22 February 2010

Why this blog ?

Having been thinking about some water problems, aswell as the problem that most of the money we (nationally) spend on aid is always focused around cost-inefficient disaster relief projects (eg 2004 tsunami, hurricane disaster relief, Bam, Haiti 2009, ...) , I have been thinking about the possibility of setting up a blog to list the most cost-efficient projects. This blog could then possibly take over some articles from appropedia that really are'nt well suited for use there (eg: International Rivers, Arcata Marsh...). They are not suited there because appropriate technology usually revolves around the technology itself, and to some degree small-scale ("proof-of-concept") projects, and not large-scale (expensive) ones that do not use especially engineered technology or approaches (eg the laying of canals, ...).

Aldough development aid is a national engagement, and most of us really don't have much to say in it, I do think that it is useful to direct those that do towards the most cost-efficient projects, so that as much as possible gain/human lives can be had/spared (most people are killed from "banal" problems as drinking polluted water, easily-treatable diseases, ...). I am guessing that, aldough offcourse people will still only spend money on the more "visual" projects (such as earthquakes, tsunami's, ...), the money received for these rebuilding (less cost-efficient) projects could possibly be relayed to a central development aid bank account, and then relayed to the development projects, in order of cost-effectiveness. This will mean that money will first come available to the most cost-effective projects.

In this blog, I already made a list for the most cost-efficient river-related projects, but offcourse priority must first be given to eg (some) energy-related projects such (oxy)hydrogen/liquid nitrogen internal combustion engine technology projects, ...)