Small is beautiful - but development
pp. 15-17 · Read in the full issue
strategies must go to match
Practically every government and political party in the Pacific, and particularly those more recently released from colonial rule, has promised to promote rural development.
The rural areas are after all where most of the people live.
The promises are not being kept or at least not nearly as well as people might have expected.
The fact is that the means employed to promote economic development are not usually those which would result in widely spread decentralised growth, with benefits shared among the population at large.
In a forthcoming book, ex tracts from which were recently published in The Sydney Morn ing Herald, Richard Jackson, professor of geography at the University of Papua New Guinea, chronicles the history of the OK Tedi mining venture in the Star Mountain area of PNG. In his concluding chapter Jackson makes the point that undertakings of this kind, awe inspiring as they are in size, complexity and cost, have not brought great benefits either to the inhabitants in the vicinity of the mine or to the rural popu lation in general.
The theory, of course, is that the government will receive a generous revenue from royalties
and taxes which they can then use to generate development in needy and less privileged areas.
There are two main drawbacks to this theory: much of the money disappears in bureau cratic overheads before it ever reaches its target; and con tinued dependence on hand outs from a benevolent govern ment engenders loss of initiative and the spirit of self-reliance in the recipients. The paternalistic atmosphere which was a prod uct of colonial times is thus perpetuated.
In pre-colonial times the countries of the Pacific were self-reliant and self-governing and owed not a penny to the World Bank. This is far from being the case today after all these years of ‘development’.
Not that all progress has been bad there have been vast improvements in health and education, in sanitation and protection from natural disas ters. However the fact remains that progress towards a realis ation of PNG’s original Eight Aims, for example, will not be achieved by the methods presently being pursued.
A more satisfactory type of development requires two things: an alternative develop ment strategy and alternative technology. The fact that these two things must go together is often overlooked, even by the most famous advocate of ‘Small is Beautiful’ the late Dr E. F.
Schumacher himself. Any change to an alternative way of doing things, be it something as simple as replacing coffee bushes by vegetables, is bound to have a political dimension and as such certain to meet some resistance from the powers that be. This accounts for the general lack of official support which proponents of
alternative technology receive from their own governments and foreign aid donors.
The main arguments in favour of implementing alterna tive technologies in the Pacific are that it will enable people to be more autonomous, less de pendent on foreign materials and expertise, less dependent on central government largesse, and in general to enjoy a more widely spread decentralised type of development than is to be had as a result of the current strategy of promoting a small number of capital-intensive en clave projects run mostly by large foreign firms.
The technology must arise from and suit the need. People should not be forced to buy, for instance, flat plate solar collec tors if cheap and abundant hydro-electric power is avail able, or there is no particular need for domestic hot water which cannot be met by boiling a kettle. Likewise unless cook ing fuel is very short, there is no point in requiring people in remote villages to put their pigs in concrete-floored pens in order to produce methane gas when such a procedure will cause much unnecessary social dis ruption.
Much personal involvement in the promotion of research and development of alternative technology has convinced me that one should make haste slowly, test all new techniques in pilot projects in locations where initial failures will cause no harm, and above all avoid the temptation, so easily given into by two-year contract ex perts, to think that any new product or process, be it meth ane or alcohol fuel or compost ing, is going to bring economic salvation overnight. Many a worthwhile innovation has had its reputation undeservedly
ruined by over-hasty implemen tation.
Water: There is plenty of water in the region but not always of the right kind at the right time and in the right quantities. The World Health Organisation has frequently re marked that most of the Third World’s health problems would disappear if everyone had ac cess to clean water. Priority should be given to the design and construction, preferably from local materials, of water tanks for village use. Many of the ones which are currently available or installed are either too expensive for unsubsidised villagers to afford, or have been badly designed or inexpertly built and are now lying about cracked, useless and aban doned.
Pumps are also required for various uses such as irrigation and replenishing drinking-water tanks.
There is at present heightened interest in small hydro-electricity schemes, not of the multi-Megawatt Purari variety but the kind which could supply a few kilowatts for a village. Although various models suitable for the gener ation of electricity on a small scale are available ‘off the shelf, experience has shown that these are usually beyond the resources of the average village. APACE, the Australian appropriate technology organis ation, recently wrote to leading manufacturers asking for quo tations for the hardware for a small-scale scheme and the replies indicated that the cheapest commercial product was about 10 times more ex pensive than one designed and built by researchers in PNG and Australia in a joint effort by APACE and the Appropriate
* Dr Waddell is a senior lec turer in the Department of General Studies in the Univer sity of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia. He is also a former lecturer in political studies at the University of Papua New Guinea, and is chairman (and founder) of APACE and APACE Research Ltd, bodies concerned with the development of low-impact, environmentally acceptable, technology.
Technology Development Insti tute in Lae. There is room for much more work in this field.
Biomass: Since wood is one of the most important and least regarded fuels in the less indus trialised countries, priority should go to conserving and replenishing the supply of fuel wood. Action is now being taken somewhat belatedly, but much more should be done, not only in' the cause of fuel production but equally importantly to prevent soil erosion.
Most people are aware that there are thousands of biogas plants in operation in India and China and there was a time when the Pacific was gripped by a sort of methane fever. The enthusiasm has subsided some what but there is no need to abandon this technology altogether. Biogas systems seem to have failed in those areas where the people had no com pelling economic or social reasons to keep them going without constant external supervision; they have suc ceeded within institutional frameworks and in congested peri-urban areas or areas of dense population where every square metre has to be pro ductive and where conventional fuels are costly. Where circum stances permit there is a good use for the so-called ‘lntegrated Farming System’. The effluent from the digester is allowed to flow into a series of ponds where algae are grown and subsequently harvested for use as stock feed or humus. From the algal ponds the effluent can flow into fish ponds thus provid ing protein for human consump tion. The fluid can then be fed through plastic or bamboo pipes to the roots of plants in the vegetable gardens to bring them a continuous supply of basic nutrients.
Alcohol from starchy root crops such as cassava may be used as a petrol ‘extender’ in a petrol-alcohol mix or ‘straight’ in engines modified for that purpose. The mixture, often known as ‘gasohol’, is used widely in Brazil and parts of the USA. Vegetable oil derived from the Babassu Palm (Orbignia martinana) is being extensively trialled in Brazil as a substitute for distillate in diesel engines, and a similar scheme is under way in the Philippines.
APACE is currently involved in producing an emulsifier which will enable distillate to blend with, and thus be ‘ex tended’ by, alcohol. One of the main drawbacks to the use of ethanol, or fuel alcohol, is that its distillation requires a large input of energy. APACE hopes to have eliminated the need for this energy input by inventing a process which is a substitute for distillation. As far as alcohol or vegetable oil or any other agriculture-based fuel is con cerned no country, be it Austra lia or Fiji, should rush into large-scale production without counting the costs in terms of lost food production potential; it should above all look to the end use of the fuel and decide whether it is really necessary. It should ask whether people in the rural areas are being asked to grow cash crops instead of vegetables merely to fill the tanks of private cars in the cities.
Direct Solar Energy: There are many reasons why advances in solar technology have lagged so far behind those achieved in the technology of extracting and using non-renewable re sources but there is now no excuse for this state of affairs to be tolerated, especially in re lation to the so-called ‘develop ing’ countries. A glance at the map will show that most of the ‘Third World’ lies in the sunniest regions of the globe and are therefore excellently placed to make use of this inexhaustible source of energy.
There is an urgent need to devote resources to the develop ment of technology appropriate to the needs of the tropical countries. The applications of solar energy are many. Solar energy may be used for, among others, the following purposes: the drying of agricultural pro duce; the powering of stills; the heating of water; space heating; cooking; the heating of green houses.
The space race has given a boost to the development of photovoltaic cells which can produce electricity from sun light. But they are still com paratively expensive and have limited application in the Pacific. Present applications are confined to situations where automatic, unattended and re liable operations are needed, where consumption of elec tricity is low, and where an electric power grid is not avail able. Cells are used for power ing micro-wave links and non directional beacons in remote air-strips. There is no doubt, however, that costs will fall as production runs increase in the industrialised world, and there may be many other uses for photovoltaic cells in the future.
Other applications which should be further investigated are the use of solar energy to cool rooms, to power refriger ators, and to power engines based on such designs as the Stirling Engine, the Minto wheel, the Brayton open cycle turbine and the metal bellows engine.
Agriculture: In no other area is research and development into alternative techniques more necessary than in agricul ture. Agriculture is the life blood of the tropical country and it is in the rural areas that the majority of the population is to be found. Changes need to be made here in both products and methods. There needs to be much more production of food for domestic consumption. One of the scandals of planning in the Pacific and Southeast Asia is the low priority accorded to the encouragement of village food production and especially to research into improved methods of producing the fam iliar staples. In particular there is almost no systematic research being undertaken into organic methods of agriculture, a mode of cultivation especially appro priate for many tropical regions at a time when the price of chemical fertilisers and pesticides is rising yearly.
There needs to be a concerted effort to develop technologies appropriate for the needs of the Pacific. There are several bodies, like APACE in Austra lia and the Appropriate Tech nology Development Institute in PNG, which are doing good work. But there needs to be more co-ordination and more method in the planning for research and development. At present the left hand does not know what the right hand is doing, with the result that small and precious resources are wasted. While I am a firm believer in William of Occam’s principle that entities should not be multiplied beyond necessity, I also believe that there should be a body, with as small a staff as possible, to co ordinate and direct the activi ties of researchers and devel opers. I do not believe that the richer countries like Australia should be left out of this enterprise. My own experience is that there are plenty of academics, business people and technically qualified men and women who would be more than happy to use their skills to such a useful and challenging pur pose. It might well be that the United Nations Industrial De velopment Organisation (UNIDO), which has shown growing interest in this field, would be willing to sponsor such a body.
Solar cell modules undergoing experiments in Australia. This form of alternative technology has great potential in the Pacific.