Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
appreciated that most cooking took place after sunset when people typically came
home from work in the fi elds and it was cooler. Simple implementation errors like
this can be compounded by more subtle failures to understand local requirements
and expectations, as some of the examples in this topic have illustrated. One of the
conclusions that emerges is the need for wide community participation in and con-
trol over the implementation process and indeed in the whole process of technology
choice, design and deployment. Ideally the aim should be to support the host com-
munities in becoming self-suffi cient with regard to developing and maintaining new
technologies so as to strengthen local economies, encouraging the education and
development of local people and supporting local employment.
This need for the involvement of and understanding of the community of end
users is relevant to all technologies, not just those in a development context.
However, understanding and working with end users, who are rarely engineers and
who may include disabled people and/or people from different cultures, are unfor-
tunately rarely covered in engineering curricula. This is again an area for ethical
engineers, particularly those involved in education, to exert pressure.
Being an engineer is a great responsibility as well as a great privilege. It involves
excitement and challenges, as well as great diffi culties. While engineers are not able
to resolve all the world's many problems on their own, they are involved in the
transformation of the material world and they have a responsibility to do this
ethically. It is no small task. However, while the range of issues is very wide, and
this topic only touches on some of them, the overall ethical aim seems clear. We are
all part of nature and need to coexist with it, choosing and using technologies that
do not abuse the environment, people or other species. In this, engineers have a
special role and responsibility. This topic aims to provide some of the insights to
help engineers fulfi l this responsibility.