A family member of mine recently posed two good questions to me in relation to several aspects of the developing world. They are both very applicable to several aspects of my work here, so I wanted to pass these questions and answers on to you as well.
Please note that I do no claim to answer these questions as an expert on the subject, but am merely sharing my observations. Additionally, what is happening in my village should not be taken to broadly represent what is taking place across West Africa. But it is a clue as to how many Gambians in and around my area are handling these two issues in particular.
Question 1: I've read recently that there's a huge potential in improving the human waste logistics: latrines. Etc. And thus avoid a number of deadly diseases across the developing world. How is this thing handled in your village?
Sanitation is a problem. In my village each family compound has several "latrines" or holes in the ground used for "waste disposal." If you check out the pictures of my backyard you will get a good idea what they look like. It's basically just a hole dug about six feet into the ground and then reinforced with cement around the sides to keep it from caving in. This is the toilet system.
The good part to this system is that it is locally sustainable and as long as people are careful to keep them located a good distance away from the community wells, the water quality itself isn't really compromised. The problem is the lack of the use of toilet paper and the lack of hand washing...ever. So basically when the people finish doing their thing they rinse themselves off with a kettle of water using their left hand.
The importance of using the right hand, and the right hand only, for doing things such as shaking hands, eating, and such is very important because of what they use their left hand for.
But because people don't wash their hands with soap and hot water, no matter what they think, their hands, both their hands, are always really dirty. So as men and women shake hands and such, tons of germs are spread all over the place. As women cook and work with food, germs are spread into everything. And all this is on top of working with livestock, working in the dirt, and the constant exposure to the manure from their goats, cows, sheep, chickens and anything else that wanders through the compound past the kitchen or is carried in the air.
After a while you just kind of become desensitized to how dirty everything really is, and it doesn't seem that big of a deal. But now that I write about it and think about it again, it really is a hot bed for disease. (writers note: I always have toilet paper available) (And I wash my hands frequently with soap.)
But yes, because of this, it is very common to frequently get dysentery and guiardia no matter how careful or clean you try to be. In the West both of these diseases can be treated very easily with some pills, salt, rest and staying hydrated. But here, the leading causes for death among children are diarrhea and dysentery...in large part due to the uncleanliness.
Question 2: The other question relates to energy crops: one new possibility to raise energy crops that don't compete with food is a plant called jathropa. It yields poisonous oil that can be used as a feedstock for making diesel and it can be grown on a very dry land where probably other crops would not thrive. Have you come across jathropa, or any other stuff of such kind?
In regard to jathropa, yes, I am familiar with it. There is actually an organization/co-op here in the Gambia trying to spread word of the potential uses and development options with jathropa. Right now it is a fairly new concept, but the organization (I forget the name) is trying to encourage farmers to plant it around their fields as a way to help prevent erosion, and then having those crops harvested.
Some of the main problems they are facing is 1) The lack of a a clear system to collect the beans so they can be processed. Apparently it is best for the beans to be processed ASAP, otherwise it loses a lot of the potential oil. 2) Having the right infrastructure to process and store the oil. 3) Having a clear market for the product once it is processed. 4) In light of the impending food crisis from raising grain and oil prices, the farmers are not very willing to give up any of their land from corn, coos and rice to grow this new crop. Maybe in the years to come farmers will be more open to it, but in these next few immediate years it doesn't seem too likely for farmers to be willing to spare any of their farm land.
But they are now just in the early stages of introducing this as a legitimate product here, so these are problems that can be addressed along the way. When I saw their presentation, they would like to use it primarily to reduce the people's reliance on kerosine for lamps.
Our main fuel for cooking (and heat during the cold season, when it gets down to 70 degrees F and the people here start wearing coats) is firewood. That's one of the reasons why deforestation has become such a big issue here. The booming population is requiring more firewood, but the wood they cut down isn't getting replaced.
One of the ways we are trying to address this is by encouraging what we call "mud stoves." It's basically a small stove made out of mud, clay, and dung that is mixed together and then dried so that it becomes very hard. Before it dries completely it is shaped into basically a U shape so that the cooking bowls and such can sit on top of it, and then the firewood is fed into it from just one opening, while there are several small air vents in the back.
I'm actually glad you bring that up. I will be sure to blog about this more in the future. But basically, but using the "mud stove" it helps contain the heat much more, reduce the smoke that the women are exposed to as they cook, and cuts down on the firewood usage by about 2/3. There are quite a few major benefits to using this for cooking, but, most people aren't too interested in actually making in themselves, they just want one.
Many volunteers work with groups of young guys to make them and then the group of guys sell them as a kind of income generation thing for their group. I've been having a tough time getting people interested in it in my village, but I have been planning with a group of boys to start making them soon. My village is in a part of Gambia that is still quite forested, so they are having a hard time seing the need to preserve the wood when it is available. It's all a part of helping them plan long-term and understand "sustainability." (On a side note, sustainability can be quite a difficult and humbling concept to try to convey coming from the United States, where very little is sustainable.)
