Clean water in Africa

I have seen lots of pictures of Africa. It shows entire towns carrying water on their heads. The thing that makes me suspicious about these pictures is that all of the water containers are plastic, modern plastic. These have obviously been supplied by some type aid.

Why not send some PVC and a pump?

Reply to
Metspitzer
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Obama's Africa trip could cost $60-100 million

A presidential trip to Africa this month could cost the government anywhere from $60 to $100 million dollars, according to the Washington Post, which obtained an internal planning document for the travel itinerary.

At the end of June, Mr. Obama and his family will take an eight-day trip to sub-Saharan Africa, making stops in Senegal, Tanzania, and South Africa in the name of reinforcing U.S. commitment to forging strong relationships with emerging democracies in the region. The president will hold meetings with "a wide array of leaders from government, business, and civil society, including youth," according to a White House press release announcing the trip, and seek to "underscore the [his administration's] commitment to broadening and deepening cooperation between the United States and the people of sub-Saharan Africa to advance regional and global peace and prosperity."

Presidential trips to foreign countries tend to be expensive in any administration: According to the Post, former President Bill Clinton's

1998 trip to Africa racked up a bill of at least $42.7 million, not including what were likely significant Secret Service costs. For his part, former President George W. Bush and his wife, Laura, took two trips to Africa in 2003 and 2008, involving significant resources as well. But the also paper reports that, due to "a confluence of factors," Mr. Obama's three-country trip could be "one of the most expensive" of his presidency.

"Obama's trip could cost the federal government $60 million to $100 million based on the costs of similar African trips in recent years, according to one person familiar with the journey, who was not authorized to speak for attribution," according to the Post. The paper said that it received the internal planning document from a "person who is concerned about the amount of resources necessary for the trip."

According to the Post, the expenses listed on the document include:

"Hundreds of U.S. Secret Service agents will be dispatched to secure facilities in Senegal, South Africa and Tanzania. A Navy aircraft carrier or amphibious ship, with a fully staffed medical trauma center, will be stationed offshore in case of an emergency.

Military cargo planes will airlift in 56 support vehicles, including 14 limousines and three trucks loaded with sheets of bulletproof glass to cover the windows of the hotels where the first family will stay. Fighter jets will fly in shifts, giving 24-hour coverage over the president's airspace, so they can intervene quickly if an errant plane gets too close."

Other sources of expense include the use of 56 vehicles and hundreds of Secret Service agents, according to the Post. The document, however, did not note specific prices.

Mr. Obama and first lady Michelle Obama had reportedly been planning to go on a safari in Tanzania, but the Post says that trip was canceled after reporters inquired into the cost and purpose of the trip.

At a press briefing on Friday, White House spokesman Ben Rhodes defended the trip, noting that "we have not traveled to Africa in the same way that we've traveled to other regions in the world" and that "Africa's a critically important region of the world."

"We have huge interests there... So for the United States to say, 'We're a world leader except in this continent' doesn't make any sense," Rhodes told reporters. "From a foreign policy perspective, in some respects, people believe this trip is overdue. And, frankly, there will be a great bang for our buck for being in Africa, because when you travel to regions like Africa that don't get a lot of presidential attention, you can have very long-standing and long-running impact from the visit."

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$60-100-million/

Throw on a couple bundles of PVC and a pump.

Reply to
Metspitzer

And a goat.

Reply to
Metspitzer

One the surface, that would seem to be a smart idea. But --- Do they have power for the pump? Do they have people qualified to maintain the pump and possibly a generator? Fuel readily available?

I know there are people drilling wells and sending purification systems for water from other sources. Water is a major problem over there.

Reply to
Ed Pawlowski

So... you're suspicious... about what...?

And a hammer to drive it into the ground?

Wells have to be "drilled". It's further complicated in the African bush because so few wells have been drilled there's nothing to suggest where -good- water may be found, and a lot of it that is shallow is bad. -----

- gpsman

Reply to
gpsman

Let's get this straight, you're in a home repair news group and you want to broach an off topic subject and all you know about it is "lots of pictures".

Ever "see any pictures" of pumps installed in Africa? I have.

Here's a picture:

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I've also seen pictures of modern African cities. You know they actually have cities full of modern office buildings in Africa too.

Another picture:

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They probably don't use hand operated pumps in most of those buildings.

You have no clue do you?

Reply to
Dan Espen

The women -- all are women -- carrying plastic water containers on their heads often have to walk miles to a source of water, risking rape along the way. If they had water in their village, your suggestion could work.

Reply to
Higgs Boson

I'm not sure about that. This was 43 years ago, but I remember as I crossed from El Salvador to Honduras seeing women at the river below the bridge I was on washing clothes on the rocks. At the same time I would guess there were plastic buckets for sale in stores not too far away**. Unless someone in the family could make his own bucket, the cheapest thing might be to buy a plastic one.

**I saw them for sale in Guatamala City, and if I had time to go shopping, I would have seen them in San Salvador, only 100 miles from where I was then, and probably in smaller closer towns. All this stuff was sold at a casa plastica, where afaicr everything for sale was made out of plastic.

I know a man born in a small town on a hill in Poland about 90 years old now, who had to go part way down the hill to the stream to bring back buckets of water. He spent the war in Siberia, at the insistent invitation of the Soviets, and now lives in a house nearby with running water and central AC. Of course he paid a heavy price for that.

Reply to
micky

Do you mean they have to walk down 20 floors and then back up, to get a bucket of water? That's terrible. They should move to ground level. That's why my mother wouldn't live in a tall building.

Maybe the rich people have someone to go get the water, but my mother wasn't rich.

Reply to
micky

Yep, it is terrible.

Maybe when Obama visits we can get some pictures of these poor people in the stairwells.

Reply to
Dan Espen

I am sure they exist. Someone should show it to the women still carrying the water on their heads.

And.................why is pumping water into huts considered OT?

Reply to
Metspitzer

I recall reading about deep wells dug by relief agencies to provide clean potable water for villages in Africa containing dangerous levels of selenium. It seems that every time someone tries to help, another problem crops up. One charity group provided tractors but no fuel so the villagers sat on them making vroom vroom sounds and taking the parts off of them to make necklaces and decorations. A European agency sent condoms to help prevent the spread of aids but the things were too small so the condoms wound up being used as balloons. One group sent powered milk to provide a good source of nutrition but they didn't realize that most adults in Africa can't digest the milk so the milk wound up being used as whitewash to paint homes and fences. No good deed goes unpunished. ^_^

TDD

Reply to
The Daring Dufas

Living in a first world country, it's hard to understand the problems faced by people in third world countries.

Much of the problems of Africa arise from the fact that many African governments are extremely corrupt.

For example, the President of Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe, won an election in the early 2000's by sending people out to the country side (where he is detested) to register everyone who is old enough to vote. However, the people doing the registering told everyone that what they were signing was a pledge to defend Robert Mugabe in the event the USA invaded Zimbabwe just like it did Iraq in the second Persian Gulf war to get rid of Saddam Hussain. Consequently, almost no one signed the voter registration lists, and so only Mugabe supporters were able to vote in the election.

And, with Mugabe paying the army well, he stays in power.

With corruption like that, no companies want to invest money developing Zimbabwe's natural resources because they're concerned that their investment can be lost with the passing of a corrupt law. That puts the brakes on foreign economic development, and everything else follows. With little industry in the country, there are few high paying jobs, and little need for universities to train people to fill those jobs. So, the countries depend on agricultural exports to sustain their economies and often corrupt government leaders take most of what little money that brings in.

So, it really all starts with corruption and snowballs from there. Law and Order, like we have in the west, Europe and most places in Asia is critical to economic development, and it's something that's lacking most places in Africa.

Reply to
nestork

Isn't Chicago turning into a third world country? ^_^

TDD

Reply to
The Daring Dufas

So what are you "suspicious" about? Have you never been to a third world country?

The containers are scavenged and second hand. The sort of stuff you throw away every day. Old oil and fertilizer containers etc.

The problem in these countries is ignorance, corruption, political unrest and violence. They have no proper governance or economies.

And they are intentionally disrupted by the likes of the USA.

There is no solution apart from occupying and running them.

Reply to
harry

You don't either. Nairobi was built by the British when Kenya was a colony. Nowadays rapidly going down the tube. A real shit hole.

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Reply to
harry

Even better - why not send pallets of birth-control pills?

Reply to
Home Guy

The plastic containers are extracted from the trash cans of the nearby cities. The natives are being good sacvengers.

The women -- all are women -- carrying plastic water containers on their heads often have to walk miles to a source of water, risking rape along the way. If they had water in their village, your suggestion could work.

Reply to
Stormin Mormon

I've heard of towns where the white man came in and drilled a well. The natives have no concept of microbes, so the ox and ohter animals congregate around the well. The microbes from the ox plop get into the well, and everyone promptly gets wicked case of diarrhea.

Friend of mine describes the condom issue. The relief worker woud demonstrate rolling on the condom "like this" while wrapping his index finger with the condom. The natives would roll a condom on the man's index finger of left hand, and wonder why the pregnancy rate is going up.

I recall reading about deep wells dug by relief agencies to provide clean potable water for villages in Africa containing dangerous levels of selenium. It seems that every time someone tries to help, another problem crops up. One charity group provided tractors but no fuel so the villagers sat on them making vroom vroom sounds and taking the parts off of them to make necklaces and decorations. A European agency sent condoms to help prevent the spread of aids but the things were too small

so the condoms wound up being used as balloons. One group sent powered milk to provide a good source of nutrition but they didn't realize that most adults in Africa can't digest the milk so the milk wound up being used as whitewash to paint homes and fences. No good deed goes unpunished. ^_^

TDD

Reply to
Stormin Mormon

You were writing about Africa! I thought you meant Chicago!

Living in a first world country, it's hard to understand the problems faced by people in third world countries.

Much of the problems of Africa arise from the fact that many African governments are extremely corrupt.

For example, the President of Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe, won an election in the early 2000's by sending people out to the country side (where he is detested) to register everyone who is old enough to vote. However, the people doing the registering told everyone that what they were signing was a pledge to defend Robert Mugabe in the event the USA invaded Zimbabwe just like it did Iraq in the second Persian Gulf war to get rid of Saddam Hussain. Consequently, almost no one signed the voter registration lists, and so only Mugabe supporters were able to vote in the election.

And, with Mugabe paying the army well, he stays in power.

With corruption like that, no companies want to invest money developing Zimbabwe's natural resources because they're concerned that their investment can be lost with the passing of a corrupt law. That puts the brakes on foreign economic development, and everything else follows. With little industry in the country, there are few high paying jobs, and little need for universities to train people to fill those jobs. So, the countries depend on agricultural exports to sustain their economies and often corrupt government leaders take most of what little money that brings in.

So, it really all starts with corruption and snowballs from there. Law and Order, like we have in the west, Europe and most places in Asia is critical to economic development, and it's something that's lacking most places in Africa.

Reply to
Stormin Mormon

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