The Editorial on Brazilian agriculture in today’s issue of The Economist ends by saying that “change will not come about by itself. Four decades ago, [Brazil] faced a farm crisis and responded with decisive boldness. The world is facing a slow-motion food crisis now. It should learn from Brazil”.
Brazil also realised it had an urban sanitation crisis on its hands some three decades ago and it responded with the equally bold development of simplified sewerage. We all know that the world is facing a slow-motion sanitation crisis, so it should learn from Brazil about this too. But will it?
About Me
- Duncan Mara
- University of Leeds, United Kingdom
- I'm an emeritus professor of civil engineering at the University of Leeds in England. I've been working on low-cost sanitation in developing countries since the mid-1970s, and also on low-cost wastewater treatment and reuse. I was a lecturer at the University of Nairobi, Kenya, 1970-73 and then a senior lecturer at the University of Dundee, Scotland, 1974-79 before moving to Leeds in late 1979. I was a visiting professor of sanitary engineering at the Universidade Federal da Paraiba in Campina Grande, northeast Brazil, during 1976-95, and since 1996 I have been a visiting professor of environmental engineering at the Instituto Cinara, Universidad del Valle in Cali, Colombia.