Thursday 25.11 Sanitation workshop

Hi,

As a pretask, we were told to watch a video from YouTube called ”Living from a bucket”. The film told about a voluntary group in a slum called Kibera, which is situated in Kenya. The group was called "Hands of love", what a great name! A group of young boys were cleaning up in the slum every Saturday to improve the standard of living in their neighbourhood. In Kibera, inadequate sanitation is a major problem, and sometimes people just use plastic bags and throw them somewhere after use, this is called ”flying toilets”. It really touched me on te video that young peolple want to make a difference to improve everybody’s lives.

On Thursday’s workshop, we had four different tasks related to sanitation. I was in group 1. In the beginning of the workshop, we had a sort of ”brainstorming”, and everybody had to discuss with other people to get solutions for all the four tasks. After brainstorming, the solutions were written to post-it notes and put on the wall. Every group had to organize the post-it notes and come up with a solution to the problem. I think this brainstorming was great, because after that the solution was kind of ready. Everybody had great ideas and quite many had similar ideas concerning our problem. Our problem in group 1 was to plan sustainable sanitation for Kibera. UN gives 600,000 dollars to improving living conditions on the area. Our plan was following:

1)      Inform locals on the importance on hygiene and proper sanitation -> The change has to happen from the people. You can’t go and say ”This is bad for you”, you have to proof your ideas so that the change is permanent.

2)      Set up a campaign with the help of NGO’s to spread information and to get the locals involved in cleaning their environment. If all the waste was even dumped to the same place, the living conditions would be much better.

3)      Technical solution is dry toilets, because they are easy to build and because there is no water piping in the slum. Some of the slum housing settlements are not legal so permanent water piping and normal toilets are not an option everywhere.

I think the plan was quite easy to make because the solution was already on the post-it notes. Therefore we didn’t have to think everything by ourselves and start from scratch. The brainstorming part took quite along time but I think it was more useful than just sitting with the group, because now we had everybody’s ideas and not just the group’s. Sometimes it was hard to have good ideas in the brainstorming session but in the end there were quite similar answers, because we had to talk to as many peolple as we could. I think the workshop was fun and useful.

Monday 22.11 Waste management

Hi,

We didn’t have a lecture today and this blog writing is based on individual work. Based on the two articles given, Municipal Solid Waste Management (MSWM) is management of garbage from communities. Municipal waste doesn’t include for example industrial waste because it is a result of human activity.

According to UN Development Programme, inadequate waste management is the second largest problem faced by citizens after unemployment. This can easily be true. Italy comes to my mind when talking about waste problems in Europe. The whole city went into chaos because of poor waste management. I think the situation was affected by Italian mafia somehow. One of the articles showed that two factors affect organizing proper waste management: policies and technology. The situation in Italy happened due to bad policy.

Arranging proper waste management is difficult. First, the city has to choose if it uses private company or smaller, community based organizations. The benefit in using community based organization is that it is labour intensive, so the workers can go to places were the big machines can’t. Supervivion is really important, and it is normally done by local authorities.

It says in one of the internet links that: ”Waste management in developing countries must emphasize and be linked to the creation of jobs, poverty alleviation and community participation.” Waste management is different in developed and developing countries. Many poor people live by sorting out garbage and waste management arranged like in developed countries would destroy their livelihood.

Based on the references, it seems that in many developing countries, there isn’t any kind of waste management. I think that is horrible. Dumping waste near by housing can cause serious illness, pollution and water degradation. Maybe waste management seems like the smallest worry when you don’t have a job or enough food to eat. But in the end, it can lead to a disaster. In the developing countries inadequate waste management is closely linked to urbanization. Web link number 2 says in my opinion less important reasons to waste management: “Poor visual appearance of these cities will have negative impacts on official and tourist visits and foreign investment.” That must be true, but I think health risk to citizens and pollution are more important reasons. A good point in the web link was to emphasize the role of finance, since waste management typically has very low priority in developing countries. I wonder why?

Waste management is taken for granted in Finland, so I haven’t even realized how large process it is. I become to respect city planners and government even more for proper waste management. I have thought that some services are well handled, when you don’t even recognize they are taking care of. Developed countries should certainly help developing countries to get proper waste management, because it instantly improves the standard of living in the whole city. I realized there are many urbanization related issues that I haven’t thought about before.

Workshop Thursday 18.11.10 Sustainable energy

Hello,

Thursday’s workshop was about sustainable energy sources. We were divided into 4 groups. Each group had a case to solve concerning the use of sustainable energy. Our group’s task was to design decentralized solution for a school in an urban slum in Ethiopia. The solution had to be decentralized because the local electricity supplier didn’t want to electrify the slum because it was afraid of excessive looting. We decided to plan the electrification using renewable energy sources, because in spite of large initial investment, they are cheap to use. We were thinking that we would need around 15 lamps in the school plus some extra for a computer on daytime. We counted that 5 solar panels would be enough and they would cost around 7500 euro together.

To store the extra energy, we planned that we needed batteries and a water boiler, so excess energy could be used to warm water. In addition to solar panels, we wanted to have some kind of a back up system. We came up with the idea of having a small biogas plant that used toilet waste to create biogas. To get electricity with biogas, we planned that the school would need two small generators. Biogas could also be converted to biofuel and sold to the community for cooking and heating. The material that doesn’t burn could be used as fertilizer in agriculture. According to our budget, the whole electrification of the school would pay 10 500 euro. To get the community to be involved in the project, we planned that there could be evening courses for the citizens of the slum.

Every group had to give feedback for one group. The group we had to give feedback designed a sustainable electrification for a small village in India located 2500 above sea level. They included micro hydropower, solar cells and biogas in their plan. We agreed that their plan was good, but they could also make biofuel to be used in old diesel generators the village already had.

I think the most interesting solution was a water tower which used potential energy to pump the water from a well. Our lecturer wasn’t sure about the practicality of the plan, but I think it was a great idea. It would be great if that kind of new solutions could gain space from old systems, like diesel generators or wood.

I think the workshop was really useful and fun. All our group members had to use their imagination to create a sustainable energy solution. Maybe some time from now, this kind of solutions can be reality.

Monday 15.11 Sustainable energy technologies

Hi,

I was absent from the lecture on Monday because of another class, but I read the lecture material and write my blog according to that. The lecture was held by Jukka Paatero. The lecture slides don't tell who he is, but I assume he makes research on environmentally friendly energy sources. It was good that in the beginning of the lecture, the definition of sustainable energy is told: Sustainability means that the energy is economically, environmentally and socially sustainable.
I have actually thought about this a lot in recent years. For example in Finland half of the investment money for building wind energy is tax money. Otherwise it wouldn't be economical to build any wind energy. In addition, when there is no wind, the energy has to be compensated somehow. In Denmark for example there is a lot of wind energy, so normally extra wind power is sold to international markets. When there is not enough wind, extra energy has to be bought from somewhere else. This isn't very economical. What about social sustainability in the production of renewable energy? The so called green power is much more expensive for consumers, because it is more expensive to produce. The energy prices for example here in Finland are already high, would it be fair for poorer people to pay more for this necessarity? An option would be to pay the gap with tax money, but the money has to be taken from somewhere. Government allowances to one energy resource twist energy markets to favour that energy resource, even if it woudn't be the most environmentally friendly.
The truth is, environmentally technology already exists. Biofuels can be made from reastaurant grease, or even slaughter waste. Instead, it is made of palm oil, maybe destroying rain forests. The limit in using sustainable energy is purely economical. It is more expensive and someone has to pay for the higher price. In the end it is the consumers, directly or indirectly as higher taxes. I am positive, that when the oil price rises high enough in the following 20-50 years, more environmentally friendly options will gain power. Also if sustainable enrgy is installed in larger scale, the costs will go down.
It was an interesting option in the lecture slides, oceanic energy. The technology is not developed enough but I hope in the future it will be possible to use for example tide energy.
I think the current energy politics conversation is stuck with battle between idealist and conservative ideas. Some people don't want to change anything from where they are, some will change everything in a blink of an eye without real knowledge of realistic options. Instead, both sides could concentrate on gaining knowlegde how renewable energy use could be increased, in a socially, economically and environmentally sustainable way.

Thursday's workshop "Water resources and urbanization" 11.11.10

Hello,

Thursday's workshop was about Water Resources and Urbanization, with participatory approach. The case we had to deal with was Phonm Pehn in Cambodia. The workshop was held by Dr. Ulla Heinonen from Aalto University / Lifelong Learning Institute Dipoli Water & Development Research Group. We were split to five stakeholder groups: Urban slum (village 1), poor village in the otskirts of the city (village 2), garment factory, water supply company and a local NGO. I was in group representing village 2. We also had individual roles in the stakeholder groups, I was a cattle owner. We first had to describe what kind of persons we were and how lack of fresh water affects us. I imagined I was around 40 yers old man, with around 10 children who help to take care of the cattle so they can not go to school. Lack of water affects me in many ways, since the cowns don't have enough water to drink or grass to eat and my family doesn't have proper drinking water. The next task was to plan the water management in the village for the following three years. It was told that the near by garment factory uses the same ground water as us, so the amount of ground water is decreasing. Our plan was to get water piping to our village, at  first connection for the whole village and later individual connections. Our plan in order to reduce the price was to involve in the building of the water piping. The payment would be collective, our village chief taking care of the collection of the money. We would also test the ground eater quality with the help of NGOs and demand that the factory doesn't take that much water that the ground water level changes. In the end we heard everybody's viewpoints. The garment factory was aware of our situation and they wanted to help us by considering other sources of water than the ground water. The local NGO was also very helpful and they said they would campaign to get a sustainable solution for all stakeholders. The water supply company was willing to build the connection for us if we could help in the construction.
In reality, I think that the situation is more complicated and the stakeholders don't necessarily have common goals as our groups had. The lecturer also reminded that there is often a conflict of interest between people inside same stakeholder group.

Water resources management Monday 8.11

Hello,

The topic on Mondays lecture was water resources management, and the lecture was held by Dr Marko Keskinen from Aalto University's Water & Development research group. I was surprised to know that only about 1% world's water is available for use. I also didn't know that a much as 70-90 % goes to agriculture. Due to population growth, water consumption has doubled since 1960, and the amount of water has stayed the same. First task the lecturer gave us was to evaluate which is the most critical area concerning water scarcity. Our group was thinking Asia and Saharan Africa. It was also pointed out in our group that water scarcity could be solved in many places if there was enough money for the technology. In many megacities, water resources management is especially challenging.
It was pointed out in the lecture that climate change has a big effect on water resources, since it impacts the hydrological cycle. The second task given to us was to think which of the mentioned factors is the most important. Our group was thinking population growth, because of that the water consumption is constantly increasing.
In the end it was pointed out that a more comprehensive view is needed in water management -> Many decicions are actually political, not techlological. I think a great sentence presented was "Water doesn't always flow downstream, it flows where the money and power are"
I think the lecture gave very interesting and important aspects on water resources management. An expert's viewpoints with high motivation are always a pleasure to listen to.

Megacities workshop 4.11

In the megacities workshop, we were given a task concerning a Megacity in Nigeria, called Lagos. About 12 million people live there and there are serious problems with overpopulation. The terms "urban pull" and "rural push" can be easily applied in Lagos. Poor people from rural areas have moved to the overcrowded city in the search of job opportunities and better income. Therefore many of them live in illegal housing settlements. In these slums the living conditions are really poor, there is inadequate/no sanitation or safe drinking water.
I remember the guest lecturer saying that it is a shame that Western countries only pay attention to the problems in Africa, since there are also areas where rich or middle class people are living. I have always had the opinion, that it really defines the progress/development of a country how it treats the people with the lowest income. In my opinion, for example, the United States reallly is not a "developed country", because those with no proper insurance have  no access to health care. There is a certain limit in earnings, after which you can get an insurance, and companies which use cheap labour pay under that limit. This means that some have to work in  two jobs to get access to services.
The situation in Lagos is, that the qovernment has "clean up" operations to get rid of the slums to build more profitable houses. I think this really violates the human rights of poor people.
In our workshop, we were concenrtating on an area in Lagos, which is a slum. Government is going to build new houses for government employees on that site. The poor people have lived there for 22 years and the population on the site is 52,000. Our group (3) was representing community leaders and NGO's. In the beginning, we were talking with social scientist. They thought that we would have to leave the site and begin a new life outside the city. We were thinking that since the people have lived there for 22 year, many of them woudn't want to leave their home. Next we were talking with city planners. They were a bit more optimistic. They thought that we could maybe stay on the site and government could help us to improve living conditions.
The last we were talking with the government. We were thinking in the beginnig that the government would force us to leave the site. But it was totally opposite! They wanted to helpn us to rebuild the site and they said they woudn't build new apartments for government employees at all!
In real life, I think that the government woudn't be that generous and they would just force the inhabitants of the slum to leave.
The exercise was a bit difficult because we didn't have that much of information on the situation. I think it was anyhow very useful to try to solve a real life problem.

Thoughts about the pretask next Thursday 4.11

I glanzed through the pretask for Thursday. I'm in group 3, representing NGOs and community leaders. It's going to be a challenge to make impressing arguments! The situation in Lagos and also in many other megacity suburbs is alarming. Clear actions have to be made to create sustainable plans for building new infrastructure and reinforcing ownership roles in the area. Otherwise it is a loose- loose situation.

Starting session 1.11.10

Welcome to my SGT (sustainable global technologies) blog! I have never written a blog before so this is a totally new experience.

Starting lecture was about urban risks and natural hazards. I already knew that the most common causes of death in the US are heart deseases and cancer. The next most common are accidents. It is odd how much people are afraid of natural forces, when they are the cause of death in only 1 in 3360 cases. It is irrational to be so afraid of wild animals and storms, when mostly we just fall down from kitchen chair.
We made a weighting discussion in the end of the lecture. We had to figure out weightings for different types of natural hazards for Europe. It was very difficult! I noticed many of the natural hazards on the list very seldom happen in Europe. It must be very hard to define weightings for natural hazards in the reality. We thought flood and forest fire are the most common ones. When we had a change to evaluate same hazards again based on other group’s assessment, it was already much easier. You just had to adjust the weightings according to both group’s values. Results from the 1st round are in the table below.

Natural hazard	Weighting (%) 1st round
Drought	4
Extreme temperatures	12
Earthquaqe	5
Flood	20
Forest fire	20
Landslide	5
Storm/cyclone	15
Storm surge	10
Tsunami	1
Vulcano eruption	8
Total	100

Home task was to evaluate same situation in our hometowns based on different stakeholder’s opinions. My home town is Helsinki. I think flood, storm or storm surge are most likely to happen here. Also extreme temperatures have caused troubles. Last summer was very warm and air conditioning didn’t work in for example some hospitals. On the other hand last winter was very cold and some people even fell down the roof when they were clearing their roofs from snow. Different stakeholders in Helsinki could be the inhabitants, the government, local authorities and NGOs. I think the outcome would be maybe that drought or storm is the biggest natural hazard, because Helsinki is situated on the coast. Local authorities and inhabitants would maybe emphasize the role of extreme temperatures.