the winter and reject solar heat in the summer...
. To further maximize the cooling effect, the incoming air may be led through underground ductsEarth cooling tubesA ground-coupled heat exchanger is an underground heat exchanger loop that can capture or dissipate heat to or from the ground. They use the Earth's near constant subterranean temperature to warm or cool air or other fluids for residential, agricultural or industrial uses...
before it is allowed to enter the building. - A windcatcherWindcatcherA windcatcher is a traditional Persian architectural device used for many centuries to create natural ventilation in buildings. It is not known who first invented the windcatcher, but it still can be seen in many countries today. Windcatchers come in various designs: uni-directional,...
(Badgir; بادگیر) is a traditional PersianIranIran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
architectural device used for many centuries to create natural ventilation in buildings. It is not known who first invented the windcatcher, but it still can be seen in many countries today. Windcatchers come in various designs, such as the uni-directional, bi-directional, and multi-directional. - A passive down-draft cooltower may be used in a hot, arid climate to provide a sustainable way to provide air conditioningAir conditioningAn air conditioner is a home appliance, system, or mechanism designed to dehumidify and extract heat from an area. The cooling is done using a simple refrigeration cycle...
. Water is allowed to evaporate at the top of a tower, either by using evaporative cooling pads or by spraying water. EvaporationEvaporationEvaporation is a type of vaporization of a liquid that occurs only on the surface of a liquid. The other type of vaporization is boiling, which, instead, occurs on the entire mass of the liquid....
cools the incoming air, causing a downdraft of cool air that will bring down the temperature inside the building.
Agriculture
Appropriate technology has been applied extensively to improve agricultural production in developing countries.Water
Water generally needs treatment before use, depending on the source and the intended use (with high standards required for drinking water). The quality of water from household connections and community water points in low-income countries is not reliably safe for direct human consumption. Water extracted directly from surface waters and open hand-dug shallow wells nearly always requires treatment.
Appropriate technology options in water treatment include both community-scale and household-scale point-of-use (POU) designs.
The most reliable way to kill microbial pathogenic agents is to heat water to a rolling boil. Other techniques, such as varying forms of filtration, chemical disinfection, and exposure to ultraviolet radiation (including solar UV) have been demonstrated in an array of randomized control trials to significantly reduce levels of waterborne disease among users in low-income countries.
Over the past decade, an increasing number of field-based studies have been undertaken to determine the success of POU measures in reducing waterborne disease. The ability of POU options to reduce disease is a function of both their ability to remove microbial pathogens if properly applied and such social factors as ease of use and cultural appropriateness. Technologies may generate more (or less) health benefit than their lab-based microbial removal performance would suggest.
The current priority of the proponents of POU treatment is to reach large numbers of low-income households on a sustainable basis. Few POU measures have reached significant scale thus far, but efforts to promote and commercially distribute these products to the world's poor have only been under way for a few years.
On the other hand, small-scale water treatment is reaching increasing fractions of the population in low-income countries, particularly in South and Southeast Asia, in the form of water treatment kiosks (also known as water refill stations or packaged water producers). While quality control and quality assurance in such locations may be variable, sophisticated technology (such as multi-stage particle filtration, UV irradiation, ozonation, and membrane filtration) is applied with increasing frequency. Such microenterprises are able to vend water at extremely low prices, with increasing government regulation. Initial assessments of vended water quality are encouraging.
Whether applied at the household or community level, some examples of specific treatment processes include:
- Porous ceramic filtrationCeramic water filterCeramic water filters are an inexpensive and effective type of water filter, that rely on the small pore size of ceramic material to filter dirt, debris, and bacteria out of water.-Method of action:...
, using either clay or diatomaceous earthDiatomaceous earthDiatomaceous earth also known as diatomite or kieselgur/kieselguhr, is a naturally occurring, soft, siliceous sedimentary rock that is easily crumbled into a fine white to off-white powder. It has a particle size ranging from less than 1 micrometre to more than 1 millimetre, but typically 10 to...
, and oriented as either cylinder, pot, or disk, with gravity-fed or siphon-driven delivery systems. Silver is frequently added to provide antimicrobial enhancement - Intermittently operated slow-sand filtrationSlow sand filterSlow sand filters are used in water purification for treating raw water to produce a potable product. They are typically 1 to 2 metres deep, can be rectangular or cylindrical in cross section and are used primarily to treat surface water...
, also known as biosand filtration - Chlorine disinfectionChlorinationChlorination is the process of adding the element chlorine to water as a method of water purification to make it fit for human consumption as drinking water...
, employing calcium hypochlorite powder, sodium hypochlorite solution, or sodium dichloroisocyanurate (NaDCC) tablets - Chemical flocculationFlocculationFlocculation, in the field of chemistry, is a process wherein colloids come out of suspension in the form of floc or flakes by the addition of a clarifying agent. The action differs from precipitation in that, prior to flocculation, colloids are merely suspended in a liquid and not actually...
, using either commercially produced iron or aluminum salts or the crushed seeds of certain plants, such as Moringa oleiferaMoringa oleiferaMoringa oleifera, the word Moringa probably came from dravidian language Tamil and commonly referred to as "Shojne" in Bengali, "Munagakaya" in Telugu,"Shenano" in Rajasthani,... - Mixed flocculation/disinfection using commercially produced powdered mixtures
- Irradiation with ultraviolet lightSolar water disinfectionSolar water disinfection, also known as SODIS is a method of disinfecting water using only sunlight and plastic PET bottles. SODIS is a free and effective method for decentralized water treatment, usually applied at the household level and is recommended by the World Health Organization as a viable...
, whether using electric-powered lamps or direct solar exposure - membrane filtration, employing ultrafiltrationUltrafiltrationUltrafiltration is a variety of membrane filtration in which hydrostatic pressure forces a liquid against a semipermeable membrane. Suspended solids and solutes of high molecular weight are retained, while water and low molecular weight solutes pass through the membrane...
or reverse osmosisReverse osmosisReverse osmosis is a membrane technical filtration method that removes many types of large molecules and ions from solutions by applying pressure to the solution when it is on one side of a selective membrane. The result is that the solute is retained on the pressurized side of the membrane and...
filter elements preceded by pretreatment
Some appropriate technology water supply measures include:
- Deep wells with submersible pumpsWater wellA water well is an excavation or structure created in the ground by digging, driving, boring or drilling to access groundwater in underground aquifers. The well water is drawn by an electric submersible pump, a trash pump, a vertical turbine pump, a handpump or a mechanical pump...
in areas where the groundwater (aquifers) are located at depths >10 m. - Shallow wells with lined walls and covers.
- rainwater harvestingRainwater harvestingRainwater harvesting is the accumulating and storing of rainwater for reuse before it reaches the aquifer. It has been used to provide drinking water, water for livestock, water for irrigation, as well as other typical uses. Rainwater collected from the roofs of houses and local institutions can...
systems with an appropriate method of storage, especially in areas with significant dry seasons. - Fog collectionFog collectionFog collection refers to the collection of water from fog using large pieces of vera trough below the canvas.-Technical explanation:Through a process known as condensation, atmospheric water vapour from the air naturally condenses on cold surfaces into droplets of liquid water known as dew...
, which is suitable for areas which experience fog even when there is little rain. - Air wellAir well (condenser)An air well or aerial well is a structure or device that collects water by promoting the condensation of moisture from air. Designs for air wells are many and varied, but the simplest designs are completely passive, require no external energy source and have few, if any, moving parts.Three...
, a structure or device designed to promote the condensation of atmospheric moisture. - Handpumps and treadle pumps are generally only an option in areas is located at a relatively shallow depth (e.g. 10 m). The Flexi-Pipe Pump is a notable exception to this (up to 25 meter). For most deeper aquifers (<10 m), submersible pumps placed inside a wellWater wellA water well is an excavation or structure created in the ground by digging, driving, boring or drilling to access groundwater in underground aquifers. The well water is drawn by an electric submersible pump, a trash pump, a vertical turbine pump, a handpump or a mechanical pump...
) are used. Treadle pumps for household irrigation are now being distributed on a widespread basis in developing countries. The principle of Village Level Operation and Maintenance is important with handpumps, but may be difficult in application. - Condensation bagsDrinking waterDrinking water or potable water is water pure enough to be consumed or used with low risk of immediate or long term harm. In most developed countries, the water supplied to households, commerce and industry is all of drinking water standard, even though only a very small proportion is actually...
and condensation pits can be an appropriate technology to get water, yet yields are low and are (for the amount of water obtained), labour intensive. Still, it may be a good (very cheap) solution for certain desperate communities. - The hippo water rollerHippo water rollerThe Hippo water roller, or Hippo roller, is a device for carrying water more easily and efficiently than traditional methods, particularly in the developing world. It consists of a barrel-shaped container which holds the water and can roll along the ground, and a handle attached to the axis of the...
and Q-drum allow more water to be carried, with less effort and could thus be a good alternative for ethnic communities who do not wish to give up water gathering from remote locations, assuming low topographic relief. - The roundabout playpumpRoundabout PlayPumpThe PlayPump Water System uses the energy of children at play to operate a water pump. It is manufactured by the South African company Roundabout Outdoor...
, developed and used in southern AfricaAfricaAfrica is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
, harnesses the energy of children at play to pump water.
Sanitation
As of 2006, waterborne diseases are estimated to cause 1.8 million deaths each year, marking the importance of proper sanitation systems. It is clear that the developing world is heavily lacking in proper public sanitation and that solutions as seweragesSanitary sewer
A sanitary sewer is a separate underground carriage system specifically for transporting sewage from houses and commercial buildings to treatment or disposal. Sanitary sewers serving industrial areas also carry industrial wastewater...
(or alternatively small-scale treatment systems) need to be provided.
Ecological sanitation
Ecological sanitation
Ecological sanitation, also known as ecosan or eco-san, are terms coined to describe a form of sanitation that usually involves urine diversion and the recycling of water and nutrients contained within human wastes back into the local environment....
can be viewed as a three-step process dealing with human excreta: (1) Containment, (2) Sanitization
Disinfection
Disinfectants are substances that are applied to non-living objects to destroy microorganisms that are living on the objects. Disinfection does not necessarily kill all microorganisms, especially nonresistant bacterial spores; it is less effective than sterilisation, which is an extreme physical...
, (3) Recycling
Recycling
Recycling is processing used materials into new products to prevent waste of potentially useful materials, reduce the consumption of fresh raw materials, reduce energy usage, reduce air pollution and water pollution by reducing the need for "conventional" waste disposal, and lower greenhouse...
. The objective is to protect human health and the environment while limiting the use of water in sanitation systems for hand (and anal) washing only and recycling nutrients to help reduce the need for synthetic fertilizers in agriculture
Agriculture
Agriculture is the cultivation of animals, plants, fungi and other life forms for food, fiber, and other products used to sustain life. Agriculture was the key implement in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that nurtured the...
.
Small scale systems include:
- Composting toiletComposting toiletA composting toilet is a dry toilet that using a predominantly aerobic processing system that treats excreta, typically with no water or small volumes of flush water, via composting or managed aerobic decomposition...
s are the most environmental form of excrement disposal systems. In addition, the toilets design allows the nutrients to be reused (e.g. for fertilising food crops). Also, DIY composting toilets can be built at a very low cost. - BiPuBiPuBIPU® is a sanitation method suitable for disaster relief and for temporary or isolated locations. It consists of flat-packed plastic panels which fit together to make a box, which is buried in the ground, and a large plastic bag to be placed inside the box...
is a portable system suitable for disaster management, while other forms of latrineLatrineA latrine is a communal facility containing one or more commonly many toilets which may be simple pit toilets or in the case of the United States Armed Forces any toilet including modern flush toilets...
provide safe means of disposing of human waste at a low cost. The Orangi Pilot ProjectOrangi Pilot ProjectThe Orangi Pilot Project refers to a socially innovative project carried out in 1980s in the squatter areas of Orangi Town, Karachi, Sindh, Pakistan. It was initiated by Akhtar Hameed Khan, and involved the local residents solving their own sanitation problems...
was designed based on an urban slum's sanitation crisis. Kamal Kar has documented the latrines developed by Bangladeshi villagers once they became aware of the health problems with open defecation. - Treatment pondTreatment pondA treatment pond treats water fouled by anaerobic bacteria. It is used mainly by tree nurseries, dairy farms and other agricultural companies near horse or cattle sheds or barns...
s and constructed wetlandConstructed wetlandA constructed wetland or wetpark is an artificial wetland, marsh or swamp created as a new or restored habitat for native and migratory wildlife, for anthropogenic discharge such as wastewater, stormwater runoff, or sewage treatment, for land reclamation after mining, refineries, or other...
s can help to purify sewageSewageSewage is water-carried waste, in solution or suspension, that is intended to be removed from a community. Also known as wastewater, it is more than 99% water and is characterized by volume or rate of flow, physical condition, chemical constituents and the bacteriological organisms that it contains...
and greywaterGreywaterGreywater is wastewater generated from domestic activities such as laundry, dishwashing, and bathing, which can be recycled on-site for uses such as landscape irrigation and constructed wetlands...
. They consist mostly of plants (e.g. reedReed bedReed beds are natural habitats found in floodplains, waterlogged depressions andestuaries. Reed beds are part of a succession from young reed colonising open water or wet ground through a gradation of increasingly dry ground...
, ...) and therefore require only little power, and are hugely self-sufficient. - The SanPlat is a simple sanitary platform that can easily be built from local materials, and enables latrines that are easy to clean and maintain.
- Certain other options as Slow sand filterSlow sand filterSlow sand filters are used in water purification for treating raw water to produce a potable product. They are typically 1 to 2 metres deep, can be rectangular or cylindrical in cross section and are used primarily to treat surface water...
s, UV filters, ... may also be employed
Energy Generation and Uses
Soft energy technology
Soft energy technologies may be seen as appropriate renewable technologies. Soft energy technologies are not simply renewable energy technologies, as there are many renewable energy technologies which are not regarded as "soft".- Definition :...
was coined by Amory Lovins
Amory Lovins
Amory Bloch Lovins is an American environmental scientist and writer, Chairman and Chief Scientist of the Rocky Mountain Institute. He has worked in the field of energy policy and related areas for four decades...
to describe "appropriate" renewable energy.
"Appropriate" energy technologies are especially suitable for isolated and/or small scale energy needs. Electricity can be provided from:
- Photovoltaic (PV) solar panelsSolar cellA solar cell is a solid state electrical device that converts the energy of light directly into electricity by the photovoltaic effect....
, and (large) Concentrating solar power plants. PV solar panels made from Low-cost photovoltaic cells or PV-cells which have first been concentrated by a Luminescent solar concentrator-panel are also a good option. Especially companies as Solfocus make appropriate technology CSP plants which can be made from waste plastics polluting the surroundings (see above). - Solar thermal collectorSolar thermal collectorA solar thermal collector is a solar collector designed to collect heat by absorbing sunlight. The term is applied to solar hot water panels, but may also be used to denote more complex installations such as solar parabolic, solar trough and solar towers or simpler installations such as solar air...
- wind powerWind powerWind power is the conversion of wind energy into a useful form of energy, such as using wind turbines to make electricity, windmills for mechanical power, windpumps for water pumping or drainage, or sails to propel ships....
(home do-it yourself turbines and larger-scale) - micro hydroMicro hydroMicro hydro is a term used for hydroelectric power installations that typically produce up to 100 kW of electricity. These installations can provide power to an isolated home or small community, or are sometimes connected to electric power networks....
, and pico hydroPico hydroPico hydro is a term used for hydroelectric power generation of under 5 kW. It is useful in small, remote communities that require only a small amount of electricity - for example, to power one or two fluorescent light bulbs and a TV or radio in 50 or so homes. Even smaller turbines of... - human-powered handwheel generators
- other zero emission generation methodsZero emissionZero emission refers to an engine, motor, or other energy source, that emits no waste products that pollutes the environment or disrupts the climate.-Zero emission engines:...
Some intermediate technologies include:
- Biobutanol,
- biodieselBiodieselBiodiesel refers to a vegetable oil- or animal fat-based diesel fuel consisting of long-chain alkyl esters. Biodiesel is typically made by chemically reacting lipids with an alcohol....
, - and straight vegetable oil can be appropriate, direct biofuelBiofuelBiofuel is a type of fuel whose energy is derived from biological carbon fixation. Biofuels include fuels derived from biomass conversion, as well as solid biomass, liquid fuels and various biogases...
s in areas where vegetable oil is readily available and cheaper than fossil fuelFossil fuelFossil fuels are fuels formed by natural processes such as anaerobic decomposition of buried dead organisms. The age of the organisms and their resulting fossil fuels is typically millions of years, and sometimes exceeds 650 million years...
s. - Anaerobic digestionAnaerobic digestionAnaerobic digestion is a series of processes in which microorganisms break down biodegradable material in the absence of oxygen. It is used for industrial or domestic purposes to manage waste and/or to release energy....
power plants - BiogasBiogasBiogas typically refers to a gas produced by the biological breakdown of organic matter in the absence of oxygen. Organic waste such as dead plant and animal material, animal dung, and kitchen waste can be converted into a gaseous fuel called biogas...
is another potential source of energy, particularly where there is an abundant supply of wasteWasteWaste is unwanted or useless materials. In biology, waste is any of the many unwanted substances or toxins that are expelled from living organisms, metabolic waste; such as urea, sweat or feces. Litter is waste which has been disposed of improperly...
organic matterOrganic matterOrganic matter is matter that has come from a once-living organism; is capable of decay, or the product of decay; or is composed of organic compounds...
. A generator (running on biofuels) can be run more efficiently if combined with batteries and an inverterInverter (electrical)An inverter is an electrical device that converts direct current to alternating current ; the converted AC can be at any required voltage and frequency with the use of appropriate transformers, switching, and control circuits....
; this adds significantly to capital costCapital costCapital costs are costs incurred on the purchase of land, buildings, construction and equipment to be used in the production of goods or the rendering of services, in other words, the total cost needed to bring a project to a commercially operable status. However, capital costs are not limited to...
but reduces running cost, and can potentially make this a much cheaper option than the solar, wind and micro-hydro options. - FecesFecesFeces, faeces, or fæces is a waste product from an animal's digestive tract expelled through the anus or cloaca during defecation.-Etymology:...
(e.g. cow dung, human, etc.) can also be used. For example DEKADEKADEKA Research and Development Corporation is a company based in New Hampshire, founded in 1982 by Dean Kamen, consisting of nearly 200 engineers, technicians, and support staff...
's Project Slingshot stirling electricity generator works this energy source to make electricity. - BiocharBiocharBiochar or terra preta is charcoal created by pyrolysis of biomass. Biochar is under investigation as an approach to carbon sequestration via bio-energy with carbon capture and storage. Biochar thus has the potential to help mitigate climate change, via carbon sequestration...
is another similar energy source which can be obtained through charring of certain types of organic material (e.g. hazelnut shells, bamboo, chicken manure, ...) in a pyrolysis unit. A similar energy source is terra preta nova.
Finally, urine
Urine
Urine is a typically sterile liquid by-product of the body that is secreted by the kidneys through a process called urination and excreted through the urethra. Cellular metabolism generates numerous by-products, many rich in nitrogen, that require elimination from the bloodstream...
can also be used as a basis to generate hydrogen (which is an energy carrier). Using urine, hydrogen production
Hydrogen production
Hydrogen production is the family of industrial methods for generating hydrogen. Currently the dominant technology for direct production is steam reforming from hydrocarbons. Many other methods are known including electrolysis and thermolysis...
is 332% more energy efficient than using water.
Electricity distribution could be improved so to make use of a more structured electricity line arrangement
Grid plan
The grid plan, grid street plan or gridiron plan is a type of city plan in which streets run at right angles to each other, forming a grid...
and universal AC power plugs and sockets (e.g. the CEE 7/7 plug). In addition, a universal system of electricity provisioning (e.g. universal voltage, frequency, ampère; e.g. 230 V with 50 Hz), as well as perhaps a better mains power system (e.g. through the use of special systems as perfected single wire earth return
Single wire earth return
Single wire earth return or single wire ground return is a single-wire transmission line for supplying single-phase electrical power from an electrical grid to remote areas at low cost...
s; e.g. Tunisia's MALT-system, which features low costs and easy placement)
Electricity storage (which is required for autonomous energy systems) can be provided through appropriate technology solutions as deep-cycle and car-batteries
Battery (electricity)
An electrical battery is one or more electrochemical cells that convert stored chemical energy into electrical energy. Since the invention of the first battery in 1800 by Alessandro Volta and especially since the technically improved Daniell cell in 1836, batteries have become a common power...
(intermediate technology), long duration flywheels, electrochemical capacitors, compressed air energy storage (CAES), liquid nitrogen and pumped hydro. Thanks to Daniel Nocera, and other hydrogen home station manufacturers, low-cost hydrogen storage is now also possible as a mid to short-term storage solution. Many solutions for the developing world are sold as a single package, containing a (micro) electricity generation power plant and energy storage. Such packages are called remote-area power supply
- White LEDLEdLEd is a TeX/LaTeX editing software working under Microsoft Windows. It is a freeware product....
s and a source of renewable energyRenewable energyRenewable energy is energy which comes from natural resources such as sunlight, wind, rain, tides, and geothermal heat, which are renewable . About 16% of global final energy consumption comes from renewables, with 10% coming from traditional biomass, which is mainly used for heating, and 3.4% from...
(such as solar cellSolar cellA solar cell is a solid state electrical device that converts the energy of light directly into electricity by the photovoltaic effect....
s) are used by the Light Up the World FoundationLight Up the World FoundationThe Light Up the World Group is an international development organization whose goal is to provide renewable energy technologies and high efficiency lighting to communities around the world that do not have access to appropriate and affordable energy solutions. Our primary program objective is...
to provide lighting to poor people in remote areas, and provide significant benefits compared to the kerosene lampKerosene lampThe kerosene lamp is a type of lighting device that uses kerosene as a fuel. This article refers to kerosene lamps that have a wick and a tall glass chimney. Kerosene lanterns that have a wick and a glass globe are related to kerosene lamps and are included here as well...
s which they replace. Certain other companies as Powerplus also have LED-flashlights with imbedded solar cells. - Organic LEDs made by roll-to-roll production are another source of cheap light that will be commercially available at low cost by 2015.
- Compact fluorescent lampCompact fluorescent lampA compact fluorescent lamp , also called compact fluorescent light, energy-saving light, and compact fluorescent tube, is a fluorescent lamp designed to replace an incandescent lamp; some types fit into light fixtures formerly used for incandescent lamps...
s (as well as regular fluorescent lampFluorescent lampA fluorescent lamp or fluorescent tube is a gas-discharge lamp that uses electricity to excite mercury vapor. The excited mercury atoms produce short-wave ultraviolet light that then causes a phosphor to fluoresce, producing visible light. A fluorescent lamp converts electrical power into useful...
s and LED-lightbulbsLED lampAn LED lamp is a solid-state lamp that uses light-emitting diodes as the source of light. The LEDs involved may be conventional semiconductor light-emitting diodes, organic LEDs , or polymer light-emitting diodes devices, although PLED technologies are not currently commercially available.Since...
) can also be used as appropriate technology. Although they are less environmentally friendly then LED-lights, they are cheaper and still feature relative high efficiency (compared to incandescent lamps). - The Safe bottle lampSafe bottle lampThe Safe bottle lamp, called sudeepa or sudipa for good lamp, is a safer kerosene lamp designed by Wijaya Godakumbura of Sri Lanka. The safety comes from heavier glass, a secure screw-on metal lid, and two flat sides which prevent it from rolling if knocked over.-History:As surgeon Dr. Godakumbura...
is a safer kerosene lampKerosene lampThe kerosene lamp is a type of lighting device that uses kerosene as a fuel. This article refers to kerosene lamps that have a wick and a tall glass chimney. Kerosene lanterns that have a wick and a glass globe are related to kerosene lamps and are included here as well...
designed in Sri Lanka. Lamps as these allow relative long, mobile, lighting. The safety comes from a secure screw-on metal lid, and two flat sides which prevent it from rolling if knocked over. An alternative to fuel or oil-based lanterns is the UdayUdayUday is a male given name meaning to rise, or ascend. It may refer to:-People:* Udai Lal Anjana, Indian politician* Uday Benegal, Indian musician...
lantern, developed by Philips as part of its Lighting Africa project (sponsored by the World Bank Group). - The Faraday flashlightFaraday FlashlightA mechanically powered flashlight is one of several varieties of flashlight that are powered by electricity generated by the muscle power of the user, so they do not need replacement of batteries, or recharging from an electrical source...
is a LED flashlight which operates on a capacitor. Recharging can be done by manual winching or by shaking, hereby avoiding the need of any supplementary electrical system. - HID-lampsHigh-intensity discharge lampHigh-intensity discharge lamps are a type of electrical lamp which produces light by means of an electric arc between tungsten electrodes housed inside a translucent or transparent fused quartz or fused alumina arc tube. This tube is filled with both gas and metal salts. The gas facilitates the...
finally can be used for lighting operations where regular LED-lighting or other lamps will not suffice. Examples are car headlights. Due to their high efficiency, they are quite environmental, yet costly, and they still require polluting materials in their production process.
Transportation
Human-powered transport
Human-powered transport is the transport of person and/or goods using human muscle power. Like animal-powered transport, human-powered transport has existed since time immemorial in the form of walking, running and swimming...
include the bicycle
Bicycle
A bicycle, also known as a bike, pushbike or cycle, is a human-powered, pedal-driven, single-track vehicle, having two wheels attached to a frame, one behind the other. A person who rides a bicycle is called a cyclist, or bicyclist....
(and the future bamboo bicycle
Bamboo Bike Project
The Bamboo Bike Project was started by two scientists at Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory , David Ho and John Mutter, with funding from The Earth Institute at Columbia University...
), which provides general-purpose transportation at lower costs compared to motorized vehicles, and many advantages over walking, and the whirlwind wheelchair
Whirlwind wheelchair
The Whirlwind wheelchair is a wheelchair designed to be made in developing countries using local resources, in a sustainable development effort.It was co-designed by Ralf Hotchkiss of Whirlwind Wheelchair International...
, which provides mobility for disabled people who cannot afford the expensive wheelchairs used in developed countries. Animal powered vehicles/transport
Animal-powered transport
Animal-powered transport is a broad category of the human use of non-human working animals for the movement of people and goods....
may also be another appropriate technology.
Certain zero-emissions vehicle
Zero-emissions vehicle
A zero-emissions vehicle, or ZEV, is a vehicle that emits no tailpipe pollutants from the onboard source of power. Harmful pollutants to the health and the environment include particulates , hydrocarbons, carbon monoxide, ozone, lead, and various oxides of nitrogen. Although not considered emission...
s may be considered appropriate transportation technology, including compressed air cars, liquid nitrogen
Liquid nitrogen
Liquid nitrogen is nitrogen in a liquid state at a very low temperature. It is produced industrially by fractional distillation of liquid air. Liquid nitrogen is a colourless clear liquid with density of 0.807 g/mL at its boiling point and a dielectric constant of 1.4...
and hydrogen-powered
Hydrogen vehicle
A hydrogen vehicle is a vehicle that uses hydrogen as its onboard fuel for motive power. Hydrogen vehicles include hydrogen fueled space rockets, as well as automobiles and other transportation vehicles...
vehicles. Also, vehicles with internal combustion engines may be converted to hydrogen or oxyhydrogen combustion.
Bicycles can also be applied to commercial transport of goods to and from remote areas. An example of this is Karaba, a free-trade coffee co-op in Rwanda, which uses 400 modified bicycles to carry hundreds of pounds of coffee beans for processing. Other projects for developing countries include the redesign of cycle rickshaws to convert them to electric power. However recent reports suggest that these rickshaws are not plying on the roads.
Health Care
According to the Global Health CouncilGlobal Health Council
The Global Health Council is a United States-based non-profit networking organizing linking "several hundred health non-governmental organizations around the world to share knowledge and resources, build partnerships and together become stronger advocates for health"...
, rather than the use of professionally schooled doctors, the training of villagers to remedy most maladies in towns in the developing world is most appropriate. Trained villagers are able to eliminate 80% of the health problems. Small (low-cost) hospitals - based on the model of the Jamkhed hospital – can remedy another 15%, while only 5% will need to go to a larger (more expensive) hospital.
- Before being able to determine the cause of the disease or malady, accurate diagnosis is required. This may be done manually (through observation, inquiries) and by specialised tools.
- Herbalist medicines (e.g. tinctures, tisanes, decoctions, ...) are appropriate medicines, as they can be freely made at home and are almost as effectivePhytotherapyPhytotherapy is the study of the use of extracts from natural origin as medicines or health-promoting agents.Traditional phytotherapy is often used as synonym for herbalism and regarded as "alternative medicine" by much of Western medicine, although effects of many substances found in plants have...
as their chemical counterparts. A previous program that made use of herbal medicine was the Barefoot doctor program. - A phase-change incubatorPhase-change incubatorThe phase-change incubator is a low-cost, low-maintenance incubator to help test for microorganisms in water supplies. It uses small balls containing a chemical compound that, when heated and then kept insulated, will stay at 37°C for 24 hours....
, developed in the late 1990s, is a low cost way for health workers to incubate microbial samples. - Birth controlBirth controlBirth control is an umbrella term for several techniques and methods used to prevent fertilization or to interrupt pregnancy at various stages. Birth control techniques and methods include contraception , contragestion and abortion...
is also seen as an appropriate technology, especially now, because of increasing population numbers (overpopulating certain areas), increasing food prices and poverty. It has been proposed to a certain degree by PATH (program for appropriate technology in health). - Jaipur legJaipur legThe Jaipur Leg also known as the Jaipur Foot is a rubber-based prosthetic leg for people with below-knee amputations, produced under the guidance of Dr. P. K...
was developed by Dr. P. K. Sethi and Masterji Ram Chander in 1968 as an inexpensive prosthetic leg for victims of landmine explosions. - Natural cleaning products can be used for personal hygiene and cleaning of clothing and eating utensils; in order to decrease illnesses/maladies (as they eliminate a great amount of pathogens).
Note that many Appropriate Technologies benefit public health
Public health
Public health is "the science and art of preventing disease, prolonging life and promoting health through the organized efforts and informed choices of society, organizations, public and private, communities and individuals" . It is concerned with threats to health based on population health...
, in particular by providing sanitation and safe drinking water. Refrigeration may also provide a health benefit. (These are discussed in the following paragraphs.) This was too found at the Comprehensive Rural Health Project
Comprehensive Rural Health Project
The Comprehensive Rural Health Project is a non profit organization that provides health and development services to the rural communities in Jamkhed, India. Started in 1970 by Dr Raj and Mabelle Arole, CRHP today serves more than 300 villages and 500,000 people...
and the Women Health Volunteers projects in countries as Iran, Iraq and Nepal.
Food Preparation and Storage
Food production has often been included in autonomous building/communityIntentional community
An intentional community is a planned residential community designed to have a much higher degree of teamwork than other communities. The members of an intentional community typically hold a common social, political, religious, or spiritual vision and often follow an alternative lifestyle. They...
projects to provide security. Skilled, intensive garden
Garden
A garden is a planned space, usually outdoors, set aside for the display, cultivation, and enjoyment of plants and other forms of nature. The garden can incorporate both natural and man-made materials. The most common form today is known as a residential garden, but the term garden has...
ing can support an adult from as little as 15 square meters of land. Some proven intensive, low-effort food-production systems include urban gardening
Urban horticulture
Urban and peri-urban horticulture includes all horticultural crops grown for human consumption and ornamental use within and in the immediate surroundings of cities. Although crops have always been grown inside the city, the practice is expanding and gaining more attention...
(indoors and outdoors). Indoor cultivation
Grow house
A grow house is a property, usually located in a suburban residential neighborhood, that is primarily used for the production of marijuana.The houses are typically outfitted with extensive hydroponic equipment to provide water, food, and light to the plants, and the houses themselves are usually...
may be set up using hydroponics
Hydroponics
Hydroponics is a method of growing plants using mineral nutrient solutions, in water, without soil. Terrestrial plants may be grown with their roots in the mineral nutrient solution only or in an inert medium, such as perlite, gravel, mineral wool, or coconut husk.Researchers discovered in the 18th...
with Grow light
Grow light
A grow light or plant light is an artificial light source, generally an electric light, designed to stimulate plant growth by emitting an electromagnetic spectrum appropriate for photosynthesis. Grow lights are used in applications where there is either no naturally occurring light, or where...
s, while outdoor cultivation may be done using permaculture
Permaculture
Permaculture is an approach to designing human settlements and agricultural systems that is modeled on the relationships found in nature. It is based on the ecology of how things interrelate rather than on the strictly biological concerns that form the foundation of modern agriculture...
, forest gardening
Forest gardening
Forest gardening is a food production and agroforestry system based on woodland ecosystems, incorporating fruit and nut trees, shrubs, herbs, vines and perennial vegetables which have yields directly useful to humans...
, no-till farming
No-till farming
No-till farming is a way of growing crops from year to year without disturbing the soil through tillage. No-till is an agricultural technique which increases the amount of water and organic matter in the soil and decreases erosion...
, Do Nothing Farming, etc. In order to better control the irrigation
Irrigation
Irrigation may be defined as the science of artificial application of water to the land or soil. It is used to assist in the growing of agricultural crops, maintenance of landscapes, and revegetation of disturbed soils in dry areas and during periods of inadequate rainfall...
outdoors, special irrigation systems may be created as well (although this increases costs, and may again open the door to cultivating non-indigenous plants; something which is best avoided). One such system for the developing world is discussed here.
Crop production tools are best kept simple (reduces operating difficulty, cost, replacement difficulties and pollution, when compared to motorized equipment). Tools can include scythe
Scythe
A scythe is an agricultural hand tool for mowing grass, or reaping crops. It was largely replaced by horse-drawn and then tractor machinery, but is still used in some areas of Europe and Asia. The Grim Reaper is often depicted carrying or wielding a scythe...
s, animal-pulled plows (although no-till farming should be preferred), dibber
Dibber
A dibber or dibble is a pointed wooden stick for making holes in the ground so that seeds, seedlings or small bulbs can be planted. Dibbers come in a variety of designs including the straight dibber, T-handled dibber, trowel dibber, and L-shaped dibber....
s, wheeled auger
Auger
An auger is a drilling device, or drill bit, that usually includes a rotating helical screw blade called a "flighting" to act as a screw conveyor to remove the drilled out material...
s (for planting large trees), kirpi
Kirpi
The kirpi is a small traditional hand weeding tool. It evolved in India as a multi-purpose gardening implement. The tool has a wooden handle and a curved blade. The cutting edge on the outside curve of the blade can be used for hand hoeing, while the serrated inside edge cuts through dead...
s, hoes
Hoe (tool)
A hoe is an ancient and versatile agricultural tool used to move small amounts of soil. Common goals include weed control by agitating the surface of the soil around plants, piling soil around the base of plants , creating narrow furrows and shallow trenches for planting seeds and bulbs, to chop...
, ...
Greenhouse
Greenhouse
A greenhouse is a building in which plants are grown. These structures range in size from small sheds to very large buildings...
s are also sometimes included (see Earthship Biotincture). Sometimes they are also fitted with irrigation systems, and/or heat sink
Heat sink
A heat sink is a term for a component or assembly that transfers heat generated within a solid material to a fluid medium, such as air or a liquid. Examples of heat sinks are the heat exchangers used in refrigeration and air conditioning systems and the radiator in a car...
-systems which can respectively irrigate the plants or help to store energy from the sun and redistribute it at night (when the greenhouse starts to cool down).
According to proponents, Appropriate Technologies can greatly reduce the labor required to prepare food, compared to traditional methods, while being much simpler and cheaper than the processing used in Western countries. This reflects E.F. Schumacher's concept of "intermediate technology," i.e. technology which is significantly more effective and expensive than traditional methods, but still an order of magnitude (10 times) cheaper than developed world technology. Key examples are:
- the Malian peanut shellerMalian peanut shellerThe Universal Nut Sheller is a simple hand-operated machine based on a Bulgarian Peanut sheller, capable of shelling of raw, sun-dried peanuts per hour....
- the fonio husking machineFonio husking machineA Fonio husking machine was invented by Sanoussi Diakité, a Senegalese mechanical engineer. Diakité was awarded the Rolex Award in 1996 for the invention. Fonio is a staple crop in western Africa. Because the fonio grains are so small, it is difficult to remove the brittle outer shell...
- the screenless hammer millScreenless hammer millThe screenless hammer mill, like regular hammer mills, is used to pound grain. However, rather than a screen, it uses air flow to separate small particles from larger ones....
- the ISF corn mill
- the ISF rice huller
- all other types of electrical or hand-operated kitchenKitchenA kitchen is a room or part of a room used for cooking and food preparation.In the West, a modern residential kitchen is typically equipped with a stove, a sink with hot and cold running water, a refrigerator and kitchen cabinets arranged according to a modular design. Many households have a...
equipment (grinders, cutters, ...) Special multifunctional kitchen robots that are able to perform several functions (e.g. grinding, cutting, and even vacuum cleaning and polishing) are able to reduce costs even more. Examples of these devices were e.g. the (now discontinued) PiccoloPiccoloThe piccolo is a half-size flute, and a member of the woodwind family of musical instruments. The piccolo has the same fingerings as its larger sibling, the standard transverse flute, but the sound it produces is an octave higher than written...
household appliance from Hammelmann Werke (previously based in Bad Kissingen.) It was equipped with a flexible axis, allowing a variety of aids to be screwed on.
- Solar cookerSolar cookerA solar cooker, or solar oven, is a device which uses the energy of sunlight to heat food or drink to cook it or sterilize it. High-tech versions, for example electric ovens powered by solar cells, are possible, and have some advantages such as being able to work in diffuse light. However at...
s are appropriate to some settings, depending on climate and cooking style. They are emission-less and very low-cost. Hybrid variants also exist that incorporate a second heating source such as electrical heating or wood-based. - Hot plateHot plateA hot plate is a portable self-contained tabletop small appliance that features one, two or more gas burners or electric heating elements. A hot plate can be used as a stand alone appliance, but is often used as a substitute for one of the burners from an oven range or the cook top of a stove...
s are 100% electrical, fairly low cost (around 20€) and are mobile. They do however require an electrical system to be present in the area of operation. - Rocket stoveRocket stoveA rocket stove is an innovative clean and efficient cooking stove using small diameter wood fuel which is burned in simple high-temperature combustion chamber containing an insulated vertical chimney which ensures complete combustion prior to the flames reaching the cooking surface. The principles...
s and certain other woodstoves (e.g. Philips Woodstove) improve fuel efficiency, and reduce harmful indoor air pollution. The stoves however still make use of wood. However, briquetteBriquetteA briquette is a block of flammable matter used as fuel to start and maintain a fire. Common types of briquettes are charcoal briquettes and biomass briquettes.-Constituents of charcoal briquettes:...
makers can now turn organic waste into fuel, saving money and/or collection time, and preserving forests. - Solar, special Einstein refrigeratorEinstein refrigeratorThe Einstein-Szilard or Einstein refrigerator is an absorption refrigerator which has no moving parts, operates at constant pressure, and requires only a heat source to operate...
s and thermal mass refrigerators reduce the amount of electricity required. Also, solar and special Einstein refrigerators do not use haloalkanes (which play a key role in ozone depletion), but use heat pumps or mirrors instead. Solar refrigerators have been built for developing nations by Sopology. - The pot-in-pot refrigeratorPot-in-pot refrigeratorThe pot-in-pot refrigerator, also known as a Zeer الزير in Arabic, is a refrigeration device which keeps food cool without electricity by using evaporative cooling. A porous outer earthenware pot, lined with wet sand, contains an inner pot within which the food is placed...
is an African invention which keeps things cool without electricity. It provides a way to keep food and produce fresh for much longer than would otherwise be possible. This can be a great benefit to the families who use the device. For example, it is claimed that girls who had to regularly sell fresh produce in the market can now go to school instead, as there is less urgency to sell the produce before it loses freshness.
Information and Communication Technologies
- The OLPC XO, SimputerSimputerThe Simputer is a self-contained, open hardware Linux-based handheld computer, first released in 2002. Developed in, and primarily distributed within India, the product was envisioned as a low-cost alternative to personal computers...
, Asus Eee PCASUS Eee PCThe Asus Eee PC is a subnotebook/netbook computer line from ASUSTeK Computer Incorporated, and a part of the Asus Eee product family. At the time of its introduction in late 2007, it was noted for its combination of a light weight, Linux operating system, solid-state drive , and relatively low cost...
, and other low cost computers are computers aimed at developing countries. Besides the low price, other characteristics include resistance to dust, reliability and use of the target language. - Eldis OnDisc and The Appropriate Technology LibraryThe Appropriate Technology LibraryThe Appropriate Technology Library consists of 1050 books on 29 subject areas of small scale, do-it-yourself technology. Originally developed by Volunteers in Asia it was transferred to Village Earth: The Consortium for Sustainable Village-Based Development in 1993.The Library was developed to be...
are projects that use CDsCompact DiscThe Compact Disc is an optical disc used to store digital data. It was originally developed to store and playback sound recordings exclusively, but later expanded to encompass data storage , write-once audio and data storage , rewritable media , Video Compact Discs , Super Video Compact Discs ,...
and DVDDVDA DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
s to give access to development information in areas without reliable and affordable internet access. - The Wind-up radio and the computer and communication system planned by the Jhai FoundationJhai FoundationThe Jhai Foundation is a non-profit organisation working mainly in Laos.One of its projects is bringing communication services to rural communities lacking electricity or telephones...
are independent from power supply. - There is also GrameenPhoneGrameenphoneGrameenphone , widely known as GP, is the leading telecommunications service provider in Bangladesh. With more than 32 million subscribers , Grameenphone is the largest cellular operator in the country...
, which fused mobile telephony with Grameen BankGrameen BankThe Grameen Bank is a microfinance organization and community development bank started in Bangladesh that makes small loans to the impoverished without requiring collateral...
's microfinance program to give Bangladeshi villagers access to communication. - Mobile telephonyMobile telephonyMobile telephony is the provision of telephone services to phones which may move around freely rather than stay fixed in one location. Mobile phones connect to a terrestrial cellular network of base stations , whereas satellite phones connect to orbiting satellites...
is appropriate technology for many developing countries, as it greatly reduces the infrastructureInfrastructureInfrastructure is basic physical and organizational structures needed for the operation of a society or enterprise, or the services and facilities necessary for an economy to function...
required to achieve widespread coverage. However, mobile phoneMobile phoneA mobile phone is a device which can make and receive telephone calls over a radio link whilst moving around a wide geographic area. It does so by connecting to a cellular network provided by a mobile network operator...
network may not always be available (it depends on the location) and may not always provide both voice and data services. - Loband, a website developed by AptivateAptivateAptivate is a UK based NGO and not-for-profit organisation. It provides IT services for international development. It is notable for developing the open-source Loband website service...
, strips all the photographic and other bandwidth-intensive content from webpages and renders them as simple text, while otherwise allowing one to browse them normally. The site greatly increasing the speed of browsing, and is appropriate for use on low bandwidth connections as generally available in much of the developing world. - An increasing number of activists provide free or very inexpensive webWorld Wide WebThe World Wide Web is a system of interlinked hypertext documents accessed via the Internet...
and emailE-mailElectronic mail, commonly known as email or e-mail, is a method of exchanging digital messages from an author to one or more recipients. Modern email operates across the Internet or other computer networks. Some early email systems required that the author and the recipient both be online at the...
services using cooperative computer networks that run wireless ad hoc networks. Network service is provided by a cooperative of neighbors, each operating a router as a household appliance. These minimize wired infrastructure, and its costs and vulnerabilities. Private Internet protocolInternet ProtocolThe Internet Protocol is the principal communications protocol used for relaying datagrams across an internetwork using the Internet Protocol Suite...
networks set up in this way can operate without the use of a commercial provider. - Rural electrical grids can be wired with "optical phase cable", in which one or more of the steelSteelSteel is an alloy that consists mostly of iron and has a carbon content between 0.2% and 2.1% by weight, depending on the grade. Carbon is the most common alloying material for iron, but various other alloying elements are used, such as manganese, chromium, vanadium, and tungsten...
armor wires are replaced with steel tubes containing fiber optics. - Satellite Internet accessSatellite Internet accessSatellite Internet access is Internet access provided through satellites. The service can be provided to users world-wide through low Earth orbit satellites. Geostationary satellites can offer higher data speeds, but their signals can not reach some polar regions of the world...
can provide high speed connectivity to remote locations, however these are significantly more expensive than wire-based or terrestrial wireless systems. WimaxWiMAXWiMAX is a communication technology for wirelessly delivering high-speed Internet service to large geographical areas. The 2005 WiMAX revision provided bit rates up to 40 Mbit/s with the 2011 update up to 1 Gbit/s for fixed stations...
and forms of packet radioPacket radioPacket radio is a form of packet switching technology used to transmit digital data via radio or wireless communications links. It uses the same concepts of data transmission via Datagram that are fundamental to communications via the Internet, as opposed to the older techniques used by dedicated...
can also be used. Depending on the speed and latency of these networks they may be capable of relaying VoIP traffic, negating the need for separate telephony services. Finally, the Internet Radio Linking ProjectInternet Radio Linking ProjectThe Internet Radio Linking Project, also called IRLP, is a project that links amateur radio stations around the world by using Voice over IP . Each gateway consists of a dedicated computer running custom software that is connected to both a radio and the Internet. This arrangement forms what is...
provides potential for blending older (cheap) local radio broadcasting with the increased range of the internet. - satelliteSatellite phoneA satellite telephone, satellite phone, or satphone is a type of mobile phone that connects to orbiting satellites instead of terrestrial cell sites...
-based telephone systems can also be used, as either fixed installations or portable handsets and can be integrated into a PABX or local IP-based network.
Finance
Through financial systems envisioned especially for the poor/developed world, many companies have been able to get started with only limited capital. Often banks lend the money to people wishing to start a business (such as with microfinanceMicrofinance
Microfinance is the provision of financial services to low-income clients or solidarity lending groups including consumers and the self-employed, who traditionally lack access to banking and related services....
). In other systems, people for a Rotating Savings and Credit Association
Rotating Savings and Credit Association
A Rotating Savings and Credit Association or ROSCA is a group of individuals who agree to meet for a defined period of time in order to save and borrow together...
or ROSCA to purchase costly material together (such as Tontine
Tontine
A tontine is an investment scheme for raising capital, devised in the 17th century and relatively widespread in the 18th and 19th. It combines features of a group annuity and a lottery. Each subscriber pays an agreed sum into the fund, and thereafter receives an annuity. As members die, their...
s and Susu account
Susu account
Susu collectors are one of the oldest financial groups in Africa. Based largely in Ghana they provide an informal means for Ghanaians to securely save and access their own money, and gain limited access to credit, a form of microfinance. Money looked after for an individual by a Susu collector is...
s). Organisations, communities, cities or individuals can provide loans to other communities/cities (such as with the approach followed by Kiva
Kiva (organization)
Kiva Microfunds is an organization that allows people to lend money via the Internet to microfinance institutions in developing countries around the world and in the United States, which in turn lend the money to small businesses and students...
, World Vision Microloans MicroPlace
MicroPlace
MicroPlace, founded in 2006, is a broker-dealer registered with the SEC and a member of FINRA , MicroPlace is currently the only online introducing broker-dealer specializing in microfinance securities for retail investors. Started by Tracey Pettengill Turner, MicroPlace was bought out by eBay Inc...
and LETS). Finally, in certain communities (usually isolated communities such as small islands or oases) everything of value is shared. This is called gift economy
Gift economy
In the social sciences, a gift economy is a society where valuable goods and services are regularly given without any explicit agreement for immediate or future rewards . Ideally, simultaneous or recurring giving serves to circulate and redistribute valuables within the community...
.
Determining a sustainable approach
Features such as low cost, low usage of fossil fuels and use of locally available resources can give some advantages in terms of sustainabilitySustainability
Sustainability is the capacity to endure. For humans, sustainability is the long-term maintenance of well being, which has environmental, economic, and social dimensions, and encompasses the concept of union, an interdependent relationship and mutual responsible position with all living and non...
. For that reason, these technologies are sometimes used and promoted by advocates of sustainability and alternative technology
Alternative technology
Alternative technology is a term used to refer to technologies that are more environmentally friendly than the functionally equivalent technologies dominant in current practice....
.
Besides using natural, locally available resources (e.g. wood or adobe), waste materials imported from cities using conventional (and inefficient) waste management may be gathered and re-used to build a sustainable living environment. Use of these cities' waste material allows the gathering of a huge amount of building material at a low cost. When obtained, the materials may be recycled over and over in the own city/community, using the cradle to cradle design method. Locations where waste can be found include landfill
Landfill
A landfill site , is a site for the disposal of waste materials by burial and is the oldest form of waste treatment...
s, junkyards, on water surfaces and anywhere around towns or near highways. Organic waste that can be reused to fertilise plants can be found in sewages. Also, town districts and other places (e.g. cemeteries
Cemetery
A cemetery is a place in which dead bodies and cremated remains are buried. The term "cemetery" implies that the land is specifically designated as a burying ground. Cemeteries in the Western world are where the final ceremonies of death are observed...
) that are subject of undergoing renovation or removal can be used for gathering materials as stone, concrete, or potassium.
See also
- Alternative propulsion
- Alternative technologyAlternative technologyAlternative technology is a term used to refer to technologies that are more environmentally friendly than the functionally equivalent technologies dominant in current practice....
- AppropediaAppropediaAppropedia is a website for collaborative solutions in sustainability, poverty reduction and international development, with a particular focus on appropriate technology. Appropedia is a wiki-based website like Wikipedia, a website where a large number of participants are allowed to create and...
- Bush PumpBush PumpThe Bush pump, also known as the Zimbabwe bush pump, is a positive displacement pump based on lever action used to extract water from a bore hole well. It is the standard hand pump in Zimbabwe, and is used in large parts of Africa...
- Community-based economicsCommunity-based economicsCommunity-based economics or community economics is an economic system that encourages local substitution. It is most similar the lifeways of those practicing voluntary simplicity, including traditional Mennonite, Amish, and modern eco-village communities...
- Cradle to Cradle Design
- Critique of technologyCritique of technologyCritique of technology is an analysis of the negative impacts of technologies. It is argued that, in all advanced industrial societies , technology becomes a means of domination, control and exploitation, or more generally something which threatens the survival of humanity.Prominent authors...
- Campus Center for Appropriate Technology (CCAT)Campus Center for Appropriate Technology (CCAT)The Campus Center for Appropriate Technology is a student-run sustainability organization located at Humboldt State University in Arcata, California...
- DeindustrializationDeindustrializationDeindustrialization is a process of social and economic change caused by the removal or reduction of industrial capacity or activity in a country or region, especially heavy industry or manufacturing industry. It is an opposite of industrialization.- Multiple interpretations :There are multiple...
- DIY culture
- Eco-village
- Green syndicalismGreen syndicalismGreen syndicalism or eco-syndicalism has been used as a name for the philosophy of the green guild or sustainable trades movement.- Background :...
- Lifehacking
- List of environment topics
- Myth of Progress
- National Center for Appropriate TechnologyNational Center for Appropriate TechnologyThe National Center for Appropriate Technology is an American organization headquartered in Butte, MT that is dedicated to appropriate technology and sustainability. Projects specifically deal with sustainable energy, sustainable food/agriculture, farm energy, and climate change.It carries out...
- Open Source Appropriate TechnologyOpen Source Appropriate TechnologyOpen-source appropriate technology refers to technologies that are designed in the same fashion as free and open-source software. These technologies must be "appropriate technology" – meaning technology that is designed with special consideration to the environmental, ethical, cultural, social,...
- PermaculturePermaculturePermaculture is an approach to designing human settlements and agricultural systems that is modeled on the relationships found in nature. It is based on the ecology of how things interrelate rather than on the strictly biological concerns that form the foundation of modern agriculture...
- Practical ActionPractical ActionPractical Action is a development charity registered in the United Kingdom which works directly in four regions of the developing world – Latin America, East Africa, Southern Africa and South Asia, with particular concentration on Peru, Kenya, Sudan, Zimbabwe, Sri Lanka and Nepal.In these countries,...
(charity formerly known as Intermediate Technology) - Small is BeautifulSmall Is BeautifulSmall Is Beautiful: Economics As If People Mattered is a collection of essays by British economist E. F. Schumacher. The phrase "Small Is Beautiful" came from a phrase by his teacher Leopold Kohr...
- Social entrepreneurshipSocial entrepreneurshipSocial entrepreneurship is the work of social entrepreneurs. A social entrepreneur recognizes a social problem and uses entrepreneurial principles to organize, create and manage a venture to achieve social change . While a business entrepreneur typically measures performance in profit and return, a...
- Source reductionSource reductionSource reduction refers to any change in the design, manufacture, purchase, or use of materials or products to reduce their amount or toxicity before they become municipal solid waste.- Synonyms :...
- Synthetic biologySynthetic biologySynthetic biology is a new area of biological research that combines science and engineering. It encompasses a variety of different approaches, methodologies, and disciplines with a variety of definitions...
- Technology and societyTechnology and societyTechnology and society or technology and culture refers to cyclical co-dependence, co-influence, co-production of technology and society upon the other . This synergistic relationship occurred from the dawn of humankind, with the invention of simple tools and continues into modern technologies such...
- Tools for Conviviality
- Zero emissionZero emissionZero emission refers to an engine, motor, or other energy source, that emits no waste products that pollutes the environment or disrupts the climate.-Zero emission engines:...
Further reading
- Basic Needs Approach, Appropriate Technology, and Institutionalism by Dr. Mohammad Omar Farooq
External links
- Appropedia - The Sustainability Wiki - World Wide Wiki of Sustainable Technology (Appropriate technology portal)
- Akvopedia — the open water and sanitation knowledge resource
- International Journal for Service Learning in Engineering (IJSLE) - Peer-reviewed, semi-annual online journal, covering appropriate and sustainable technologies and related areas.
- GrAT - Center for Appropriate Technology - GrAT is a scientific association for research and development of Appropriate Technology in Vienna, Austria.
- AproveEcho - An environmental education center with a focus on living with appropriate technologies.