Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
prices) of pill packages, containing sodium hypochlorite powder and alum, with
instructions to the villager to flocculate the raw water in large jars, allow the
flocs to settle, then add the hypochlorite powder, to be done in the evening, and
by the following morning the supernatant water is safe for drinking.
PUBLIC HEALTH
Many of the other sections in this chapter deal with public health issues, especially
the sections on urban and rural sanitation. In addition, an important parameter
in evaluating public health benefits is the ongoing market value of a human life.
This is discussed in the section “Environmental Economics and Financing.”
Assessment by Asian Development Bank
A good summary of public health conditions in Asian DCs is given in ADB's
1999 report, “Policy for the Health Sector”
13
. This shows that health conditions
in Asian DCs have much improved over the previous 3 decades for the gen-
eral population, but of course the level of improvement has been much less in
the poverty poor social sector. The IAA projects have focused on furnishing
primary care clinics in the rural villages. However, the topic
The White Man's
Burden
by W. Easterly (2006)
27
shows that the poor sector is disadvantaged
in the IAA-sponsored health improvement programs for the usual reasons, for
example, the situation on malaria control in Africa where more than 300 million
people per year are infected with malaria, with more than 70 million deaths per
year, mostly infants and preschool children. Insecticide- treated mosquito nets,
which cost a few dollars, can prevent most infections and another few dollars
for medicine give effective treatment. Easterly notes that when the IAA projects
handed out free mosquito nets in poor DCs, many of the nets are diverted to the
black market and wind up being used as fishing nets or wedding veils, and a
similar story for the medicines.
Water Supply and Sanitation
“The Truth about Public Health Protection and Community Water Supply/Sewerage
in DCs” (2003), reviewed the author's experience on this subject
115
.Thispaper
notes that since the establishment by the affluent ICs of the “Global System” for
assisting the developing countries following World War II, the affluent ICs, oper-
ating through various IAAs, have carried out a vast array of assistance projects,
including both technical assistance grants and attractive loans. In practically, all
cases the control of the planning and design of these projects have been in the
hands of the IAAs using planners and engineers who are experts in planning and
design of facilities that suit the needs of the affluent ICs, but unfortunately, only
a few of these officials are competent in understanding that the DCs cannot afford
such systems because their state of economic development requires management of
the problems with budgets that are only a fraction of those available in the ICs. The
