Engineering: issues, challenges and opportunities for development ...

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ENGINEERING CAPACITY: EDUCATION, TRAINING AND MOBILITYissue of widespread poverty in the African continent has beenobserved by UNESCO (2005) 82 and, according to Daly (2002), 83the research system should find solutions and exploit opportunitiesfor economic development. The research institutes arerecommended to devise strategies for research and to developthe skills needed to identify, analyse and address these crucial84 85specific problems (King, 2005; Hazell and Haddad, 2001).The Government of Botswana expects public research institutesto participate and make a positive impact in nationaldevelopment. The Botswana Technology Centre (BOTEC) isone of the public research institutes that is expected to contributeto the improvement of living standards of the peopleof Botswana.BOTEC undertakes R&D in science, engineering and technology,and its projects have mainly been in renewable energy,civil engineering and information communications technologies.BOTEC was established in 1979 with the mandateto promote science and technology through R&D, the transferof technology, policy development, support to industry,economic analysis, and information and education activities.These efforts are aimed at improving the quality of life of thecitizens of Botswana, and supporting the economic developmentof the country.While other research institutes are mandated to focus onagricultural production for food self-sufficiency, such as theDepartment of Agricultural Research, BOTEC concentrates onother technologies that are not necessarily food-related butprovide a general uplift of living standards. The projects belowrefer to solar renewable energy technologies, civil engineeringand ICT.Centralized photovoltaic power stationThe centralized solar photovoltaic (PV) power station developedin 1998 was a demonstration pilot project to showcaseits feasibility in a remote rural village that is not connected tothe national electricity grid. The solar powered station has thecapacity to produce 5.7 kilowatts of electric power to provideelectricity (220V AC) in the village clinic, primary school, streetlights and households. The engineering element of this powerstation involved the applied research to adapt the photovoltaicsystem to Botswana conditions and to produce clean energy.82 UNESCO. 2005. UNESCO Science Report: Africa, authored by Jacques Gaillard,Mohamed Hassan and Roland Waast in collaboration with Daniel Schaffer. UNESCO,Paris, France. Available at: www.iocd.org/PDF/unesco_sci_report05.pdf (Accessed: 28May 2010).83 Daly, John, A. 2002. Building Science and Technology Capacity in Developing Countries,Sustainable Development International, February 2002.84 King, K. 2005. The Commission for Africa: a changing landscape for higher educationand capacity development in Africa? Centre of African Studies, University of Edinburgh.Available at: www.nuffic.nl/pdf/os/em/king.pdf (Accessed: 28 May 2010).85 Hazell, P., and Haddad, L. 2001. Agricultural Research and Poverty Reduction, paper forthe International Food Policy Research Institute, Washington, USA, August 2001. Availableat: http://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:fpr:2020dp:34© BOTEC Internal Technical ReportsSpecifically, the objectives for the design of the pilot PV powerstation project and electricity cabling to residential houses inthe village of Motshegaletau were to design a centralized photovoltaicpower system that would be capable of adequatelygenerating (220V AC) power that could be used for basic electricityneeds by the local community as well as a number ofinstitutional households and facilities. The basic and essentialelectricity needs to be provided include:■■■■■Basic lighting for households and other establishments.Electric power for household appliances such as radios aswell as refrigerators and television sets, for those able toafford them.Electric power for business and entertainment establishments.Electric power for essential government institutions such asschools and clinics.Cold storage facility to be used as a mortuary.In addition the PV power station would:■ Demonstrate and encourage energy conservation throughthe use of energy efficient appliances without compromisingon the quality of the service rendered, such as the use ofenergy efficient lights.■■■■Enhance the awareness and acceptance by the general publicas well as appeal to the government and local authoritiesfor the use of photovoltaic electric power systems as analternative (where grid power is not viable).Contribute towards an increased exploitation of the abundantsolar energy and its subsequent environmental andsocio-economic benefits to the nation.Help BOTEC build local expertise in the area of the designof photovoltaic electric power systems for rural village electrification.Enable the design team to determine comprehensively theperformance of the PV power station (through a data monitoringand analysis process). PV power station pilot project.353
ENGINEERING: ISSUES CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES FOR DEVELOPMENT Sample brick walls usingKgalagadi sand.354The provision of electricity in a rural setting through the centralizedpower station successfully impacted on the living conditions,especially as the school and local clinic were connectedto an electricity supply and some businesses started to mushroomdue to the availability of power. Pupils are now able tostudy at school when it is dark and electronic teaching aids cannow be used. The clinic mortuary is connected to the powersupply, and the diesel generator that was previously used isnow on standby. After monitoring the efficacy of this project,the Botswana Government is now being approached to providefunding that will enable replication of similar projects inother remote rural settings.Kgalagadi Sand Building Block projectKgalagadi (also written as Kalahari) is the name of the tropicalsemi-arid desert that occupies about three-quarters of Botswana.The desert is composed of sandy soil, which is unsuitablefor making conventional building blocks/bricks in thecountry. Kgalagadi sand is a very narrowly graded cohesionlesssoil, which alone is not immediately usable for brick production(compared to the scarce sand from the dry rivers). Thesand is generally fine and has high porosity and thus very difficultto bond and make relatively strong bricks. The difficulty ofmaking strong bricks results in non-durable houses for manyof the poor people residing in villages in the Kgalagadi desert.The objective of the Kgalagadi Sand Building Block project hasthus been to render Kgalagadi Sand usable for the productionof a fit-for-purpose and cost-effective block/brick. The R&Dcomponent of this project involves the engineering of a buildingblock of stipulated strength and durability using Kgalagadisand as major raw material. The other important raw materialsare calcrete and fly ash. Calcrete resources are availablebelow the sand level in Botswana, and fly ash is also abundantat the Morupule thermal coal power station. The dumped flyash from the power station poses an environmental hazardtherefore its use in bricks would provide a much-needed solutionfor fly ash disposal. The fly ash can ultimately be packagedand sold to people to mix with Kgalagadi sand and calcrete© BOTEC Internal Technical Reportsto make a mortar that results in strong bricks and durablehouses.Preliminary tests produced the desired outcome of relativelystrong building blocks. The resultant stabilized compressedearth block has successfully been taken through differentstages of the curing regime and requisite tests have beencompleted. This project, mainly championed by BOTEC’s civilengineers, will move into the technology transfer stage whereBOTEC will decide how to take the product or productionknowledge to the people in order to improve the strength ofthe housing units.The Kgalagadi Sand Building Block project is seen as a researchachievement in exploiting the immense desert sand resourcethat occupies three-quarters of the country. The projectderives from the following socio-economic circumstances inBotswana:■■The need to facilitate construction of durable and affordablehousing units.The need to maximize local production of building materials.■ The need to reduce stress on the national road infrastructuredue to bulk transportation of massive loads of buildingmaterials or raw materials over long distances (for example,most of the river sand for making building blocks/bricks istransported from the eastern strip of Botswana to towns inthe western desert lands).■The need to ‘Ensure Environmental Sustainability’ (UN MillenniumDevelopment Goal No. 7) through the use of desertsand.Community User Information Systems – Kitsong CentresThe Community User Information System project was developedto address the interrelated problems of the lack of accessto information and knowledge resources for rural people andthe lack of affordable communication channels capable ofreaching rural communities. The main objective of the pilotproject was to develop a computer communication systemthat enables access to integrated email and online informationfor rural people in Botswana, with emphasis on the online disseminationof locally generated, user friendly, relevant informationand knowledge resources. The aim was to providecost-effective access to and dissemination of information andknowledge resources, subsequently saving hardcopy productions,mailing, transport and transaction costs. Moreover, thecomputer network aspired to become a forum of informationand knowledge exchange for local communities, researchcentres and local business entities. It was also a contributionto Botswana’s full entry into the information and knowledge
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UNESCO ReportEngineering:IssuesChal
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This landmark report on engineering
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Introductionto the Report
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1What is Engineering?
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5Engineering around the world
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