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The Term Environmentally Sound
Appropriate Technology (ESAT) is
amalgamation of two terms
-Environmentally sound Technology and
Appropriate Technology.
An environmentally sound technology is a
technology that serves the goals of
development and also reduces the risk of
harm to human health (or the
environment),
enhancing cost-effectiveness (of
achieving environmental protection),
improving process efficiency, and
creating products and processes that are
environmentally beneficial or benign[i].
Appropriate Technology is a term that
represents the social and cultural
dimension of innovation. The idea here
is that the value of a technology lies
not only in its economic viability and
its technical soundness, but also in its
adaptation to the local social and
cultural environment[ii].
Taken together, ESAT is a technology
that has two considerations. Firstly, it
protects the environment, is less
polluting, uses all resources in a more
sustainable manner and secondly, it
springs from indigenous creativity in
response to local needs and
possibilities.
The Environmentally Sound Appropriate
Technology, primarily, shares three
characteristics:
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1. |
It is relevant and ready for use
by the common people and aims
directly to improve the quality of
their lives. |
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2. |
It derives maximum leverage from
the local cultural environment, by
drawing upon the existing
managerial and technical skills
and providing the basis for
extending them. |
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3. |
It uses the physical potential of
an area, and maintains man’s
harmony with nature. |
Assessing the appropriateness of a
technology necessarily involves some
sort of value judgement, both on the
part of the developer of technology as
well as the user of technology. This
also implies that a technology that is
environmentally sound and appropriate in
one condition may be inappropriate in a
different condition, meaning thereby
that ESAT is a condition specific
technology, a relative notion that
varies in space and time.
Nevertheless, the concept of
“Environmentally Sound Appropriate
Technology” might be summarized as
follows[iii]:
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1. |
The design of technology is more
in response to the local needs,
thus it promotes ingenuity of
local people. |
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2. |
It compliments human labour and
skills rather than attempting to
replace human labour and
eliminating human skills; there is
an effort to make the human
element more productive and
creative. |
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3. |
The processes and procedures
involved are simple, at which
people without sophisticated
management training can work
together and understand what they
are doing. |
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4. |
It allows a more economical
operation by minimizing the
transport of goods in an era of
expensive energy, allowing greater
interaction of local industry and
permitting greater use of local
resources – both human and
material. |
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5. |
It makes unnecessary many
expensive or unavailable finance,
transportation, education
advertising, and management and
energy services; and avoids the
loss of local control that the use
of such outside services implies. |
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6. |
It helps to establish a
self-sustaining and expanding
reservoir of skills in the
community, which begins from
already existing skills; |
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7. |
It tends towards decentralization
of production, thus permitting the
full benefits of work to remain
within a community; this also
allows the control to remain
within community; |
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8. |
It provides a region with a
cushion against the effects of
outside economic changes (e.g. the
sudden unavailability of
fertilizer); |
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9. |
It helps to reduce economic,
social and political dependency
between individuals, between
regions, and between nations, by
recognizing that people can and
will do things for themselves if
the obstacles to this are removed. |
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10. |
It is in harmony with the cultural
traditions of the area; this does
not mean it is stagnant, but that
it evolves along with the culture,
and does not contradict values the
people believe to be important. |
[i]Technology
for a Sustainable Future (NSTC,
1994, p. 9, and pp. 42–43).
[ii].Appropriate
Technology Problems and Promises
(OECD, 1976. page 19 pp.
[iii]
Appropriate Technology Sourcebook
Volume One (Volunteers in Asia,
1981 page 14) |
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