5 Necessities Of Physical And Humane Infrastructure Needs!
Infrastructure has been defined as “the physical and human elements of interrelated systems serving a society, which allow social activities to occur”. The American Heritage Dictionary defines it as: “The basic equipment and structures providing the foundation for public utility and transport.”
This is vital because without the infrastructure we would lack the means to accomplish even the most basic tasks. A country without roads or railways would be unable to move people from one place to another. We wouldn’t have access to clean water or electricity, so we couldn’t cook our food, heat our homes in winter or cool them in summer. Our economy would collapse. if we attempted to survive off of the land itself, we would need to expend so much effort and energy moving around that we wouldn’t have enough time to gather food and shelter.
But infrastructure can be divided into two categories: physical and humane. Physical infrastructure includes roads, railways, bridges and other materials which allow us to move our products from one place to another. Humane infrastructure is intangible; it includes laws that ensure equitable distribution of resources like clean water and electricity. This paper will focus on five necessities of physical and humane infrastructure needs.
Every country has a responsibility to its people, but currently, not all countries are fulfilling this duty equally. Only 33% of people in Sub-Saharan Africa have access to an improved source of drinking water, compared to 93% of people in North America (World Health Organization n.d.). An improved source is defined as one which “by nature of its construction, ensures contaminated water will not enter the system” (World Health Organization n.d.). This means that even if clean water sources exist within Africa, there are significant barriers preventing people from accessing them. Sometimes these barriers are physical, like steep terrain or harsh climates which make it difficult to transport water to where it’s needed; but often they’re also monetary. Even if there is fresh water available, many people cannot afford the pumps and hoses necessary for collecting and distributing the water.
It has been shown that countries with better access to improved drinking water sources have a much lower incidence of water-borne diseases, so it’s important to ensure that everyone has access to clean drinking water. This means improving both the physical infrastructure which allows people to collect and transport water as well as humane infrastructure which ensures equitable distribution of existing water supplies.
Transportation is required for every aspect of our day-to-day lives. We need transportation to get from place to place, whether we’re going to work or running errands after dinner. Many forms of physical and humane infrastructure depend on the ability of a country’s population to travel among various locations efficiently and safely. Transportation also allows people in rural areas who don’t produce any food themselves to buy fresh produce from local farmers. Without infrastructure, goods would be limited to the resources available in a person’s immediate area.
This means that transportation is vital for encouraging economic growth and development. The Brookings Institution found that “transportation costs eat up an average of 10 percent to 20 percent of sales” in Sub-Saharan African countries, compared to only 5% in industrialized nations. According to a World Bank report, reducing transportation costs by even 1% could increase GDP in low-income countries between 0.5% and 1%. This means that making sure people can get from one place to another efficiently will have a significant impact on the prosperity of developing economies.
Of course, transportation infrastructure is also important for humanitarian reasons. People should be able to get food, water and medical supplies even if they live in an isolated area. This requires good humane infrastructure; it’s not enough to simply build roads and railways if people can’t afford the vehicles necessary to use them.
5. Education For All: Free Primary Education
Education is another necessary aspect of humane infrastructure. According to the United Nations’ Universal Declaration on Human Rights, all people have a right “to education” (1948). Without access to primary education, children don’t stand a chance of fulfilling their full human potential later in life. This hinders both their personal success and that of their community.
Education is also a prerequisite for effective democratic participation (World Bank, n.d.). Having access to education means being able to vote and being aware of issues in one’s community. This is an important factor in ensuring that governments represent the will of the people rather than acting with impunity, as has been seen in several Sub-Saharan African countries.
In order to have free primary education throughout the world, governments must ensure that their budgets reflect this priority. According to UNESCO, “The average [education] expenditure per pupil across low-income countries works out at US$52” per year. In low income Sub-Saharan African countries it was even lower: US$30 per student per year. This is several orders of magnitude less than the cost of high school education in the United States.
In addition, stricter standards for teacher training and accountability must be enforced to ensure that students receive a proper education. Improving primary education will improve the lives of children and their families while also fostering democratic participation and ensuring healthy economic growth in developing nations throughout Sub-Saharan Africa.
6. Food Security: Guaranteeing Access To Nutritious And Reliable Food Sources Worldwide For All People
Food security is another important issue that affects both physical and humane infrastructure needs around the world. The World Health Organization defines food security as “when all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to sufficient safe and nutritious food that meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life.
Without physical infrastructures like roads or railways, it becomes difficult to bring fresh produce from rural areas into cities where many people live. This increases the cost of transportation for farmers which in turn decreases the amount they can charge for their produce. It also makes getting basic grains prohibitively expensive for those living in poverty-stricken communities with no local sources of food.
Furthermore, without humane infrastructure making sure people can afford a source of income or work that pays a living wage is impossible. The United Nations Development Program found that hunger and malnutrition “affect about 553 million children under five years of age” and that these rates are likely to stay the same or get worse.
This is due in part to agricultural policies that favour large, commercial farms over small-scale local ones. For example, Sub-Saharan African countries such as Senegal see an average of 20% less income from farming than other countries in the region. This makes it difficult for low-income families in rural areas to make a living by producing their own food. Although it doesn’t address all aspects of food security, improving humane infrastructure would certainly help lessen the disparity between city and country life in developing nations around the world.
7. Sustainable Energy: Access To Reliable And Sustainable Energy Sources To Power Homes, Businesses, And Transportation
Access to reliable and sustainable energy sources is a crucial part of creating humane infrastructure. This means increasing the number of people with access to electricity as well as making sure that those who currently have access can rely on it for their needs.
In order to do this, governments must invest in public transportation systems that can take citizens from rural areas into cities where they have more opportunities for work and entertainment. In Sub-Saharan Africa, only 29% of the population lived in cities in 2015 (UN Data 2016). Only a small percentage of these people were connected to a power grid by their city’s power utility company.
Infrastructure has been defined as “the physical and human elements of interrelated systems serving a society, which allow social activities to occur”. The American Heritage Dictionary defines it as: “The basic equipment and structures providing the foundation for public utility and transport.” This is vital because without the infrastructure we would lack the means to…