This Weird Tower Could Save Millions of Lives Every Year

[Adali]

Pointless endeavour. Africa has the largest underground water reserves. These mudhut villages shouldn't exist. People should be living in towns with water wells and cisterns. Capturing moisture is to unreliable and also doesn't make sense in long-term settlements.

absolutely, we need large scale solution if we are to move forward and progress.

but you have to admit these nifty small ideas are fun and intriguing, God, I love science and problem solving.

[gurey25]

The towers require no electricity , no spare parts and can be maintained and even built by the locals.
I don’t see were outsiders will benefit from this.

There is however a limited amount that can be obtained from this in the desert, rainwater catchment and aquifiers will do the job,
But in isolated areas these would be ideal.

Guys you cannot start from the top, you need to start from the bottom from self suffiency.

[Cunaaye25]

I was helping out, one of my colleagues with his thesis about rainwater harvesting, it was very interesting, Because the university was installing Rainwater harvesting system in the university equine unit , and his thesis was based on that,

the interesting part was the Rainwater harvesting system, Return on investment,
a typically a tank installation pays for itself in 3-5 years- based on UK rainfall.

cost example
50,000 litre tank ,cost of 2-2500
100,000 litre tank comes out at around £3500
or 200,000 litre tank approx.. £5250


too frequently aid agencies and development organisation have simply transferred familiar technology to local development needs, but appropriate technology should be appropriate in terms of, economics affordable at a local level, example a cheap affordable technology, a treadle pump this could be used in Jowhar, or the farming area in somalia.

[Ismail87]

Liquidhydrogen bro you give good criticism sometimes but most of the time you have unrealistic ideas on how things should be done back home. These towers are meant for rural areas not towns and cities, it is not like we have the resources to implement your suggestions. Read what Grant and Gurey said, these towers could make a huge difference during the droughts, 100 litres from one tower every day sounds good to me.

[LiquidHYDROGEN]

^^^^People should not be living a rural life unless they're farming. In which case they would need more reliable and copious amounts of water. I'm not saying no completely to these devices but they shouldn't be a main water source. It's like eating vitamins as a meal instead of supplements. Your mentality sadly is what is keeping us behind. The greatest trick the western colonialists ever pulled on the african is the belief he can't do anything for himself. People are sending rockets into space and we still can't find a permanent water source.

[Ismail87]

See that's exactly what I'm talking about bro you don't have the resources to urbanise rural communities. These towers are makeshift tools, every year around July-September and December-February you hear people complaining about the water running low and pleading the government to start 'biyo dhaamis'. Imagine each nomadic family had one of these next to their aqal somali.
Would you rather give each family one of these devices until you can do something about the water scarcity in the region or would you completely ignore the hundreds of thousands dying each time we are hit by a drought?

[LiquidHYDROGEN]

What resources do you need? Every year millions of litres of water is lost to the sea or is absorbed the ground because of the lack of initiative. Instead of building reservoirs and cisterns to collect and store the water they beg. There should be no nomads, they contribute nothing to the country and could be used to build the country. Those with farmlands should be using modern methods and use the reservoirs for irrigation. There is also untold amounts of underground water tbatcould be extracted with simple drilling and piping. It does not require any resources but common sense and hard work.

[gurey25]

bro in the north only 7% of the land makes good farmland, we only use around 2% right now, more then 70% of the land is grassland
what do you intend to do with the rest of the land if there are no nomads..
ok i agree we need to move away from nomadism,
but during this movement we can make use of these towers in conjuction with perrenial crops that will grow in these grasslands,
so instead of feeding camels it could feed us.

[LiquidHYDROGEN]

^^^^Hence my adamant stance against secession. We need the south just as much as they need us. The southern riverrine regions have the potential to be the bread-basket of the Horn. In the mean time, we should be using whatever arable land we have to feed us. Collecting and storing water is a must. You cannot do that without building embankments on dry riverbeds to guide the water to reservoirs. Our main priority should be building industry and infrastructure not figuring how to produce food. That's literally bronze-age shit. I also propose desalinating plants powered by solar and wind energy. It might not work and it might prove to be unfeasable, but at least we're not scratching our arses like apes and we're looking for solutions.

The world is getting hotter and drier and we need to industrialise before the shit really hits the fan.

[AgentOfChaos]

People are sending rockets into space and we still can't find a permanent water source.

That's your problem right there, you keep comparing us Somalis to other people. Don't let the comparison cloud your judgement, or let our current predicament bring you down, or make you palm strike your face in rapid succession.

[hydrogen]

hmm

[gurey25]

Hence my adamant stance against secession. We need the south just as much as they need us. The southern riverrine regions have the potential to be the bread-basket of the Horn.

Here you are beginning to sound like Hawdian ,
with his common argument " we have corruption, khad addicted useless government with no vision no future, how do we solve this?
I know!! lets unite with the south and give them our soveriegty and total control to a governemnt much worse than we are?"

fuckin genius.

The southern regions can feed 100 million with modern farming techniques, if they dont feed a 100 million we can live a middle income lifestyle equivalaent to Brazil, or thailand just from agricultural exports.

I told you before this is not about the phyiscal aspects of development its cultural,
this makes the challenges easier to understand, but much harder to overcome.

Changing the culture is fukin difficult, much more than developing a third world country.

for example if we replaced the population of somaliland with bengalis, within 10 years they will have 3 X the income levels of Bangladesh with no overpopulation and resource problems.


another problem you have is that you are too idealistic with unrealistic expectations.
The statement you made about somaliweyn in todays context is of the highest stupidity ever.

Even with the best case scenario with a functioning and stable government in somalia and a unity between somalia and somaliland
economically trade with the south does not make sense.
It still would be cheaper to import food from the international market than somalia.
IF we had the same currency the argument could be made that importing food from somalia will save valuablehard currency.
That would be yes if you no corruotion,but corruption makes it still cheaper to import grain all the way from Australia instead of
somalia and still make a profit.

Now if you said, that with a non corrupt development oriented government seccesion does not make sense.
you are right , in this scenario the economics begin to make sense.

but be realistic what are the odds of that happening?
highly unlikely,so i dont know about you, but i prefer my own slightly less corrupt and less dysfunctional country,
i dont see the logic of handing over you power to someone much worse than you?

[gurey25]

in my last post i talked about investigating perrenial grains and tree crops that would thrive in the grasslands of somalia

http://www.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=2305&page=251

the nomads could turned into farmers easier, and imaine what you could do with just a quarter of the grasslands,
it would produce a surplus of grain, legumes and fruit.

and example of legumes is the pigeon pea, it is popular in india and grows in the dry regions that get less rainfall than most of somaliland, its also a perrenial in that it needs to be planted once and it produces a crop for 3 years before the need to replant.

there are many many more examples of crops grains, vegetables and fruit that grow in the low rainfall environment of somaliland,

[original dervish]

Gurey....Agroforestry is the key....tree's are much more nutritional than grasses...they also provide fruits, seeds/oil, lumber,fuel, shade and protect against desertification.
I want to introduce some Prosopis tamarugo's from Chile.

[LiquidHYDROGEN]

Hence my adamant stance against secession. We need the south just as much as they need us. The southern riverrine regions have the potential to be the bread-basket of the Horn.

Here you are beginning to sound like Hawdian ,
with his common argument " we have corruption, khad addicted useless government with no vision no future, how do we solve this?
I know!! lets unite with the south and give them our soveriegty and total control to a governemnt much worse than we are?"

fuckin genius.

The southern regions can feed 100 million with modern farming techniques, if they dont feed a 100 million we can live a middle income lifestyle equivalaent to Brazil, or thailand just from agricultural exports.

I told you before this is not about the phyiscal aspects of development its cultural,
this makes the challenges easier to understand, but much harder to overcome.

Changing the culture is fukin difficult, much more than developing a third world country.

for example if we replaced the population of somaliland with bengalis, within 10 years they will have 3 X the income levels of Bangladesh with no overpopulation and resource problems.


another problem you have is that you are too idealistic with unrealistic expectations.
The statement you made about somaliweyn in todays context is of the highest stupidity ever.

Even with the best case scenario with a functioning and stable government in somalia and a unity between somalia and somaliland
economically trade with the south does not make sense.
It still would be cheaper to import food from the international market than somalia.
IF we had the same currency the argument could be made that importing food from somalia will save valuablehard currency.
That would be yes if you no corruotion,but corruption makes it still cheaper to import grain all the way from Australia instead of
somalia and still make a profit.

Now if you said, that with a non corrupt development oriented government seccesion does not make sense.
you are right , in this scenario the economics begin to make sense.

but be realistic what are the odds of that happening?
highly unlikely,so i dont know about you, but i prefer my own slightly less corrupt and less dysfunctional country,
i dont see the logic of handing over you power to someone much worse than you?

The problem here is you assume anyone against secession is dirty waqooyi. I have never advocated for the south to govern the north - they lack the competence, interest and common sense. Under no circumstance must the north cede it's political and economic autonomy. But this whole runaway and hide in a corner until the problems resolve don't do anything but let existing problems exacerbate and waste valuable development time. Your problem is you want to sit and wait for the south to change. It will never change! In 30 years time Somaliland will still be an unrecognised backwater shithole and the south will still be a burning house. The population will be probably a quarter of what is today due to lack of water, famine, tahriib and war. That is if the UN hasn't said just fck'em and given the whole country over to ethiopia and kenya first.

If it hasn't become obvious I am advocating for armed intervention in the south and the capital moved elsewhere - whether permanently or short term. If it is a cultural problem then it needs to be forcibly changed. Also every nation puts it's own farmers first. To be reliant on outsiders for food is dangerous. Why do you think FTAs that the US likes to force on it's "allies" is always unpopular? Corruption is a problem everywhere, even in highly efficient asian countries. The levels of corruption is SL are staggering. That does not provide a valid excuse for secession, especially when it looks highly unlikely at best. I'm an idealist in some ways, yes. But I'm also the most pragmatic person here as well. It does not look good for thd future of somalis Iif it continues like this.