What is appropriate
technology?
Why appropriate technology?
What technologies do
we work with?
Solar cookers
Water pumps
Water supply
AT Classes
AT at work???People are whole people in constant and complex interrelationships with others and with their environment. We who hope to be salt and light to people must take this into account. Our goal is people who are mature in Christ, who are in harmony with God, with themselves, with others, and with their physical environment (i.e. the biblical concept of 'shalom'); people who are reaching out to others with the same goal. From the start then, we must communicate the Gospel in terms they can feel and understand and respond to positively. Technology has somewhat to do with this.
As has been seen all over the world, the introduction of inappropriate technologies can foster dependence, generate resistance to innovation and change, tear apart the social fabric of communities and cultures, widen the gap between rich and poor, pollute the environment, and generally cause problems.
On the other hand, carefully chosen technologies, introduced the right way, with due consideration of all the factors involved, can greatly enhance people's options, encourage innovation and self-reliance, bring health and healing to people and their environment, and open doors for the spread of the Gospel. The best context for this to occur in is an integrated ministry as the most advantage can be made of a successful project or technology. (We have seen other organizations attempting to address only physical needs, with little or no emphasis on spiritual reconcilation, emotional healing, or intellectual stimulation. These efforts appear to have little real long-range impact.)
So, on our team our role is to identify, develop, and promote appropriate technologies, always with our broader goals in mind.
Having said all the above and stated our ideals, I must add that we are very much in the initial stages of identifying needs of the Quechua folks in our area and coming up with some appropriate responses to them. Below you'll see some of the things we've tried or are trying. Many Quechua have identified lack of water and firewood as major problems that they face so I've spent a good deal of time on those areas, as you can see. Have fun browsing the photos and maybe you'll come up with some ideas of your own! Let me know if you do.
(Click on photos to view them at full size)
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Some simple solar cookers we've used |
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A powerful parabolic solar cooker made of ferro-cement. We use this one the most as it cooks more rapidly than the panel cookers. |
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A portable folding solar cooker (based on the Cookit, a design by Solar Cookers, Int'l.) I sell these for the equivalent of $5.00. |
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Plans for building your own Cookit |
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An early hand pump, 13 meters deep in a 100-year-old well |
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A rope-and-washer pump to lift water from a spring pipe to a tank. The pulleys are made from old tire sidewalls. Cranking the lower pulley drives the upper one which operates the pump. |
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An 8 meter (26 ft.) rope-and-washer irrigation pump, easily comes apart for portability. I sell these for $20. |
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Above pump in action |
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A current handpump installed in a remote community well. This is the simplest and least expensive pump I've been able to make. I sell the kit including all valves and hardware, minus the pipes, for $5. Plans for building this pump - 46k
Adobe Acrobat file - best quality)
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Work on adapting rampumps to Bolivian resources continues. The upper pump was tested near Chile by a fellow missionary but lack of sufficient fall in the stream put this project on hold. It actually pumped water about 4 feet up with a fall of only 4 inches(!) but that wasn't enough to get it over the river bank. |
Where
we live part-time in the village of Qhompuku ( click
here to see more about Qhompuku ), the rains
have stopped for the year and the part-time stream has dried up
(this is in May). People were scooping water from puddles
to drink and I knew this had to be a source of health problems.
After thinking and praying about it, I came up with the following
water system. It consists of a 200-liter (55 gal.) plastic
drum with a perforated base, buried with sand about 7 feet down
into the riverbed. One of the above handpumps is used to
pump water out of the barrel up 35 feet onto the bank where nine
families share the water for drinking, washing, etc. Groundwater
is filtered by the sand as it seeps into the barrel and thus is
much safer than the surface water. In this case, I supplied
the materials and the people supplied the labor. Total system
cost: US$45.
[Update: as of mid-February 2001 the pump was
still working fine after 9 months of daily use.]
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This is where several families in Qhompuku had been drawing their drinking water from. |
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Beginning to dig the hole in the dry riverbed to bury the plastic barrel. Note the plastic sack material covering the lower part of the barrel. This keeps sand from entering the holes in the bottom but allows water in. |
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Esteban Quispe takes his turn down in the hole. It wasn't easy digging as it was either big rocks or hard clay. |
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The barrel is now in place and the hole backfilled with sand and covered with rocks. A 2" pipe rises up the bank from the bung hole. It receives the 1 1/2" pump and also allows air to go in and out of the barrel as the water level changes. |
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The first test of the system - success! |
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Constructing a sturdy support for the pump. |
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And the addition of a wash basin. The green 2-liter soda bottle acts as an adjustable funnel for filling their water jugs. It slides up and down the pipe. The pump is held with clamps embedded in the cement. At mid-photo the upper end of the 2-inch pipe is perforated and wrapped with a rag. This allows just air to pass in and out of the barrel below as the water level in it varies. |
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The completed system. Rocks will be piled over the pipe to guard it from unruly kids and animals. Eventually, a trench will be dug along the bank for plants which will be watered by the drain water from washing. |
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We held a dedication ceremony for the water system, a very Quechua thing to do, but it was dedicated to God rather than to Pachamama, Mother Earth. That was a first for the community and has given us an open door to talk more about the One True God. |
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The dedication was attended by representatives of the nine families who will be using the water. The fellow in the middle putting coca in his mouth, Esteban Quispe, made a little speech saying how God gives us the air and water and soil but we have to work to make use of it. He thanked God for our coming and giving them access to this water. |
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After the dedication we hosted a little fiesta with lots to eat and drink - our first Quechua party! Our Christian friend from Sucre, Eddie Mendieta, spoke briefly in Quechua to the people explaining why we were here and doing things like water projects. We feel that it went well and that God was honored in the events of the day. |
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This is the pump as of May 23, 2001, one year after it was installed. It's still working fine after daily use the whole time. Note that the people have taken good care of it and the original 2-liter soft drink bottle is still being used! |
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This is a solar cooker class I gave to about 25 health promoters working away out in the boonies with a Christian organization called, in Quechua, Yanapanakuna, meaning "Let's help each other". Notice one of the wives and a child in the background; a number of the latter made for a lively workshop. |
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The same class group. Here they're gluing on the sheets of plastic reflective gift wrapping paper that I use instead of aluminum foil. A number of these participants were not Christians. |
