On Efficiency, and Water

The 8th of August is Peasant's Day here in Tanzania, also referred to in some places as Farmer's Day (a conflation which would upset Marx and Engels perhaps, but is apt in the context of farming that is predominantly for subsistence), and so i thought it would be an appropriate moment to address this issue, which has been on my mind.

Much is made these days of the fact that barriers to trade, tariffs and taxes of various kinds are economically inefficient. Efficiency seems to be the raison d'etre of many Western and conservative ('neoclassical') economists. Their focus, however, is on things like government 'interference' in the economy, corruption (especially in the context of developing country governments), the informal sector [last year a consulting company released a report arguing that the informal sector's inefficiency is harmful to the economies of developing countries - ignoring the fact that it's this very inefficiency that allows it to absorb so much labour] and barriers to trade in goods and currencies.

But if we're going to be concerned with inefficiencies, which as it happens i think we should, then it seems the above list is critically incomplete. I've only been travelling for a month now, but i have been struck the large number of individuals spending inordinate amounts of time and effort simply collecting water. In some areas this involves cycling (and perhaps walking) a round trip of up to 40kilometres, with as much as 30kg's of water on the return trip.

Now, i have little doubt that if we measured the costs of various inefficiencies by their cost to global GDP in monetary value, then the inefficiencies listed previously will vastly outweigh that of tiem spent by people who would otherwise by engaged in subsistence farming or piece-meal work. But what if one used an alternative measure? What if we valued these people's time - never mind their energy - by the world's GDP per capita? After all, only a racial, cultural or geographical supremacist would claim that individuals' in richer countries are rich for reasons other than the socio-economic context into which they were born [which is not to say that something like culture does not play a critical role in economic well-being, just that not individual can, as an individual, take the credit for this]. If this were done, then the value of this time lost due to the inefficiency that results from a lack of piped, clean (most locals in urban areas boil tap water before drinking it - vastly inefficient compared to a working, centralised water treatment plant) water was calculated, i suspect it would rank fairly high on the afore-mentioned list.

There is nothing wholly new in this argument, but it is perhaps a more hard-nosed way of looking at it than just saying that it's 'not fair' for some people to have access to piped water and sanitation and others not.

Something to think about when you turn on your taps today

The Spirit of Cycle Touring&Kilimanjaro from Below

Imagine you had a map that was in fact a miniature version, in every last detail, of the world. Further, imagine you could place all your senses into one finger; then run that finger over the landscape. That, i realised on my way to Moshi from Lake Duluti - 15km's outside Arusha, aptly described in my guidebook as 'a beautiful, forest-fringed, crater-lake' - where i camped last night, is what you experience by cycle touring. More than any other form of travel you become almost one with the landscape; gliding down the slopes, grinding up the hills, sweating in the heat, being blown about by the wind. Add to that the fact that you can carry everything you need, from food to shelter, and meet the local people face to face, and i doubt there is any better way of experiencing a new country.

Arusha-Moshi (via Lake Duluti)

[Total distance: 56miles]

Rather than staying in Arusha for another day i decided to overnight at Lake Duluti, where i finally used my tent and cooked for myself (and therefore was at last able to have oats for breakfast), and just generally relaxed. It is indeed a beautiful place, great for birdwatching and very quiet - although this was shattered for a time by a score of locals pitching-up to watch the Arsenal playing Chelsea in the FA Charity Shield (modern technology has a lot to answer for).
Herons hunting in the reeds, Fish Eagles and cormorants swooping over the lake - which is not more than about 200m across - sunbirds in the bottlebrush trees next to my tent, and various bird parties (including the unexpected bonus of a striking Slaty-eyed Flycatcher) moving through kept me busy for the afternoon and morning before i left.

The cycle to Moshi was a pleasant one, with the road in good condition, fine weather with only a mild headwind, and an undulating landscape. It also helped that in total i dropped down about 1000metres in altitude; though unlike the plains after Namanga, Moshi lies amidst a very lush landscape, presumably because it is at the base of Kilimanjaro. And it was as i was walking down one of the main streets of Moshi this afternoon that the clouds briefly parted and i saw the peak of Kilimanjaro, exactly a month after i flew over iton the way to Kenya. It is the first of two major landmarks, the other being Lake Malawi, that i saw from the air and which i hope to cycle past.

I spent the last remnants of the day sitting on the roof of the Buffalo Hotel, where i have a cheap room at the bottom, cutting up some sugar cane whilst sitting next to the water tanks (officially the place doesn't have an accessible roof) with one of the cleaners who was up there listening to his pocket radio, and watching the sun set as the clouds curled coyly around Kilimanjaro's Peak refusing to reveal what lay below.

I suspect that i'll be spending another day here, perhaps getting a book (i do get bored with my own thoughts at times, though you wouldn't guess that from the amount i write would you) and a new pair of sandals. Then it's off to Same (80km's from here) from where i hope to turn off the Arusha-Dar es Salaam road and head into the Southern Pare and Usambara Mountains, coming out at the coast.