Urgent Evoke

A crash course in changing the world.

After reading through the suggested websites concerning water crisis, I was a bit surprised and thinking.

I always understood the water problem as a stock problem. I thought that the problem was that the total amount of 'clean' water (by clean, i mean 'not in the sea') is becoming lower and lower. I also thought that the problem in arid countries was that the was not water stock available around.

Instead, these websites shown that the problem is 'just' a lack of h***s and pumps to get the water which is already under the feet of populations which need this water. (The problem of womens having to carry the water comes back to a problem of water pump, and doing a h*** in the correct place).

Then I sat and wondered: If the water is available in the ground, why didn't they dig h***s many years ago to get this water ? Why don't we see water pump in every village, build but these people themselves to get better water and living situations ?

...

Then i remembered a 'small' talk i had in Zanzibar, with an European teacher working in Malawi.

He basically explained me why local populations didn't develop their land themselves, and put infrastructures to make the work and life easier for later years, and their children.

He basically explained me that the biggest problem is Africa is the village chief. People in villages don't own the land they work on, the chief assign a part of the village ground to a said guy/family which will work on this area, but this same chief can assign this same part to any other one, whenever he want, without warning and without compensation. Very logically, farmers just don't see the point of spending time to develop infrastructure for later years if they can lose it an any time.
So, i was explained that this infrastructure problem is being solved slowly in Malawi by buying the villages ground and selling the property to local people so that the village chief cannot assign these part to other peoples.

I remember that we spent some time speaking about this infrastructure problem, and we came to the idea that these populations were 'missing' our economical model, with land ownership, associated capitalism, and heavy consumption model. I also remember that after we stated that, we wondered if really capitalism and every associated problem we see in our countries are really a model toward which we want other people to go?

...

Coming back to the water problem, and specifically to the water infrastructure problem:
- Why don't villages in need of clean water didn't dig themselves h***s, and set water pumps, many years ago?
- When some Europeans come and help to set these infrastructures, who is the owner of them? Are these owner interested in having these infrastructures working, and can they influence local politics enough to keep these infrastructures working? I mean that, if only womens carry the water, and if they have nothing to say about local politic, why would any decision been taken toward setting water pumps?
- Lastly, who are we to comment their local organization? Let's take another perspective: Imagine that while you are at work someone totally not involves in your organization comes in and say:
"Hold a minute. You economic problems comes from capitalism model, and hedged found. You need to stop this. We will help you to develop your enterprise differently, and you need to stop listening your manager from now because he doesn't understand the problem". Would you even listen??

In conclusion:
These are very draft thought, and i certainly misunderstood several points. Still I'm 'upset' that the water is available under the feet of populations which need it, but they didn't dig themselves.
This just makes me think about what we call the limits of of world model. Maybe we need to show and explain that in our countries we have clean water in every house, that we don't die from drinking water, and that we worked hard to get this, and that this hard work pays.

Views: 21

Comment by Alex Stovell on March 28, 2010 at 1:22pm
The village chief problem is not something I had heard before - but makes sense that farmers can be unwilling to develop a piece of land if there is no guarantee they will keep it for very long. Any idea how widespread this issue might be?
Comment by Chelsea Howe on March 28, 2010 at 5:15pm
Like Alex, I'd love to learn more about this village chief phenomenon, as it's totally new information to me! Thanks for giving us the heads up - definitely send me a message if you post more on this topic. I'm curious as to the answers you find.
Comment by Marc-Emmanuel on March 29, 2010 at 6:57pm
I spent some time to gather some web information confirming what i was explained.

The following link confirms the important role of village chief in land property (see §2.1).


I found many evidences of land property laws being changed in Malawi in late 19xx, but i'm still looking for a confirmation that the chief can revoke the land property of a member of its village.
I'll post a link when i find one. Any other confirmation and idea of the spread would be more than welcome.


Still i didn't found strong evidence of land property being revoked by the village chief
Comment by Marc-Emmanuel on March 29, 2010 at 6:58pm

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