Re:Polio Is on the Brink of Eradication
by troupo on Friday November 24, 2023 @02:57AM
(#38401577)
> Build, operate, and maintain wastewater treatment plants
You'd be surprised at how difficult this is in shitty countries.
First, wastewater plants are rather expensive. Maintaining them is also both expensive and required. And you don't get bonus points for doing the right thing.
My home city of Chişinău, Moldova has a population of about 800 000. The whole city stank of feces for almost two years (and districts close to the sewage treatment facility for much longer than that) because no one cared to maintain the old Soviet-built facility.
Only when you could smell (and almost taste) shit over 20km away, did they scramble to do something (ask for more money from IMF/EU, steal most of it, ask for more money, implement a patchwork solution that barely holds)
You'd be surprised at how difficult this is in shitty countries.
First, wastewater plants are rather expensive. Maintaining them is also both expensive and required. And you don't get bonus points for doing the right thing.
My home city of Chişinău, Moldova has a population of about 800 000. The whole city stank of feces for almost two years (and districts close to the sewage treatment facility for much longer than that) because no one cared to maintain the old Soviet-built facility.
Only when you could smell (and almost taste) shit over 20km away, did they scramble to do something (ask for more money from IMF/EU, steal most of it, ask for more money, implement a patchwork solution that barely holds)