Role of Eng

Role of Engineers in Poverty Alleviation

Engineering refers to the utilization of the scientific phenomena and principles so as to offer sustainable planned development and develop new techniques. The basic role of engineers here can be addressed as employing technology to address basic needs, access resources and to promote sustainable livelihoods and the living standard of people such that their life can be up headed from the poverty. An engineer is a professional who can offer sustainable and appropriate solutions to the endemic problems faced by developing communities worldwide.

The role of Engineers in poverty alleviation is to promote the access of poor people to technology. It will help to empower them to meet the international goal of halving poverty by 2015 through better access to information and knowledge sharing for the common good of poor people, by supporting and encouraging local responses to a diversity of basic needs, using a variety of media. Engineering and technology are of vital and increasing importance in emergency and post-conflict response, relief, mitigation and reconstruction, and of related importance in poverty eradication and sustainable livelihoods development - people living in conditions of poverty in developing countries are particularly vulnerable to emergency and post-conflict situations.

The success of the poverty alleviation programs depends on significant measure to this level of community commitment and to the extent of understanding of social, economic and political influences in that local community. Engineers can work effectively with other professions and community leaders to develop sustainable solutions to poverty.

Community infrastructure is key to alleviating poverty – and thus engineers have an essential role to play. Without ready access to clean water and sanitation, productivity is severely reduced through illness and time spent in water collection. Without roads, the poor are unable to sell their goods at market. Basic infrastructure is not a luxury that can wait for better economic times, but a precondition for creating them, and its provision is an urgent and ongoing requirement.
The Economist has observed that ‘over the past 50 years rich nations have given US$1 trillion in aid to poor ones. This stupendous sum has failed spectacularly to improve the lot of its intended beneficiaries. Poor countries that receive lots of aid do no better, on average, than those that receive very little’3. Poverty is thus not being ignored, but alleviation strategies must be more effective for relief to be achieved.

The origins of poverty To begin solving poverty, its origins must be clearly understood.
The basic causes are:
• lack of access to safe water and sanitation
• lack of facilities for adequate health care
• lack of access to educational opportunities
• shortage of adequate nutrition
• lack of adequately paid employment
• inadequate or expensive transport facilities
• limited or expensive power supplies.

Urban and rural poverty generally have different causes, though not mutually exclusive. The main causes of urban poverty are likely to be:

• lack of adequate income or no income, due to underemployment or unemployment
• inadequate housing, sanitation, and water supply
• limited opportunities for education
• inadequate or expensive transport facilities.