Water Purification Technology

The CEO of Life saver points out that building infrastructure of water is too costly to manage

It is estimated that slightly more than half of the population do have access to improved water. Only 8% of the household are connected to water services in Dar es Salaam. In the lack of investment, we need to come up with alternative way to provide people in need with improved water. This presentation offers profound insight into 'water'. Examples that mentioned below might not to be about exactly East Africa, but the importance of this technologies remain the same everywhere.

We need a different point of view in providing those who are desperate in need of drinkable water with fresh water.  In stead of shipping water, we can use natural ecological system. We don't actually have to implement the infrastructure that cannot be burned by developing countries.

 There is plenty of water available as long as we can purify water in the river into drinkable and fresh water.  Michael Prichard, advocator of  life saver bottle, asserts that we need provide people with technologies that enable them to get purified water by them selves rather than huge infrastructure.

All we gotta do is to implement straw.

As well as the life saver bottle, the same technologies in jerry can process 25,000 water meaning that family of four can employ this technology for as long as three years.   This is simply enough. Plus, it only cost, 1/2 cent per day. Technologically speaking, this technology pores are only 15nm, which the smallest bacteria and virus.  Previous technologies was filtering down to about 200 nm which actually allow the smallest bacteria and several viruses to get through the holes. Given that nothing can go through the hole of life sever bottle, people can turn to this bottle. People in Haiti, for example, spend a several hours a day to get water.  For the most part, however,  water available tends to be contaminated. The same water is used for doing dishes, doing laundries, and drinking.   People are forced to drink this contaminated water knowing that this will cause them to have serious disease. In fact, drinking dirty water is the most major causes of the child mortality.

UK government is spending £ 12 billion on foreign aid.  It can be argued that they are spending money on wrong stuff at the expense of many people's life. By making use of technologies, unnecessary decease and death can be avoided. In my view point, this technology shed light on development of infrastructure. In the face of serious shortage of water, waiting for infrastructure to be built might prove problem. Importance of stable provision of water would be the same regardless of countries. However, in case of emergency, such as when local public system was paralysed by natural disaster like flood, people who are at risk need to get access clean water as soon as possible.  Likewise, in the region where people are suffering from extreme poverty,  they are desperately in need of clean water. They need this tiny device more than infrastructure in the short run.  Therefore, in accordance with the purpose of aid, we seriously put more emphasis on this kind of technological breakthrough.

Naoya Saito

Rich culture of Africa: Music

This is for the youth who are interested in Africa. Music in Africa has an distinctive art that we cannot find anywhere in the world. I was hoping by understanding Africa through music which is a common sound everywhere, Africa will not be all about the negative image.

If someone asks you about Africa, what would you tell them?

I would definitely talk about the rich culture of music in Africa, how talented they are.

Bobby McFerrin was surely the first person who inspired me to African culture when I was a little kid.

Even though McFerrin is an African-American vocalist, listening to the 'Flight of the Bumblebee' in the album he recorded with Yo-Yo ma, it showed the talent that many people will not be able to have.

Nowadays, many singers who are originally from Africa are getting attention from the teens in the United States especially as rappers; for example, Senegalese rapper Akon and K'naan who was born in Somalia.

However, the problem is the lack of information about African music.

Yes, we know that these singers are from Africa and very talented because of their home country but nothing else.

Therefore, this project will give the opportunity to spread the African music culture to those who are interested in music or Africa's culture.

I've been taking African music courses in the School of Oriental and African Studies which I hope will help my research in Tanzania.

There is a traditional music genre called 'taarab' which is especially popular in Tanzania and Kenya.

Taarab music reflects many of the cultures throughout East Africa and other region but it is well-known as a wedding music or music for social gathering rituals.

When comparing the taarab music with the West African music especially in Mali, it shows similar characteristics such as the up tempo rhythm and dancing type of music which reminds of Youssou N'Dour but with women vocal.

Also, there are Tanzania instruments that I would like to listen to (or play) when I travel to Tanzania like ilimba which is a thumb piano.

Music is a deep culture in Africa so there are many useful resources.

However, it is difficult to explain them without listening to them, therefore I would link some of the videos from YouTube.

(Youtube can be one of the very useful website in order to search about African music)

This is my first time seeing someone so confident in singing without making sure the tune before singing.

This music shares a similar sound with the one above even it is the music from the West Africa.

Asako Sato

Gender Equality in Tanzania

Gender equality has been one of its major aims for the government of Tanzania since its independence in 1961. The constitution prohibits gender-based discrimination, and the government has ratified various international and regional agreements and conventions dealing with gender issues⁽¹⁾. However, the equality in gender is yet to be achieved in the country.

According to the World Economic Forum's Global Gender Gap report in 2010, Tanzania is ranked 66^th out of the 134 countries surveyed in the study. Although this research has some limitations on its scope, it gives us some insight into the problems surrounding women in Tanzania. It is remarkable that the percentage of enrolment in primary and secondary education and labour force participation does not show much difference among men and women. However, even though they have a same opportunity on the basic level, the research suggests that women is unlikely to have access to higher education or highly skilled employment. The percentage of legislators, senior officials, and managers of women to men is 16 to 83, and the enrolment in tertiary education is 1 to 2. Other ratings such as political empowerment is making a progress, though Ananilea Nkya of Tanzania Media Women Association (TAMWA) told the Citizen (Tanzania's English newspaper) that equal number in representation does not necessarily mean that women gained power⁽²⁾. Moreover, she criticised the government that the good policies for women empowerment are not being well budgeted and performed⁽³⁾.

However, underachievement of gender equality cannot simply be attributed to failure of the government policy implementation. Social Institutions and Gender Index by OECD Development Centre suggests the practice of customary and Islamic Sharia laws by judicial authorities results in limitation of legal protection for women⁽⁴⁾. For example, despite the government's adoption of the Land Act and Law of Marriage Act which granted Tanzanian women the right to have access to properties, customary and Islamic laws that undermine these rights prevail within the community and thus the ownership rights of women are strictly restricted. This hinders women's opportunity to engage in economic sector. Other practices, such as girls' early marriage, polygamy and female genital mutilation (FGM) are also traditions and are still common in Tanzania. The tradition is deep-rooted and cannot be criticised easily. Even though the government were to call for gender equality, we have to bear in mind that both men and women are closely surrounded by the society which retains various values.

Ayumi Kyoe

(1)International level: Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), Cairo International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) Programme of Action, Beijing Declaration and Platform of Action of the Fourth World Conference on Women (FWCW), Millennium Development Goal (MDG) number 3 and 5, Southern African Development Community (SADC) Declarations on Gender and Development and the Declaration on Gender Equality in Africa (EGA) (UNFPA: http://countryoffice.unfpa.org/tanzania/2009/09/14/1301/gender/ , accessed 02/03/2011)

(2)http://www.thecitizen.co.tz/news/4-national-news/4997 (accessed 02/03/2011)

(3)http://www.genderlinks.org.za/article/tanzania-drops-in-gender-equality-ranks-2010-10-09 (accessed 02/03/2011)

(4)http://genderindex.org/country/tanzania (accessed 02/03/2011)

References

OECD Development Centre (http://www.oecd.org/document/23/0,3746,en_2649_33935_36225815_1_1_1_1,00.html)

UNFPA Gender Equality (http://www.unfpa.org/gender/)

World Economic Forum, Global Gender Gap Report (http://www.weforum.org/issues/global-gender-gap)