Neighborhood Development Package
This is a call for engineers, anthropologists, and other interested parties to develop a Neighborhood Development Package™ (NDP™). The purpose of the neighborhood development package is to provide the minimum services to bring a neighborhood into the 21st Century.
What do underdeveloped areas need the most? Security, clean water, education, communication.
So the NDP would provide cell phone service, internet service, a low power TV station, a low power AM station, satellite reception and transmission (Beam me up Scotty).
It could be designed to be a multi-use construction. Combination wind mill, antenna farm, and water tower/water purification plant.
Energy could be stored in batteries, ultracapacitors, or flywheels. Some energy could also be recovered from the falling water in a water tower application. Back up would be a diesel generator set. Where available the electric grid or natural gas (or even biogas) could provide backup.
Since this is only preliminary any advice is welcome including how to raise the funds for deployment.
Update: 12 Nov '06 2125z
I was noodling around the net and found this interesting comment about a book written by Ali Sina.
I have read some of Ali Sina's material in the past.....she is a muslim gone mad.How do you reach people who are not literate? Radio and television.
She says that Islam has a foundation built on sand ...and a few quick nudges will push it over...topple it because it is rotten to the core.
Ofcourse nothing could be further from this in reality...even if she is correct....who is going to read her book....the infedel...and only those "in the know".
The peoples that need to read it are those muslims in Afghanistan & Pakistan and the Saud....many who only read in urdu...others who don't read at all!
How are you gonna persuade those people to read her "material".
I will want to read her book...and have asked my son to get one for me in the UK...but I think this is much like in pissing in the wind....
it will make little to no difference to Islam.
More about the Ali Sina book Understanding Muhammad
in this review: Islam and the Muslim Mind.
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4 comments:
I like the idea, but I'm not sure how successful it would be.
Actually, this would be very useful. First, as an accompaniment to military action... vid. the book "Imperial Grunts" to grasp why.
I should add that US/Western troops need all the same things, and currently have to transport most of it and keep a lifeline running. The more pressure and load you can remove from that logistics lifeline, the better.
My first and foremost recommedation: containerize it all. This simplifies shipping immensely, and offers additional deployment options. There's already a small trend toward containerized facilities among international militaries, and companies like SkyBuilt already have some of the components built for you.
What do underdeveloped areas need the most? Security, clean water, education, communication.
Better add sanitary facilities. There are small community sized package treatment plants available for waterborne sewerage systems. Extended aeration is a good simple starting point, but it's a power tradeoff. Composting privies are proven to work, if climate and users are amenable. Economies of scale enter the equation quickly. And, ultimately you must dispose of your effluent. Discharge requirements for a domestic US community system are far more sophisticated than what you're possibly envisioning. For a third world situation, there are a lot of common sense alternatives.
linearthinker,
I think your point about community (as opposed to neighborhood) effluent treatment is apt.
I see that as coming in a second stage when there are enough neighborhoods to make a community system worthwhile.
What I was thinking of was a low cost jump start.
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