Sonntag, 23. Januar 2011
About the dangers of modernisation
pathologe, 14:59h
It's been quite a while since I last posted something from Abuja. In fact, it was just the day before I left for a short holiday with the family back at home.
But now I am back again. During the time I was away the contract for the house I am moving to was finalized. So when I came back I immediately could move in. Of course still most of the furniture is missing, as I did not find the time for shopping around, but basic living is possible. The major things are there which is: a bed, a fridge and one roll of toilet tissue. What else do you need?
Well, the topic of this posting is about something else. So let's start now.
When you're in Africa, you will discover that there's a big hype regarding gadgets. The latest mobile phones, the newest electronic devices - you will find them here. Everybody needs nowadays those little handhelds with full alphanumeric keyboard to show off. Together with that the need of power (for charging these toys) is rising. Therefore those countries invest a lot of money to get their power networks refurbished and extended. But sometimes I ask myself if this is correct, if it was right to bring electricity to Africa? It may sound like racism, but I will explain why.
I moved into this house within a nice compound as first tennant. The house was empty for quite a while and so I was checking through what had to be re-done or fixed. Besides some AC units that lost gas over the time and therefore did not work well, there was no bigger issue. That's what I thought.
After my first night I got up in the morning and went into the bathroom. Waking up in a seating position is part of the ritual. During that time you got enough time to make plans for the day or just check the environment. Inside the bath tub outlet there was some piece of metal which caught my interest. I finished what I was doing and went to the bath tub to check if something broke off and was flushed there. But when I came near I could see it was a piece of support metal keeping the screw for the sieve into position. Most probably an adjustment after someone spoiled the hole of the sieve. Anyway, touching it was not really a good idea, as I received an electric shock. Ok, may have been static electricity. And as well I am a bit stupid. Second touch ended up with electric shock as well. So the conclusion was that static electricity was out of the possibilities. Next careful tries were touching the taps. Nothing on the tub, nothing on the sink. Good. Next floor, next bathroom. Touching the sieve: nothing. Touching the tap: bingo! I already started thinking about selling the principle to PHCN: power from the tap, just open it and you'll get a combination of water and light! Only the master bedroom on the top floor seemed to be without electricity on the taps.
So the decision grew to move everything to the top floor and use the bathroom of the master bedroom. But first it had to be cleaned. So I went upstairs and opened the tap for hot water. Felt a bt strange and not hot, when I put my finger inside. So I touched the tube coming from the water heater. Needless to say that it is made of metal. Double shock: hot and charged with electricity.
The next thing was going and complaining to he management. Before I started not to have any bath at all and smelling all around. The management organised an electrician to come around, check and fix the problem. A real specialist. He came to the house, touched the metal tube of one of the water heaters with his electrician screwdriver and told me "There is light!" If I did not knew before. Then he unscrewed the first switch for the water heater, without switching it off before. Well, he found out that there was still light on the water system. When trying to screw back the switch he caused a nice little spark which blew the fuse. No more light on the water pipes.
So we went up to the distribution box on the top floor and put two fuses in again which had tripped. Wonder what? Electricity on the water system existing again. Wow. Slowly I was impressed by this guy. He found out what I knew long before and what I already told him. But nevertheless, I am just a stupid consulting engineer anyway. So he took out the next heater switch. And found out that one fixing screw had caused a connecton in between the switched power cable and the earthing connection. So the earthing connection put full electricity to the outside of the water heater and, water is a very good conductor, the water system inside the house. he then fixed the problem and went again.
Hours later it came to my mind that if the earthing connection was carrying full 220Volts, why did the fuse not blow? Was it possible that all the earthing connections are useless inside the house? But now it is too late to tell. And touching a running system: never do so!
But now I am back again. During the time I was away the contract for the house I am moving to was finalized. So when I came back I immediately could move in. Of course still most of the furniture is missing, as I did not find the time for shopping around, but basic living is possible. The major things are there which is: a bed, a fridge and one roll of toilet tissue. What else do you need?
Well, the topic of this posting is about something else. So let's start now.
When you're in Africa, you will discover that there's a big hype regarding gadgets. The latest mobile phones, the newest electronic devices - you will find them here. Everybody needs nowadays those little handhelds with full alphanumeric keyboard to show off. Together with that the need of power (for charging these toys) is rising. Therefore those countries invest a lot of money to get their power networks refurbished and extended. But sometimes I ask myself if this is correct, if it was right to bring electricity to Africa? It may sound like racism, but I will explain why.
I moved into this house within a nice compound as first tennant. The house was empty for quite a while and so I was checking through what had to be re-done or fixed. Besides some AC units that lost gas over the time and therefore did not work well, there was no bigger issue. That's what I thought.
After my first night I got up in the morning and went into the bathroom. Waking up in a seating position is part of the ritual. During that time you got enough time to make plans for the day or just check the environment. Inside the bath tub outlet there was some piece of metal which caught my interest. I finished what I was doing and went to the bath tub to check if something broke off and was flushed there. But when I came near I could see it was a piece of support metal keeping the screw for the sieve into position. Most probably an adjustment after someone spoiled the hole of the sieve. Anyway, touching it was not really a good idea, as I received an electric shock. Ok, may have been static electricity. And as well I am a bit stupid. Second touch ended up with electric shock as well. So the conclusion was that static electricity was out of the possibilities. Next careful tries were touching the taps. Nothing on the tub, nothing on the sink. Good. Next floor, next bathroom. Touching the sieve: nothing. Touching the tap: bingo! I already started thinking about selling the principle to PHCN: power from the tap, just open it and you'll get a combination of water and light! Only the master bedroom on the top floor seemed to be without electricity on the taps.
So the decision grew to move everything to the top floor and use the bathroom of the master bedroom. But first it had to be cleaned. So I went upstairs and opened the tap for hot water. Felt a bt strange and not hot, when I put my finger inside. So I touched the tube coming from the water heater. Needless to say that it is made of metal. Double shock: hot and charged with electricity.
The next thing was going and complaining to he management. Before I started not to have any bath at all and smelling all around. The management organised an electrician to come around, check and fix the problem. A real specialist. He came to the house, touched the metal tube of one of the water heaters with his electrician screwdriver and told me "There is light!" If I did not knew before. Then he unscrewed the first switch for the water heater, without switching it off before. Well, he found out that there was still light on the water system. When trying to screw back the switch he caused a nice little spark which blew the fuse. No more light on the water pipes.
So we went up to the distribution box on the top floor and put two fuses in again which had tripped. Wonder what? Electricity on the water system existing again. Wow. Slowly I was impressed by this guy. He found out what I knew long before and what I already told him. But nevertheless, I am just a stupid consulting engineer anyway. So he took out the next heater switch. And found out that one fixing screw had caused a connecton in between the switched power cable and the earthing connection. So the earthing connection put full electricity to the outside of the water heater and, water is a very good conductor, the water system inside the house. he then fixed the problem and went again.
Hours later it came to my mind that if the earthing connection was carrying full 220Volts, why did the fuse not blow? Was it possible that all the earthing connections are useless inside the house? But now it is too late to tell. And touching a running system: never do so!
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