Using the sun to sterilise water

BBC NEWS
Using the sun to sterilise water
Tanzanian villagers have begun using an energy-saving method to sterilise their drinking water - leaving the water under the sun.

The piped water supply to Ndolela village in the central Iringa region is intermittent and even when it does flow, it is not clean enough to drink.

When the pipes run dry, villagers get water from a dirty spring.

Mother of five Rose Longwa says the new process has changed her life.

"We no longer suffer from stomach illness. That's because the water is clean and safe."

Like many other people in rural Africa with no access to safe drinking water, she used to sterilise her water by boiling it.

But she says the smoke from the firewood to heat the water used to irritate her eyes. She is also glad she no longer has to go to fetch wood from the bush.

Ultra-violet rays

About 40 houses in Ndolela are using solar purification.

Mrs Longwa says the process is simple to follow.

We need to educate the people
Daudi Makamba
Plan International
"I fill the plastic bottles, put the lids on, then put them on my black-painted roof where they stay for a whole day."

The sun heats the water, helped by the black roof, which helps to absorb the heat.

Solar radiation means a combination of ultra-violet rays and heat destroys the bacteria which cause common water-borne diseases like cholera, typhoid, dysentery and diarrhoea.

After eight hours in the sun, it is ready to drink.

If the water reaches more than 50C, it is safe in just one hour.

Pastor Moses Kwanga from the Diocese of Ruaha is behind the project:

"The technology is very easy, but up to now people have not been told about it. We can use old pieces of roofing to put the bottles on. It is also very cheap, so is accessible to everyone."

Resistance

Up to now, the number of people in Tanzania purifying water using the power of the sun is limited to a few villages like Ndolela, where small-scale education programmes are underway.

Daudi Makamba is a water expert for the aid agency Plan International, which is considering whether to introduce solar purification across the country.

He says it can be difficult to persuade people to use the technology.

"The big resistance from the community is cultural beliefs. People believe the water will be contaminated, or an enemy will put something bad in it, so we need to educate the people."

The technology is working well for at least one community in Tanzania but more work is needed if more people are to taste the benefits.

World Water Day is on 22 March
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/africa/4786216.stm

Published: 2006/03/22 01:43:00 GMT

© BBC MMVI

Oil and conflict - a natural mix

BBC NEWS
Oil and conflict - a natural mix
By Paul Reynolds
BBC News Online world affairs correspondent

Oil and what it represents - energy - have always been a source of conflict.

The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor had its origins, at least in part, in a decision by the United States to limit oil exports to Japan in 1941 in response to the Japanese invasion of China.

Japan was almost totally reliant on imported oil, mainly from the United States, and it needed oil for its navy.

It concluded that if the American tap was going to be turned off, it would have to get its oil elsewhere. This was a factor in its decision to invade the oil-rich Dutch-held Indonesian islands.

Coups and power-play

Japan still relies on imported oil but this now comes substantially from the Middle East, another part of the world where oil has long played a vital role.

Britain first became interested in the Gulf because of its maritime interests, long before oil was discovered.

Then, when oil extraction was developed in the 1930s, the strategic value of the region increased significantly.

Other powers began to get interested, especially the United States. The West was determined to secure the Gulf as a main source of its energy.

Oil played its part in a 1953 coup in Iran - organised by the US and Britain. They managed to overthrow an elected prime minister, Mohammed Mossadegh, and installed Shah Reza Pahlavi whose reign came to an inglorious end at the hands of Islamic fundamentalists in 1979.

Mossadegh's main sin was to have nationalised the British-owned Anglo Iranian oil company.

Just how far the United States was prepared to go for oil was shown by the recent release of documents from the British National Archives.

An intelligence assessment by the British government in January revealed that in 1973 Washington drew up a plan to seize oilfields in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Abu Dhabi to counter an Arab oil embargo against the West.

One recent study paper by an American military analyst even suggests that one day the United States and Europe might be in conflict over dwindling Middle East oil supplies.

The analyst, Major Chris Jeffries, Assistant Professor at the US Air Force Academy wrote: "Is it unthinkable that the US might enter into an agreement with the Middle East to secure its supply over the interests of the other industrialized nations - including Europe?"

Gulf wars

The intervention by the United States and its allies over Kuwait in 1991 was in large part motivated by a need to secure oil and also to prevent Saddam Hussein from expanding his access to it.

And, although the more recent war with Iraq had other motives as well, oil was a factor as the US Vice President Dick Cheney, warning of Iraq's ambitions, said in August 2002: "Saddam Hussein could then be expected to seek domination of the entire Middle East [and] take control of a great proportion of the world's energy supplies..."

But oil does not just produce outside intervention. It can produce internal abuse of power.

Saddam Hussein himself is a prime example: it was oil that gave him the resources with which to arm himself.

Looking ahead, new areas of interest are opening up, especially the Caspian Sea where a new "Great Game" is developing to mirror the rivalry between Russia and Great Britain in Asia in the 19th Century.

One of the countries at the heart of Caspian Sea development is Azerbaijan and it is instructive perhaps to recall that its capital, Baku, was once the capital of the world's oil exports.

That was back in the early 20th Century. Baku became an international city, with grand villas built by locals who had got rich and foreigners who came to get rich. The city even put up an ornate opera house to mark its prestige.

The new black gold

Baku's oil was a target for the German army in World War I and the city was briefly occupied by a British contingent. It was then taken by the Soviets, equally keen on getting at the black gold.

Hitler aimed for it again in World War II and predicted that if Germany did not get oil from the Caucus Mountains it would lose the war.

Looking even further ahead to when the oil runs out or at least significantly runs down, it may be that the world turns again to nuclear power.

In which case those countries with uranium deposits would become among the most attractive. The top ten are: Australia, Kazakhstan, Canada, South Africa, Namibia, Brazil, Russia, USA, Uzbekistan and China.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/in_depth/3625207.stm

Published: 2004/04/20 08:55:42 GMT

© BBC MMVI

High hopes for drone in LA skies

BBC NEWS
High hopes for drone in LA skies
By Peter Bowes
BBC News, Los Angeles

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), commonly known as drone aircraft, are about to be launched for the first time by the police in Los Angeles.

UAVs have long been used by the military in war zones such as Iraq or Afghanistan. But the technology has been adapted for domestic use and could revolutionise the way law enforcement agencies carry out surveillance and rescue operations.

The Los Angeles Sheriff's Department (LASD) has been experimenting with a drone called SkySeer, which it intends to put into service later this month.

SkySeer looks like a remotely controlled model aircraft. It has a wingspan of 6.5 feet (1.98m) and weighs 4 pounds (1.81kg). A camera is attached to its belly and a small battery powers the drone.

'Almost invisible'

"It has a video link that sends data in real time down to our ground station - the operator can then see, in real time, what it's seeing," explains SkySeer inventor Sam De La Torre, from Octatron Inc - a surveillance technology firm.

The SkySeer has been designed for quick and easy use by police officers on the street. It can be folded up and stored like a tent in a backpack.

"Within five minutes he can have the aircraft assembled,' says Mr De La Torre

"You just push the take-off button, the motor starts up and you throw it."

The UAV can fly at any height. At 250 feet above the ground, it can clear a 25-storey building and is almost invisible.

The Sheriff's Department is keen to start using the drone in situations where conventional crime-fighting is either impractical or too expensive.

At a cost of approximately $25,000 - $30,000 (£13,400 - £16,000), the UAV is considerably cheaper than a helicopter. But the device's practical applications are generating the most excitement amongst officers.

Pinpointing victims

"It provides several things that we can't get other ways," says Commander Charles Heal, head of the LASD's technology exploration project.

The UAV's ability to hover in virtual silence over an accident or crime scene, without any risk to a pilot, provides both a tactical and economic advantage.

It is envisaged that SkySeer will be put to use when children go missing down a hillside in difficult terrain.

To save time and minimise the risk to rescuers, the UAV will be used overhead to pinpoint the location of a victim.

"It has different cameras - colour, low light and even infra-red - and so as a result of that we can even find heat signatures that are coming through the bushes and overhead," says Commander Heal.

With burglaries, the police say the SkySeer will be used get an aerial view of a building where someone is believed to have broken in through the roof.

You simply point the camera at a suspect and keep following
Commander Charles Heal
head of LASD technology exploration project

The conventional approach is to call the fire department to bring in ladder trucks, allowing officers physically to climb onto the top of a building.

"If the suspect really wants to hurt you, your head is the first thing that he sees. Now we'll have the ability to actually to fly this over and see if it is even worth doing a containment."

The UAV utilises an onboard compass and GPS system for its command and control. It flies to a location that is predetermined by the operator on a laptop.

The developers are working on a so-called cyber command post to enable images to be viewed, anywhere in the word, in real time.

"If we're flying over hazardous material or something that we can't recognise, we can have a subject matter expert, maybe not even in the country, in a different time zone, that is actually watching the exact same information that we're getting.

'Big brother' surveillance?

"We will be able to incorporate his subject matter expertise into our decision making process," says Commander Heal.

The SkySeer will also be used to back up officers on the ground if they are pursuing a suspect on foot. Flying at a speed of about 30 mph (48 kph), the police believe it will be impossible for a suspect to outmanoeuvre the UAV.

"You simply point the camera at him and keep following."

The Los Angeles Sheriff's Department has only one prototype SkySeer at the moment.

When it goes into service, the force's SWAT [Special Weapons and Tactics] unit will carry out the initial evaluation in real-life situations.

Commander Heal is quick to point out that it is not their intention to launch 'big brother' style surveillance operations.

"There's no place in an urban environment that you can go to right now that you're not being looked at with a video camera and you have nothing to fear from your own government - you are being watched by your fellow citizens," he says.

"The only time that this is ever going to be operational is in some kind of emergency condition."
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/americas/5051142.stm

Published: 2006/06/06 12:40:04 GMT

© BBC MMVI