12 November 2008

AFRICA IS BIG!

I know it's been a while since I've posted... things have been going really well, but they've also been really busy lately (as if that were something new ;). I'm in Zambia at the moment for user research. It's great because I have some interesting new pictures to post, but not-so-great because I only have access to very slow internet about once every three days while I'm here. D'oh! We'll see how many pictures I can get uploaded once I get to a connection.

In any case, I'm here to talk with, observe, take pictures of, learn from and understand small farmers in Zambia. I'm staying in a hotel about 12km outside of the capital, Lusaka. From here it's another 20km or so out to the field sites I visited yesterday. I talked to a couple of farmers, but not many (hope to remedy that today). IDE has a manual well-drilling team that's training out near there though, so I got to see them in action. A bit more explanation...

There are pretty much two main options for accessing water that's more than a few feet underground: a hand-dug well or a drilled well. A hand-dug well is just that... dug by hand by someone who is down the hole with a pick, a shovel, or some other hand tool. This method has a couple of limitations, but is most hindered by the fact that the digger is at the bottom of the hole. This means that as soon as he reaches the groundwater level, he can only dig about one meter deeper, since digging while holding one's breath under water isn't very practical.

Why is that an issue? Well, I just realized how long this explanation could turn out to be. Maybe it'd be worth it to make some drawings...

Anyway, the 'short' version: different layers of earth have different properties, and allow water to flow through them at different rates. A sand layer, for example, allows water to flow through it pretty quickly. Clay, however, does not. What that means is that, if there is clay at the level of groundwater in a hand-dug well, it will most likely be possible for a user to pump out all of the water in the bottom of the well. Then he will have to wait until the well recharges by filling up with the water that is seeping through the clay walls of the well. If the well hits a sandy layer though, then water flows quickly through that layer, and can often recharge the well just as fast as a user is able to pull water out of the well. This way the well never 'goes dry'.

Anyway...back to well types. The other sort is a drilled well, where the drillers are above ground, and send a long pipe with a bit on the end of it down the hole. They then manipulate that pipe and bit to drill the hole (this involves the bit chewing up whatever rock or sediment it comes in contact with on its way down, but just as importantly pulling that material up and out of the hole). The major advantage here is that you can drill down well below the level of groundwater until you find one of those sandy layers that allows lots of water to pass through it.

That sounds great, right? Well, there's an issue in that it's really expensive to drill a well. For deep or large-diameter wells, a diesel-powered rilling rig is required. For reference, the hole we want to have drilled for our pump testing is probably going to cost about US$5000. Small farmers can't afford that, so we're working with some partners who have experience in manual well-drilling. Here there is no engine involved; we're taking advantage of the very cheap labor that's so abundant in the developing world to keep the cost of drilling a (smaller and shallower, but still functional) well to less than US$200. So we're helping to train a team here in Zambia, and are hoping to get something similar started in Ethiopia soon.

That ends our technology lesson for today, class. More deep thoughts about the developing world coming soon. :-)

Since I've been such a slacker lately in posting updates, here's a quick rundown of what I've been doing for the past few weeks (if I manage to get them uploaded!):

Parting shot...

22 October 2008

WHAT ARE YOU DOING IN ETHIOPIA??

I've gotten this question a few times, so thought I would post about my work at IDE just a bit. This is the quick version. Go see the "story" (coming soon) for a bit more background information.

Here's the deal... this is a poor farmer:

There are lots of them in Ethiopia. The weather here limits their ability to grow crops. It is very rainy during the summer (July-September), but then very dry for the rest of the year. That means, if you don't have a way to get water for your crops during the dry season, you are very limited in what you can grow to feed your family or to sell in the market.

These are treadle pumps:

To pump water with it, the farmer "steps" up and down on the two foot treadles, like a stair-climber, and it pumps water from a well to a field. Using a pump can help farmers grow valuable fruits and vegetables during the dry season, when they can fetch a higher price at the market. This helps them earn more money to buy the things they need... additional food, clothes, school fees for their children, etc.

But there's a problem: the pumps are heavy, difficult to operate, have to be imported (and a very expensive duty has to be paid on them), or simply don't work very well. That's where I come in.

My job here is to develop the treadle pump so that it works well, is affordable, and satisfies the farmers' needs. That's not an easy task... IDE chose to base its Technology Design & Development group in Ethiopia specifically because they knew it would be a challenge to make water technologies successful here. We're making progress, though. I'm starting with a "quick fix" adjustment of the pumps that our workshop partner (AMIO) already makes. They don't work very well, so the goal is to improve quality and function as quickly as possible while they build the pumps. Here's my current plan:

That's the first part, which I'm working on now. Eventually I will go back and run a full development process on the treadle pump, starting with extensive user observations and interviews. That's when I'll be able to use some of the bigger ideas that require a full redesign of the treadle pump.

And that's it! Exciting, huh? :-)

Parting shot...

12 October 2008

HASHING AND WANDERING

This was my dad's first weekend in Addis, so of course I had to take him hashing. :) Today, we wandered around one of the older parts of the city a bit, and took a tour of one of the largest Orthodox churches in town. Oh, and I've had a request for more pictures of our house, so I've posted a few of those as well.

Some random Addis photos from our walk today...

And back to the house. It would be considered a really nice place to live just about anywhere. That it is in the middle of a city with so many poor residents certainly gives me pause. I think often about how a foreigner, or firenge (particularly a westerner) should live in the developing world. Now that I'm earning a western-level salary (as compared to last year in Kathmandu), I can afford to live in a nice home, buy imported food, and essentially make living here feel as close to living in the U.S. or Germany as possible. Is that really my goal? How much should a foreigner try to live like the average local? The majority of local residents obviously survive with what they have...perhaps with a higher mortality rate or worse health, certainly with more hardship and fewer comforts, but they survive. Is there something about my background that entitles me to the perks I'm able to afford?

That's what it comes down to, I think: entitlement. No, I don't know of any fundamental reason why I'm entitled to have more than the Ethiopian family that lives in a one-room mud house with a dirt floor that I pass on my walk to work. At the same time, I question what my living in those conditions would do to help either of our situations. This is a huge topic, so I'll stop there for now. Please e-mail me if you have thoughts or comments.