Economics Project

Arshiya Vohra (2K13/EP/017) Danendra Singh(2K13/EE/044) Shipra Sharan (2K13/EP/065) Tanmay Sardana(2K13/EP/074) Varsha Jain (2K13/EP/076)

Role of Engineering in Improving the Slums

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT The success and outcome of the project ROLE OF ENGINEERING IN IMPROVING THE WELFARE OF SLUMS would not have been satisfactory without the help of respected Maam Mrs. SEEMA SINGH

We would like to show our deep gratitude towards her. We would like to thank her for giving us the opportunity to compile this project and help us understand the real scenario of engineering in our society.

Lastly, we would like to express our regards towards our friends and seniors who help us complete this project successfully on time.

Thanking you.

INTRODUCTION

What is a Slum ? !A slum is a heavily populated urban informal settlement characterized by substandard housing and squalor. While slums differ in size and other characteristics from country to country, most lack reliable sanitation services, supply of clean water, reliable electricity, timely law enforcement and other basic services. ! Slum residences vary from shanty houses to professionally-built dwellings that because of poor-quality design or

construction have deteriorated into slums.

Percent Urban population of a country living in Slums

The picture that conjures up in our minds, when we talk about slums, is that of a dirty, unhygienic cluster of impoverished shanties with long lines of people crowding around a solitary municipal water tap, bowling babies literally left on street corners to fend for themselves and endless cries and found voices emanating from various corners. Most of them are engaged in eking out their daily lives, always below the poverty line, by working as construction labourers, domestic helps, rag pickers and chhotus in neighbourhood dhabas. Though their living conditions are utterly unhygienic, gloomy, and dismal and dehumanized, many of them still dream of improving the quality of their lives. Many of the younger generation, irrespective of gender, income level and educational attainment express their regard for education and foresee upward social mobility for their children by educating their offspring as much as possible. Our slums are indeed very dingy, dark and dismal. But the dark clouds are now fading. They were encouraged to come to cities and work. People, who migrated to the cities and found work, brought their cousins and rest of the families to the cities. Conniving governments provided electricity and drinking water. Politicians looked at the slums as vote bank.

Community Cooker!!A brief explanation of the project The Community Cooker is a simple machine and can be built anywhere. The cooker itself is made of welded steel with eight circular hot-plates for cooking located on the top of the stove. The cooking pots are partially submerged into the hot-plates in order to minimize heat loss from the combustion chamber, while increasing cooking speed. The cooker has two ovens for baking located underneath the hot-plates. In the centre of the cooker there is a chimney which carries the smoke from the combustion chamber to the chimneys outlet high above the neighbourhoods roofline.

CASE STUDY 1

Because the stove burns rubbish at over 800 degrees Celsius, it achieves complete combustion, producing smoke that is white in colour and almost odourless. At the bottom of the stove there is a wide metal chute that allows rubbish to be pushed from the trash storage racks into the combustion chamber of the stove. The rubbish is manually fed by the stove operator,

according to the number of hot plates being utilized and the level of heat required for cooking a given dish. The Community Cooker is designed with locally available materials so that repairs,

maintenance and operation can easily be carried out by member of the local community.

Mitigation/Adaptation

A Community Cooker,managed responsibly and operated for a year will save the caloric heat equivalent of burning 2,400 mature trees in a year.

More than 80 percent of Kenyas urban dwellers, many of whom live in poor, informal settlements, use charcoal made from wood as their primary source of energy, according to government statistics. Their heavy dependence on wood for fuel has contributed to the rapid decline of Kenyas forests, with negative effects for the local climate, wildlife, water sources and forest dwellers, says the World Rainforest Movement.

In March 2011 the Community Cooker in Laini Saba site was tested for stack emissions and residual ash. The results show that the Community Cooker has combustion efficiency of 99 per cent and that the levels of SO2 , NO2 and heavy metals detected fall within the regulatory limits of United States EPA and World Bank IFC guidelines. These Results also meet Kenya Air Quality and Waste Management Standards. Environmental Measure Report NRB1152-009421 March 2011.

Community Cooker

The locals in the Laini Saba village in Kibera have been instrumental to the success of the activity. This came as a one-time solution for not only our

waste management problem but for so many other related issues as well. Free usage of the Community Cooker is given to anyone from Kibera slum who shows up with a sack of garbage. The greatest thing about the cooker is that it is

much cheaper than buying charcoal or kerosene, which are the most commonly used fuel sources in the slum. The Community Cooker offers resourceful slum

dwellers a fuel source that is far less expensive than wood fuel, charcoal, gas or kerosene, and very much less expensive than electricity and reduction in Acute Respiratory Infections due to household air pollution. The activity employs seven young people who sort

the solid waste in Laini Saba Kibera.

Social & Environmental benefits

Case Study 2

The iShack Project uses solar electricity to show how slums can be incrementally upgraded in a sustainable and socially just way.

iShack

The iShack uses a flexible DC multigrid system that allows for additional appliances to be added to the core unit over time.In addition, through the installation of a grid interface module, the system could be seamlessly be integrated into the AC grid.

Principle of iShack

From a distance, it is its shiny exterior that first catches the eye. As you step closer, a rooftop solar panel, an outdoor security light and a roof overhang make Nosango Plaatjie's shack stand out amid the sprawling cluster of makeshift wooden structures and rusty corrugated iron dwellings where her neighbours live.

! Welcome to the iShack, or improved shack, an innovative approach to housing that's being tested in the windswept slum of Enkanini, just outside Stellenbosch, South Africa. ! The dwelling, developed by researchers at the University of Stellenbosch, is intended to raise the living standards of slum residents while improving their access to electricity and protecting them from extreme temperatures in an environmentally friendly way.It is fully equipped with a photovoltaic panel capable of producing enough electricity to power three lights, a mobile phone charger and an outdoor motion detector spotlight.Its windows are strategically placed to achieve better air circulation and sunlight heating, while the roof is sloped so that rainwater can be harvested during the winter months.

Recycled cardboard boxes and old Tetra Pack containers are used for insulation between the exterior zinc surface and the interior, while a flame-retardant paint is used to lessen the risk of fires. Inside the shack, rows of recycled bricks create a sturdy flooring base and act as "thermal mass," protecting against temperature

change. "Shacks are becoming the new norm" explains Andreas Keller, one of the developers of iShack. "So what can we do today in order to improve the living conditions of people through energy intervention, lighting, cell phones, communication, upping security?

! That's where the planning comes in and the technology takes it one step further.

! "Now, thanks to a grant by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the iShack project will be trialled over the next year. Up to 100 shacks will either be built or

retrofitted to determine whether the system can be applied on a larger scale.

Case study 3 THE SRI PROJECT, RANCHI.

In a project implemented by SRI, Ranchi for micro-watershed development for Tati, Ranchi, Jharkhand, technologies based on land and water activities have been promoted.

Planning and construction of biophysical structures, wa te r harve s t ing and mois ture conservat ion features have been designed and implemented in cost-effective manner. After establishing these natural r e s o u r c e s u t i l i z a t i o n facilities, efforts have been made for sustainable use of such resources for value addition through training o f l o c a l p e o p l e i n biodynamic gardening, cultivation of cash crops, food processing, poultry manag emen t , e r o s i on control, micro irrigation and biomass based gasifier technology.

This has led to creation of positive environment in the project area and people's participation in adopting such need based technologies resulting in increase in crop and vegetable yield leading to generation of additional i n c o m e . S u c h a n intervention to make science and technology visible and a c c e s s i b l e t o r u r a l p o p u l a t i o n t h r o u g h watershed development approach has resulted in a c t u a l t e c h n o l o g i c a l empowerment and skill upgradation of the people, convergence of income generating activities and creation of sustainable livelihood. The operational structure is easily managed by people's group.

case study 4 Slum Rehabilitation with Fast Track Techniques

Fast track techniques are associated with using methods that reduce the project overlapping and total duration of the project at sustainable finance.

Slum before and after Changes to dwelling Slum before and after

Slum rehabilitation can be defined as, rebuilding the homes, improving the standard of living of the group of people living under deprived conditions of basic amenities like adequate living area and shelter, water, sanitation and electricity. Due to large urbanization population of cities is increasing leading to lack of equal opportunities making rich people richer and poor people poorer resulting in increased lower income groups. Land is a fixed asset which cannot increase with demand and is proving to be a challenge to satisfy the housing demand of our country leading to haphazard settlement. The land meant for residence when used for industries or vice versa leads to formation of slum due to negligence in planning of housing arrangements for labours and workers

Fast track techniques proved to be useful to serve the purpose. Fast track techniques are associated with using !methods that reduce the project overlapping and total duration of the project at sustainable finance. This paper !focuses on fast track techniques like Tunnel form and Rapidwall compared with recent in use technique Aluform !in terms of cost, duration, benefits and their utility in Indian conditions.!Fast track techniques are necessary as rehabilitation is long term process including costly affairs which !generates problems to slum dwellers and ultimately to the country. Tunnel form and Rapidwall helps in reducing rehabilitation time by completing the project in optimum cost and duration.

Engineers have a collective responsibility to improve the lives of people around the world. !

In the next two decades, almost two billion additional people are expected to populate the Earth, 95 percent of them in developing or underdeveloped countries. This growth will create unprecedented demands for energy, food, land, water, transportation, materials, waste disposal, earth moving, health care, environmental cleanup, telecommunication, and infrastructure. The role of engineers will be critical in fulfilling those demands at various scales, ranging from remote small communities to large urban areas. If engineers are not ready to fulfill such demands, who will? The emergence of large urban areas is likely to affect the future prosperity and stability of the entire world. Today, it is estimated that between 835 million and 2 billion people live in some type of city slum and that the urban share of the worlds extreme poverty is about 25 percent. Considering the problems facing our planet today and the problems expected to arise in the first half of the twenty-first century, the engineering profession must revisit its mindset and adopt a new mission statement - to contribute to the building of a more sustainable, stable, and equitable world. Sustainable development will be impossible without the full input by the engineering profession.

Technological interventions for slum area development

Development of portable gasifier cookstove suitable for community cooking facilitating on line biomass feeding and proper regulation of gas generation and its burning. Development of low cost double-jacketed honey processing equipment with effective filter suited to rural mass application. Development of village information network through computerized support system and database for use by local communities in effective planning and access to technology in the areas of health, sanitation, sustainable agriculture, education, watershed management, etc. Development by establishing multi purpose service cum training centers/IT vans for repair, maintenance, demonstration and training.

Summary

Low cost bio -fertilizers production. Extraction and purification of natural food color and dyes under controlled conditions. Organic cultivation and processing of medicinal and aromatic plants. Dissemination of solar photovoltaic systems and training in operation and maintenance. Development of solar powered refrigerator.Utilization of non-conventional fruits and vegetables; NTFP for value added quality products. Utilization of non-conventional fruits and vegetables; NTFP for value added quality products.

https://impactchallenge.withgoogle.com/india2013#/shelterassociates !http://worlddesignimpact.org/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slum !http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slum#mediaviewer/File:Urban_population_living_in_slums.svg !!http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Community_Cooker !https://itunews.itu.int/en/509-Improving-the-lives-of-slum-dwellers-through-innovative-uses-of-ICT.note.aspx !http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20943256

Bibliography