Friday, March 27, 2020
Beowulf, an Epic Hero essays
Beowulf, an Epic Hero essays An epic hero is defined as a larger than life hero who embodies the values of a particular society. Commonly epic heroes have superior strength, have strong love for their people, are fearless of death, and are very ethical people. The epic poem Beowulf describes the most heroic man of the Anglo-Saxon times. The hero, Beowulf, is a seemingly invincible person with all the extraordinary traits required of an epic hero. Beowulf is a perfect example of an epic hero who is a representative of his time because of his super-human strength, his strong love for the people, his fearless of death, and his ethical personality including his strong moral characteristics common of his time. It is obvious that Beowulf has super-human strength because he kills Grendel with his own bare hands. Grendel had been terrorizing the Danes for twelve years and none of them could defeat Grenadel with weapons! During the battle with Grendel, Grendel notices Beowulfs extraordinary strength: [Grendel] Knew at once that nowhere on earth Had he met a man whose hands were harder; His mind was flooded with fear- but nothing could take his talons and himself from that tight Hard grip (p. 33, 433-437). To proclaim his victory and triumph over evil, Beowulf hangs an arm of Grendels, which he savagely ripped from the beast, from the ceiling. Later, Beowulf goes on to kill the Grendels mother, who is even more viscous than Grenadel. In the battle with Grendels mother there is yet another example of Beowulfs super-human strength when Beowulf lifts a huge, massive sword and kills Grendels mother with it. It is said that the sword was so massive that no ordinary man would have the strength to lift it. Beowulf also boasts of his strength many times throughout the poem. For example, in his argument with Unferth, But the truth is simple: No man swims in sea as I can, no strength is a match for mine (p. 28,...
Friday, March 6, 2020
Case 3 Ben and Jerrys Essays
Case 3 Ben and Jerrys Essays Case 3 Ben and Jerrys Essay Case 3 Ben and Jerrys Essay In this case we are introduced to an ice cream company named Ben Jerryââ¬â¢s. Founded in 1978 in Vermont, this once small time ice cream shop has developed into one of the worldââ¬â¢s largest ice cream producers with sales in excess of $237 million as of 2000. Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfieldââ¬â¢s unique relationship has proved successful for the past 30 years in part because of their social consciousness and their down-to-earth attitudes. This article is divided mainly into two parts; first the author summarizes the social consciousness of Ben Jerryââ¬â¢s Homemade and how it has led to their success in their industry. Secondly the author goes into detail about the offers that have been made for the ice cream giant by numerous companies and investment firms that were in the running to buy out Ben Jerryââ¬â¢s Homemade. We begin by discussing the social responsibility that Ben Jerryââ¬â¢s has been known for over 30 years now. Their three-part mission statement focuses on their product as well as the economic and social impact of their company, not only locally but also nationally and internationally. It becomes apparent that founders Cohen and Greenfield worry about more than just their bottom line. In an interview Cohen was quoted as being indifferent about the companyââ¬â¢s stock prices and how the market had treated Ben Jerryââ¬â¢s as a whole: ââ¬Å"I think the stock market goes up and down, unrelated to how a company is doingâ⬠(Bruner 43). This laid back attitude describes Cohen and Greenfieldââ¬â¢s philosophy in a nutshell. It seems that they believe if you run a business efficiently and ethically, profits and success will soon follow. This has certainly been the case in spite of all the money the company donates and gives back to the respective communities in which the businesses thrive. They use cause-related marketing to show consumers that what they are doing during the production of their product is helping reduce their impact on the environment. It is one thing to ââ¬Å"greenwashâ⬠and act as if the company really values these environmental issues, but according to this article Ben Jerryââ¬â¢s Homemade has really taken these issues to heart. The second part of the article focuses on the tender offers made to purchase Ben Jerryââ¬â¢s Homemade. The article describes four main players in the potential purchase of the ice cream company. Included are Dreyerââ¬â¢s-Grand, Unilever, Meadowbrook Lane Capital and Chartwell Investments. Althought the article does not say if any of these proposed deals panned out, it did go into detail about some of the numbers in the deals. At the time of the offers Ben Jerryââ¬â¢s Homemade was selling for about $21/share. Offers ranged from a $31/share stock purchase to a $36/share cash buyout, both well over the $21/share that the shares were selling for before the offer announcement. We are left with a scene of Henry Morgan, a member of the board of Ben Jerryââ¬â¢s Homemade, during his flight to Vermont for a board meeting to discuss the future of the company. In the meeting the board of directors would undoubtedly decide the fate of the independent company and try to figure out if accepting one of these offers would in fact create shareholder value which the company had not previously been doing according to their average return on shareholderââ¬â¢s equity.
Wednesday, February 19, 2020
Speech Recognition Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words
Speech Recognition - Essay Example Normal human interaction is verbal and nonverbal (facial expressions). A logical progression in computer technology should be a move away from keyboard and mouse interaction and toward verbal or facial recognition technology. Biotechnology already exists in the form of fingerprint recognition and speech recognition programs. Fingerprint recognition simply plots three points of a fingerprint and gives it a numerical equivalent. Many school systems use fingerprint recognition programs to speed up their lunch lines. Students simply put their thumb on the reader, their print is recognized, and their account is charged for the lunch. In 1965 Gordon Moore made a prediction that computer technology would double about every two years. Specifically, Moore predicted that the number of transistors on a chip would double every two years and that chip size would gradually become smaller. More capacity would open up the possibility to run more and more complex programs. The increased capacity was achieved by each chip having the ability to hold more and more transistors over time. Moore's law is very important because the computer technology of the 1960's would need to increase capacity to handle programs such as speech recognition and facial recognition programs. ... Moore's law has held true. Chip technology has doubled capacity at approximately two year intervals since 1970. Intel's Duel Core Itanium 2 Processor holds approximately 1,000,000,000 transistors compared to the 8088 processor of the 70's which held approximately 15,000 transistors. Speech Recognition A keyboard/mouse interface with computer systems is a design that followed the logical progression from typewriters to computer based word-processing programs. But, this interface does not replicate how people communicate with one another. Natural communication is verbal and includes facial recognition as well. As computers have become integrated into just about every sector of society their uses have become more varied (away from simple word-processing). It is only logical that interfaces should change and evolve as well. Speech recognition technology moves users away from keyboard/mouse interfaces and toward an interface that is more natural for the user. A speech recognition program includes both synthesizers and recognizers. These two devices replicate human interaction by taking human speech and turning it into text (recognizer) and taking text and turning it into speech (synthesizer). Anyone who has used computerized telephone answering services knows that, although recognizable as speech, computers do not do an adequate job of replicating tones of voice or accents found in normal speech patterns. The most up to date speech recognition program on the market is Window's Vista. Intel technologists are working on an AVSR (Audio Visual Speech Recognition) program that will upgrade technology that exists in the form of an audio visual interaction program. Technological advances, such as speech recognition technology, will allow
Tuesday, February 4, 2020
Gender Inequality Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words
Gender Inequality - Research Paper Example This report stresses that there is statistical evidence regarding the roles of men and women in society. Men are paid better than women for the same services. Women possess less properties, physical assets, financial resources, and are not equal to men in education and technology usage. They word harder than men but it cannot be economically proved as they donââ¬â¢t get rewarded for that. Women are not independent in making decisions whether at home or the community they belong to. Cultural traditions and assumptions come in the way of treating women equally to men. They carry higher risk to violence and rape than men. Gender inequality is inherent in society as it is based on cultural beliefs, societal attitudes, power and independence. This essay makes a conclusion that the media watch-dogs should keep an eye on finding and checking gender stereotypes and partial attitude towards women. They should observe that regulation and standards are adhered to by speaking non-sexist language. Gender issues should be included in the production and use of media so that gender stereotypes no more remain a roadblock in the partnering of men and women in all aspects of life. It is a human rights responsibility also to eradicate negative gender behavior and attitude from all walks of life. Media and advertisement organizations need to be transparent in their policies if they are keen on discouraging gender based discrimination through policy initiatives, and increase their credibility rating. Only media can be the best platform to be used as a tool in empowering gender equality, which will result in economic and social growth.
Monday, January 27, 2020
Case Study Tapal Tea (Private) Limited
Case Study Tapal Tea (Private) Limited Pakistan was the second largest tea importer of the world after England. Almost all the tea consumed in Pakistan is imported. Tea is popular beverage in both Urban and rural areas of Pakistan. The total retail market of black tea was estimated at 140,000 tons i.e. Rs. 35 billion in 2001. The retail market of tea is growing at rate of 2.6 % annually. 95 % of tea imported from Kenya comprised of leaf tea and dust tea. In Pakistan consumption of tea in urban areas is 40% while 60% contributed by rural area . Tea is sold in two categories of branded and unbranded packages. Branded tea constituted 55% and unbranded has 45% market share. Industry Competition: In Pakistan, Unilever is market leader with 60% share while Tapal has 26% share and the remaining 14% includes small players such as Kohinoor,vital,isphaani. UNILEVER-The Market Leader: Unilever is major competitor of Tapal, under taken several marketing mix activities to enhance their product sales of Lipton Yellow Label Brooke Bond Supreme brands. Unilever introduced 500-grams packaging to cater demand from tea stalls. They also made changes in Lipton logo. From pricing point of view Unilever revised prices from time to time to time due to various changes in micro and macro environment. For distribution Unilever has 6 regions with 526 distributors nationwide. They also support some of the weak distributors by giving them three-wheeler by investing Rs 5 millions to improve their performance. Introduction of Tapal tea Tapal was the largest Pakistani owned tea company in the country founded by AdamAli Tapal as a family concern in 1947 at Jodia bazaar in Karachi. Initially they started from an unbranded tea to cater tea stall and restaurant in Karachi. This unique brand named as FAMILY MIXTURE soon becomes the largest selling brand in the tea market. Tapal is supposed to be pioneer in number of development in tea industry of Pakistan which includes new category of DENEDAR tea ,introduction of high quality tea from Kenya, ISO 9002 quality certification, soft tea packs and metal free bags in Pakistan. Brands owned by Tapal: Tapal Chai Family Mixture Danedar Leaf Blend Chenak Dust Mezban Super Dust Gulbahar Green Tea Tapal Special Teabags Safari PF Marketing Sales promotion Activities by Tapal: In order to increase and retain the market share of Tapal in tea industry, Tapal applied number of marketing mix strategies to improve their sales in period 0f 1998-2001. Tapal changed packaging of its leading brand, Tapal DENEDAR to revamp the brand image and to fight with other counterfeit brands , they also launched the sachet packs. Tapal revised prices about four to five times in the given period of time to stay competitive with other brands. During the period of 1998-2001 Tapal spent 1.75% of its annual retail sales on advertising promotion. They also took over some ATL and BTL activities .with the help of print and electronic media Tapal promotes new logo Tapal- Makes Tea Time Terrific. Sales Management: Tapal sales territories were divided on the geographical basis. The whole market is divided into two regions Northand South both are independent of each other. Northern region included Punjab and Khyber Pukhtonkha while the southern region consisted of Sindh and Baluchistan. Northern town has 6 zones which are further divided into 23 territories. Southern region has 6 zone having 17 territories. A territory executive assigned to each territory. Total distributors in Pakistan are 400, 203 in northern region and 197 in southern region. SELECTION CRITERIA The territory executive needed to be a permanent resident of the area assigned and should have 2-3 yrs of selling experience along a minimum graduation degree. Hiring of territory executives was done at regional level with the final approval from the Head Office (Karachi). Ãâà SETTING SALES QUOTA/TARGET The market gap was analyzed at the first hand for setting sales target for the territory. Then the actual sales of Tapal, Unilever and others in the previous year were added up to determine the market size. The competitor sales were estimated through market intelligence from competitor`s distributors. The sales forecast is given by the distributors which are then assessed by the territory executives who submit the revised estimates to Zonal Managers. It is then approved at the final level by the Regional Managers. The annual quota is communicated to the territory executives and distributors by the second week of July each year. Problems Issues faced by Northern Region of TAPAL: Declining sales Negative variations in sales quotas assigned to territories. Rising selling expense Number of distributors are not appropriate with population size and no of outlets Unbranded tea suppliers are not considered by Tapal Zonal Managers. Zonal managers had set too optimistic targets for territory managers that are not realistic. Zonal mangers were unable to assess and improve the performance of territory managers. Zonal managers had not appropriately planned sales territories. Zonal managers were unable to add no. of distributors to cover the wider area they are just working with current distributors and increasing the no. of retail outlets. From exhibit 9, we can sort out that out of 23territory executives just 1 is showing excellent performance, however 8 executives are showing poor performance and 8 are just fairly performing their jobs. From exhibit 10 we can see that the company was too optimistic and it set its target sales too high as compared to previous year in all territories specially in Rawalpindi II (of about 354% increase in sales target), Sarghoda 260% increase Faisalabad 59.2% increase Recommendations to Overcome Problems: Zonal manager should consider unbranded tea products while focusing on MARKET Gap. When distributors give their sales forecast to territory executive, they must also concern with the problems faced by the distributors and try to solve them as Lipton helps their weak distributors by three wheelers. Clearly define the territory boundaries to Eliminate cross area sales problems. And take strict action on it. Company should cut-down unnecessary distributors to reduce selling expense, and increase new distributors where there is a market gap. Reduced the basic salary structure and Increase the incentive system so as the sales force motivate to achieve targets. Sales Quotas must be realistic and attainable in consideration with market potential. Zonal manager make teams of territory executives having good and excellent performance with executive showing poor performance so as poor one can learn the tactics to be successful.
Sunday, January 19, 2020
Argumentative Essay Against the Computer Society
It is hard to imagine a life without the internet and the computer. Most people in our modern western society use the computer every day in work, school and as a means of recreation. The computer has Change our every day lives drasticly. We now exchange information faster than ever before and anything we want to know is out there for us to fetch with only a click. But is the computer and the internet really to our advantage? I think not. I think that there are more disadvantages with the computer than most people might see. I think that the world would be a much better place without computers. We have never had so little human interaction as before. Yes, the internet is good for keeping in contact with friends and relatives, but we have to ask ourselves what happened to personal interaction. It is said that between 60 and 70 percent of what we interpret when we are talking to someone is through their body language. We learn very little about each other from the sterile type of talking in front of our computer screens. Humans are social beings and we need to be around people a lot more than what we are when we only spend our time together in cyber space. Being on Facebook and other community-pages will also make us think that we know people by seeing their pictures and reading their status updates. When we meet them we have a set interpretation of the person even though we might not have met them in years. We think that we know all about a person when we only know what they want us to know. This means that people never really get to know each other from experiences they have shared. We have never been this stressed ever. Before the age of computers, we could stop worrying about work as soon as we got home in the afternoon. Nowadays, as soon as we come home and have a chance to relax, we check our email accounts and maybe finish up some things we didnââ¬â¢t have time for at the office. The internet is also very distracting, which can be an obstruction in work, causing stress when the work piles up. We are never disconnected from work or school, we know that there is always a way for work to hunt us down and we know that not checking our email for letters from our boss or another co-worker is frowned upon or seen as irresponsible. Stress is a great reason to why people have heart diseases, digestive problems, are depressed and have trouble sleeping like never before. Alcohol is no longer the only drug being used as a means of relaxation. Marijuana and other drugs are also becoming more tolerated and common within society. I believe that the level of stress that we are exposed to every day is a trigger for drug and alcohol abuse. Stress isnââ¬â¢t the only reason why always being connected to the internet is unhealthy and dangerous. Our body is made for physical work. We are supposed to be using our bodies for hunting and other sorts of physical work. We are supposed to be able to run from larger predators and go up a hill without breathing heavily. But most people these days wouldnââ¬â¢t be able to manage this. We spend our whole day sitting in front a computer and when we're not, we sit by the dinner table, in class or in front of the television. Our bodies arenââ¬â¢t working as they should, on top of this; we eat a lot of greasy, processed food. There is no coincidence that obesity is now an epidemic disease in the western world. Worldwide obesity has more than doubled since 1980. In 2008 1,5 billion people were overweight and 65% of the world's population live in countries where overweight and obesity kills more people than underweight. Obesity can trigger heart diseases, cancer, strokes and many other illnesses. The absolute freedom of press on the internet is seen by something good and something that helps democracy that we should encourage. But when there are no rules or regulations about what people may write on the internet, and who is to view what is said on forums, blogs etc. things that are demoralizing and directly damaging will be said. Most children nowadays have access to pornographic material, gambling sites, pro-anorexia forums, pedophiles and harmful propaganda of all sorts. And there is no way for parents to know what their children are up to once they have clicked the ââ¬Ëdelete' button in the history archive of the computer. And itââ¬â¢s not only the children who are at risk when using the internet. We now move almost all of our banking and communicating to the internet which means that if we arenââ¬â¢t careful, someone might be reading our emails, or hacking our bank accounts. The reason why we should re-evaluate all this time spending on the internet and by the computer is first of all because we have to socialize more face-to-face with the people we love and cherish. Secondly because it is very stressful to always be accessible through the internet. The third reason is because moving is a vital part of the human health and obesity is a growing epidemic and finally because we are always exposed to a risk when going online.
Friday, January 10, 2020
Bring Safe Drinking Water to the World Essay
Lack of clean water for drinking affect many people in every continent. Around one-fifth of the population in the world stays in areas of physical scarcity while five hundred million people are said to be approaching this situation. This problem is more serious in Africa than in any other continent. Lack of safe water for drinking is explored in the accompanying paper. In this paper, results of lack of clean drinking water in Africa is assessed more so in Sub-Saharan Africa. This paper also explores the impact of water scarcity on stability of Africa and the World. It further evaluates how United Nations have helped solve the problem and ways in which developing countries can ensure they have adequate clean water. Lack of safe water for drinking is a one of the leading problem in the world. It has an impact on over 1.1 billion people all over the world. Safe drinking water is defined by World health Organization, United Nations Childrenââ¬â¢s Fund and Joint Monitoring Program for Water Supply and Sanitation as water that has microbial, physical and chemical characteristics that meet the guidelines of National standard on quality of drinking water (Campbell, Caldwell, Hopkins, Heaney, Wing, Wilson, et al. 2013). Lack of safe drinking water is looked through a population to water equation treated by hydrologists as 7,700 cubic meters per person. This is the threshold for meeting water requirement for every industrial, agricultural production and the environment. It is said that a threshold of less than 1,000 cubic meters of water represent water scarcity and below 500 cubic meters of water represent a state of absolute scarcity. Inadequate safe drinking water is a major challenge to many countries. It is a major problem for developing countries that are racing forward towards physical limits of expansion of fresh water, expanding urban settlement, commercialization of agriculture and industrial sectors. Fresh water is a crucial resource in development of Africa. It is said that Africa continent has a population of 800 million people. 405 of the total population in Africa lack access to safe drinking water. It is argued that half of people living in rural areas of safe drinking water. It is reported that Sub-Saharan Africa has more water stress than other parts of the world. Sub-Saharan Africa has a population of over 320 million people have no access to quality water. It is said to be the only region in the world that will not be able to meet the 2015 millennium development goal. In 2012, a Conference on ââ¬Ëââ¬â¢Water Scarcity in Africa: issues and Challengesâ⬠was presented with information that by 2030, 255 million to 760 millions in Africa will be staying in areas with high water stress (Barone, 2008). Scarcity of safe drinking water has lead to poor heal in Sub-Saharan Africa. People in water deprived areas use unsafe water that causes spread of waterborne diseases such as cholera, diarrhea, typhoid fever, malaria, trachoma, typhus and plague. Scarcity of safe water forces people to respond by storing water in their households. This further increases chances of water contamination and spread of malaria due to mosquitoes. Infected people with waterborne diseases reduce chances of community development and productivity due to lack of strength. Government resources are used to buy medicine for these people. This takes away funds meant for food supply, school fees and other development projects. It is estimated by Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council that treatment of diarrhea caused by water contamination in Sub-Saharan Africa takes away 12% of countriesââ¬â¢ health budget. Government in the areas channels their energy and part of fund allocated for other expenditures to helping people affected by lack of water at the expense of other essential services like maintaining peace and security in the region. Human Development report suggests that use of water by human is mainly on agriculture and irrigation. In Sub-Saharan Africa, agricultural activities account from over 80% of the total water consumption. Majority of people in this region depend on agriculture. In rural areas, 90% of families rely on producing their own food hence water scarcity leads to loss of food security. Conflict arises in this region due to political interferences in irrigated land due to land tenure and ownership problems. Governments in this part of the world lack funds and skilled human resources that can support technology and infrastructure needed for good water management and crop irrigation. Scarcity of safe water makes people use waste water for irrigation. This makes a lot of people to eat food with disease causing organisms. Women in this part of the world are burdened by lack of clean water for drinking. They are the collectors, managers as well as guardian of water in domestic spheres which include household chores such as washing, child rearing and cooking. They spend a considerable amount of time fetching water (Dreibelbis, Winch, Leontsini, Hulland, Ram, Unicomb, et al., 2013). This causes a decrease in the time available for education. Their health is also at risk of skeletal damage caused by carrying heavy loads of water every day over long distances. Loss of potential school days and education prevents the next generation of women from holding professional employments. Access to safe water for drinking will make women in Sub-Saharan Africa increase time allocated to education which will make them take leadership positions. Scarcity of water makes many children in this region drop out of school to help in household chores which are made more intense by lack of water. Increase in population in Africa and lack of safe water for drinking has caused a lot of strain and conflict on relations between communities and between countries.It has been argued that Nile River is a source of conflict in nine countries. Water fro Nile River is the only source of sustaining life in both Sudan and Egypt. Egyptians use military force to make sure they retain control over Nile River because she has no other source of water. This conflict runs from the colonial era when England textile factories depended on Sudan and Egypt agricultural activities. After the colonial era, Egypt continued to create political instability in Ethiopia. It blocked international financing agencies from giving loans to Ethiopia in order to finance projects on the river. The conflict is now real because Ethiopia has now managed to carry out water projects on her own like building hydro-power dams and irrigation programs. Egypt has been reported to issue threats of war to Tanzania and Ethiopia. In 1970s, Egypt armed Somalia separatist rebels in Ethiopia in the Somali invasion. The nine involved states have had agreements and treaties in a bid to control conflict. However, treaties and agreements have resulted to inequitable rights of using water from Nile River between countries. An example is a treaty between Great Britain and Ethiopia, Emperor Menelik II, king of kings of Ethiopia. He agreed with the government of His Britannic Majesty not to construct or permit construction projects across Blue Nile, the Sobat and Lake Tana in 1902. In 1906, an agreement between Britain and Government of Independent state of Congo would not construct or permit any construction of projects over or near Semliki or Isango rivet that would reduce the amount of water entering Lake Albert. In 1925, conflict between Egypt and Ethiopia escalated because Ethiopia opposed earlier agreements (Dreibelbis et al., 2013). The League of Nations demanded Italy and British government give an explanation on sovereignty of Ethiopia on Lake Tana. The League of Nations did not help resolve the conflict because there was no self enforcing and reliable mechanism to protect the property rights of stakeholders which is necessary for international water development to be applied. Due to failure of United Nations to help solve the Nile basin conflict, nine riparian states formed a partnership called Nile Basin Initiative. Its mandate is to develop Nile River in a cooperative way, sharing social-economic benefits that promote regional security and peace. World Bank agreed to support the work of Nile Basin Initiative as a development partner as well as an administrator of multi donor Nile Basin Trust Fund. Disputes have also erupted in Niger River Basin. Disagreements and disputes in this basin are caused by limited access to safe drinking water. The disputes are between communities in Mali, Nigeria, and Niger. River flows and rainfall have reduced from 1970s leading to tension between two communities that live in the basin. The two communities are pastoralists and farmers. Pastoralists are forced by lack of water to travel farther with their herds. On the other hand, farmers expand their cropland to take care of increasing population. This reduces pathways that are available to herder and their livestock. Tension increased due to poor policy decisions. In Lokoga in Nigeria, government started dredging Niger River in early 2009 to increase commercial shipping (Huang, Jacangelo & Schwab, 2011). The government of Nigeria argued that dredging would help reduce flooding but late farmer suffered from floods in 2010. Farmers resulted to building homes and cultivating land away from the river leading to reduction in land available for grazing. This has facilitated conflict between the two communities greatly. New dams rose built by the government of Nigeria raised ecological issues that provoked hard negotiations over sharing of resources equitably in Niger Basin (Loftus, 2009). It was reported that Mali and Niger did not support construction of dams across the river. Navigation of the river was also constrained by the availability of large boats when water is deep enough. Climate change in Niger Basin has caused a high degree of variability in river flows, rainfall and temperature. The international community is doing little in helping the conflicting countries in the Niger Basin resolve the conflict. Scarcity of safe drinking water has also led to a lot of competition in Volta River basin. Volter River basin is said to be one of the poorest part in Africa continent and is shared by six West African states. People in the basin depend on agriculture as their means of livelihood. The population in West Africa is growing at the rate of 3% thus putting pressure on water resources and land. Burkina Faso is increasing agricultural development upstream using surface resources such as water (Okun, 1991). Water development in Burkina Faso has had a negative impact on Akosombo Dam which Ghana depends on for its energy supply. In 1998, low water level caused energy crisis in Ghana which ended up blaming Burkina Faso water project. Low water levels could have been caused by other factors such as unreliable rainfall variability. Peaceful conflict resolutions could be hindered in the future by insufficient communication between Ghana and Burkina Faso (Ram, Kelsey, Miarintsoa, Rakotomalala, Duns ton, & Quick, 2007). Ghana wants to create dams for power generation while Burkina Faso plans to use water for irrigation hence causing conflicts of interest. This conflict received international community recognition which formed a major inter-governmental program to enhance regional cooperation. Green cross water for peace project was put in place to ensure full and also active involvement of representatives of civil societies across the region in generation of basinââ¬â¢s agreement, management policies and principles. Developing countries can learn form developed countries on how to have adequate water supply and sanitation facilities, management of floods, pollution, management of rivers and large dams. Ram et al. (2007) argues that good governance can help address the lack of safe drinking water. He further argues that good governance is essential in procuring loans and aid for water projects form international organizations like world bank, International Monetary Fund, Africa Development bank and from developed countries like Britain, Germany, china, France, united Sates of America and Russia (Rosenberg, 2010). An example of a country that applied good governance to address water problem is South Africa. After Apartheid, the government of South Africa inherited huge problems of access to safe drinking water. It had a population of over 15 million people lacked access to clean water. The government managed to commit itself to high standards and investment subsidies to achieve its goal. From that time South Africa has made good progress to a point where it reached the universal access to improved water source in its urban centers. Similarly, the percentage of people in rural areas with access to clean water increased from sixty six percent to seventy nine percent from 1991 to 2010 (Loftus, 2009). Good governance will help government in developing countries partner with institutions that will help turn all underperforming utilities into good service providers. They would also benefit from the expertise in local, national and international sectors. Research has shown that it is difficult to change processes in water sectors. There has been friction between stakeholder and partners in determining priorities. This led to ambiguities in the role and responsibilities allocation resulting to the high cost of transaction. Just like in developed countries, good governance in developing countries will enable providers and policymakers are accountable to water users. This assists in improving services and enhancing consumer understanding the need for changes and the possible contribution of public private partnership (Ram et al., 2007). Great relationship with international financial institutions will enable developed countries have an adequate supply of safe water. World Bank is known to finance building of infrastructure such as funds to dig boreholes. It usually subsidizes the cost of infrastructure through inter-governmental transfers, donor projects and social development funds (Okun, 1991). Developing countries should consider the use of use Decentralized Mebran Filtration system. This technology provides safe drinking water that is clean. This system employs effective ways of removing surrogate bacteria and parasites from drinking water hat is responsible for contamination of water. This method is affordable to low income countries. Decentralized Mebran Filtration system is appropriate where central municipal water treatment is not possible. It aims to apply integrated bench scale and field scale approach in evaluating sustainability of Decentralized Mebran Filtration system in providing safe drinking water (Huang et al., 2011). Another possible solution is applying desalinization technology. This technology is said to filter salty water through membranes and removing salt through a process of electro dialysis and the reverse osmosis. The technology has worked in over one hundred and thirty countries in Middle East and in North Africa. With this technology, countries that are currently using it produce over six billion gallons of safe drinking water a day. Recycling and filtration should also be encouraged because the two methods are easy and cheap. Conserving water can also be achieved on a smaller scale beginning with improvement in homes (EMD, 2009). Developed countries should explore and exploit underground water. A country like Kenya and Namibia has discovered a 10,000 year old supply of water in underground aquifers. This underground water can satisfy the needs of Namibia for over four hundred years. Researchers argue that throughout Africa, there is twenty times more underground water than volume of surface water. The population of Africa is expected to increase to over two billion in 2050. This implies that countries need to explore other sources of water since traditional sources of fresh water are affected by changes in climate, lack of rainfall and rises in temperature that evaporate lakes and rivers. Other methods that developing countries should encourage their citizens to use include boiling water. It is an efficient method of water sterilization though boiling is costly in terms of fuel use. Another method is solar disinfection by use of ultraviolet radiation. This method is cheap and less damaging. It involves putting water in transparent plastic bottles and exposing it to sunlight for about forty eight hours. This technology cost people nothing by only plastic bottles full of water on corrugated metal roof. Low income countries should also start water projects like water dams and rain catchment systems. These methods are simple and inexpensive. A well close to a village or in a village ensures people do not walk long distances in search of water. It saves time hence making sure there is enough time allocated for other things like learning (Barone, 2008). Campbell et al. (2013) argues that integrated research can help countries achieve adequate supply of safe water for drinking. He attributes the lack of water to fear and inadequate reorganization by communities. He points out that global research can help solve the problem of water scarcity and proper sanitation. This implies that United Nations should put more effort in bringing solutions to water problems. African countries can achieve adequate supply of clean water if they invest in integrated research and funding. They should also put in place policies and infrastructures that attract foreign investments from developed countries such as United States of America, France, China and Russia. Lack of safe water for drinking is a global problem. It affects both developed countries as well as developing countries. United Nations should look for ways to deal with water scarcity and amicable ways of resolving political instabilities resulting from water stress. Developing countries should learn from developed countries on the most appropriate ways of providing clean water. They should maintain good governance and a good environment that can attract foreign investors as well as donors. Through collective effort from all stakeholders, the problem of water can be solved. References Barone, J. (2008). Better Water. Discovery, 29(5), 31-32. Campbell, R. L., Caldwell, D., Hopkins, B., Heaney, C. D., Wing, S., Wilson, S. M., et al. (2013). Integrating Research and Community Organizing to Address Water and Sanitation Concerns in a Community Bordering a Landfill. Journal of Environmental Health, 75(10), 48-50. Dreibelbis, R., Winch, P. J., Leontsini, E., Hulland, K. R., Ram, P. K., Unicomb, L., et al. (2013). The Integrated Behavioural Model for Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene: a systematic review of behavioural models and a framework for designing and evaluating behaviour change interventions in infrastructure-restricted settings. BMC Public Health, 13(1), 1015. EMD Millipore (2013, September 23). EMD Millipore Donates $30,000 to Charity: Water in Recognition of World Water Week. Pharma Business Week, p. 22. Huang, H., Jacangelo, J. G., & Schwab, K. J. (2011). Decentralized Membrane Filtration System for Sustainable and Safe Drinking Water Supply in Low-Income Countries: Baseline Study. Journal of Environmental Engineering, 137(11), 981-989. Loftus, A. (2009). Rethinking Political Ecologies of Water. Third World Quarterly, 30(5), 953-968. Okun, D. A. (1991). A Water and Sanitation Strategy for the Developing World. Environment: Science and Policy for Sustainable Development, 33(8), 16-43. Ram, P. K., Kelsey, E., Miarintsoa, R. R., Rakotomalala, O., Dunston, C., & Quick, R. E. (2007). Bringing Safe Water to Remote Populations: An Evaluation of a Portable Point-of-Use Intervention in Rural Madagascar. American Journal of Public Health, 97(3), 398-400. Rosenberg, T. (2010). The burden of thirst. Washington, D.C.: National Geographic Magazine. Source document
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