A crash course in changing the world.
We must not be unconscious of arriving at an array of limiting factors as diverse as the various cultures and ways of life peculiar to the people of various towns and villages all over Africa, if meaningful solution is to be proffered. This position is based on the failure of globally proven experiments such as the responsibility of Governments to provide basic services like water and electricity.
Once upon a time in Nigeria, Government was solely responsible for the provision of water to the entire populace. But the system was not effective that I remember those ugly days in Benin, when we had to trek several Kms to the lower regions in search for water because water could not get to our home due to factors such as: Broken water pipes, lack of or epileptic electricity to power water pumps, incompetence in water board operators and glaring limitations in the potentials to govern. It was a sea of people carrying plastic containers on their heads in search for water or crowds trying to subdue themselves in competition for a single water tap.
But the solution would have been the other popular option: privatisation of the water service. But this would have also brought along its own disadvantages.
Water is very abundant today. But those factors that led to the initial scarcity remains. The solution was a spontaneous by-pass where individuals began to install private bore h***s in their houses. It is a wonder to watch young men using their bare-hands to twist pipes into the Earth-crust until they arrive at clean water. With small tubular liquid pumps, PVC pipes and storage tanks and ready labourers, water is available today in almost every house in Benin.
Till date there is no Government legislation, regulations or taxation imposed on the system. Apart from the initial cost of installation, no other fees or bill is required. Yet it was able to serve as a seemingly permanent solution to the problem.
The ultimate deduction is that, if the situation and factors had been studied intensely, a man might have arrived at this simple solution widely diverse from the conventional.
A study of situations such as this and other success stories possible in other part of the World can be very helpful in a quest for solutions for other parts of Africa and the Word.
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