Recently I was privileged to meet with a delegation from three African nations, Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso and Mali. What is so encouraging is that each of these supposedly “Third World” countries possesses significant raw materials to build an infrastructure from scratch the way it ought to be done, and thus set an example for the rest of the world.
A hospital in Ivory Coast, for example, has a waste-to-energy plasma plant attached, and the buildings are all solar equipped, while the country’s water system has been designed in a total closed loop. Residential and industrial segments can also be tightly interwoven. All-told, it represents a unique and remarkable opportunity to foster development in an energy-efficient, cost-effective and people-serving manner.
The most impressive part about this group is that it has spent 16 years in planning and researching such visionary projects. The fun part for me is that I may be able to observe the development of their waste and recycling facilities through the window of Greenopolis.
