| Contributed by
James Robinson |
| 20 August 2007 |
Almost unnoticed, Nepal is developing simple and cheap technologies that make the best of local resources and don't damage the environment. From an editorial article on SciDev.net on the 16th August 2007
Down a narrow alley in Kathmandu's historic heart, through a low door, you enter Akal Man Nakarmi's workshop. Nakarmi's surname means 'metalsmith' and the soft-spoken craftsman's ancestors crafted copper utensils and forged statues of deities in bronze.
Today, Nakarmi makes small turbines called Peltric Sets for micro hydro electric generation plants across the Himalaya. He can't keep up with demand.
The new technologies that have worked have been indigenously designed, based on traditional skills and knowledge, and are cheap and easy to use and maintain. In fact, to visit Nepal these days is to see the 'small is beautiful' concept of development economist E. F. Schumacher in action.
Read the rest of the article here
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