The Buzz About Electricity
We should be in El Viento right now which doesn't have electricity yet. That means I actually scheduled this blog before leaving Villavicencio because today there is no practical way to use the internet where we are at.
So...let's talk about electricity. If you're reading this it's because you've got some. I've been reading Thomas Friedman's latest book Hot, Flat and Crowded. Here are a few thoughts he has about Energy Poverty (chapter 7) that are pertinent to Christadelphian Meal-a-Day Fund of the America's village electrification projects:
- Indoor air pollution, resulting from cooking and heating with wood or other biomass causes 1.6 million deaths per year, ranking only lower than malnutrition, unsafe sex and lack of clean water and sanitation.
- One fourth of the world’s population has little or no access to electricity. “Every night is a blackout for these people”. (And near the equator, that blackout happens at six pm! - Steve's note)
- Energy is, at its most basic level, the capacity to do work.
- Without electricity in a village you can’t:
o Pump water (mostly women haul it from great distances)
o Pump water from a clean source, or through a dependable filter (many more intestinal and other diseases)
o Communicate with the outside world (cell phone, internet access, etc)
o Have effective evening literacy and other classes (study time for children increases by 33% when homes can access electricity)
o Cook or heat a home without daily collection of wood or dung to burn (again, mostly women shoulder this burden)
o Substantially increase incomes (they typically grow 15- 20% with dependable access to energy)
o Dependably sanitize medical equipment, see to perform evening surgeries, preserve medicines, etc.
o Retain talented village youth, who instead move to over-populated cities because “that’s where the jobs are”.
- Just as much of the rural and 3rd world populations are beginning to have cell phones, without ever experiencing land-lines and telephone poles, etc… the transition from energy poverty to energy access for many will be via solar/ wind/ local hydro-electric systems… without ever becoming part of the large electric grid, with its power lines and poles and often polluting power sources. The transition can provide access to energy without adding to pollution!
- Access to communication and the internet can facilitate the change in education from rote repetition and copying to one of research and self-learning… from learning facts to learning to think.
- Access to the internet is the first introduction for many rural people to cultures different from their own, strengthening cultural diversity.
- As education and the standard of living increases, mothers begin to have fewer children.
Steve here again - some things to think about, huh? Bringing electricity to people can truly empower them. For more information about why CMaDFA is involved in electrification projects check this out: http://www.cmadfa.com/projects/projects/electricity.html
While you're there please take a look at the rest of the website.