November/December 1985 RAIN Page 19 Technology by the People and for the People by Mira Brown In the village of Santa Cruz, the people are building a new kind of water pump. In one small house, the Senora stands on her packed earth floor and explains that the rope pump does away with the need to buy a bucket, and saves her household money. In his garden, her neighbor proudly describes how the production collective improved the pump design. Up the hill, the technicians and peasants who work at the government-sponsored Center for Appropriate Technology are smiling. They built the first rope pump, but the project has been taken'out of their hands by the local people, and is now organized by the village defense committee. The country is Nicaragua, and the scene is an example of the exciting changes that the Sandinista Revolution is bringing to the technological planning and design process. After making two trips (a total of three and a half months) to Nicaragua in the last year, I am convinced that the popular democracy there is creating a unique potential for the development of truly appropriate technological systems. By an appropriate technology, I mean one that works to solve a problem defined by the local people, uses local resources, and functions in support of local social goals. Part of using local resources—a part that technicians tend to overlook. I'm afraid—is using human resources. Any long-term resident of a community has a special knowledge of the area's problems and potentials. I believe that if the people who are to use a device are involved in its design, you've got a much better chance of coming up with something that's really appropriate. In Nicaragua, the Sandinista Revolution has brought an unprecedented level of participation by the people to public decision making. Neighborhood defense committees, women's organizations, cooperatives, trade unions, and farmers' organizations are just some of the grassroots groups that are now helping to shape local and national policies. This community participation has begun to affect the design and planning of new technologies. Sitting on a hillside above the Pan American highway, the Center for the Investigation of Appropriate Technol-
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NTc4NTAz