ENVIRONMENTAL ADVICE TO THE THIRD WORLD

There should be a campaign to educate people on the improved utilisation of fuel resources. Small clay stoves can be made to replace the traditional three stones used for cooking. Less heat will escape and the fuel resource can be extended. Roads on hills should have their drains terminating every two hundred metres into the adjacent ground. This will reduce the momentum of storm run off and hence erosion. Effluent from breweries, sugar factories, oil factories and tanning facilities should be allowed to meander through a bed of aquatic vegetation such as elephant grass or reeds. The bacterial growth on the stems of these plants will help to clean up the effluent. The vegetative growth can also be used as green fodder or roofing material. The use of pit latrines should be encouraged. The pits should be located at least 100m from the nearest water source. Residents in rural areas should be encouraged to filter their drinking water through a bed of crushed charcoal. This is very effective in removing impurities. Supervisors who control motor fleets should constantly lecture to their drivers to drive sensibly in order to conserve fuel and reduce tyre wear. Spot checks should be made from time to time and this should include tyre pressure checks. All drivers are to be held responsible. All industries should be encouraged to conduct an annual energy audit with the aim of energy conservation. Reforestation should be encouraged at all times. The saplings chosen for this purpose should be selected from the healthiest indigenous plants at the end of the dry season. Their health will be testimony to their ability to survive. Small industries which emit gaseous pollutants through their stacks should be encouraged to install a wet scrubber. Basically a sealed box containing coconut shells or bamboos through which the gas will be exhausted. Water sprays will keep the internal media wet. Coconut shell and bamboo will encourage bacterial growth. Houses in rural areas are too often built with poor ventilation. Very often, without windows. This together with overcrowding has led to an increase in meningitis. Advice should be given to leave a gap between rafter and wall, and to incorporate windows. Streams and rivers polluted with sewage normally have a putrid smell because of the high biochemical oxygen demand (BOD). To alleviate the problem, weirs or dams should be built to increase turbulence and hence oxygen pick up. In small streams large boulders dropped inside will have the same effect. As a form of malaria control, all residents should be encouraged to smoke their entire house just after dark. A simple smoke pot can be used for this purpose and green leaves burnt to generate smoke.

In areas where the dissolved iron in the potable water is high, residents should be advised to leave the water to stand overnight before using. During this period the iron precipitates out as hydroxide. Larger scale users can try bubbling air through the water using a compressor, before leaving it to stand overnight. Greater use should be made of straw, reeds and palm fronds as thatching material for roofs of buildings. This will place less pressure on zinc, aluminium, plastic and asbestos. Farmers should be encouraged to cultivate their hilly land along the contour lines; this will increase water retention and reduce soil erosion. The population should be encouraged to burn the bricks used in the construction of their houses, this will increase the life tenfold.

Figure 1: Queuing for water in the Sundarbans in West Bengal, South India

Figure 2: Cooking food on the very efficient chhula (clay stove) ubiquitous in the Sundarbans in West Bengal, South India

Figure 3: Patiently waiting for precious and often scarce potable water in rural India

Figure 4: Cows dung used as fuel. In an area devoid of trees, aquatic reeds are coated with cows dung and artificial cooking logs are made. West Bengal in South India

Figure 5: Making use of scarce water resources, brackish water in Poovar wetland near Kovalam in Kerala, South India

Figure 6: Fishermen at Kovalam in Kerala, South India

Figure 7: Symbiosis between humankind and nature, Poovar wetland in Kerala, South India

Figure 8: The population should be encouraged to burn the bricks used in the construction of their houses, this will increase the life tenfold, as is done here in Palakkad in Kerala, South India.

Figure 9: Greater use should be made of straw, reeds and palm fronds as thatching material for roofs of buildings, Luanshya, Zambia RAMOUTAR SEECHARRAN BSc(Hons), MSc(Eng), ACSM, DIC, REng

EnvironmentalConsultant London,England