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I worked with appliance makers a lot, in Turkey, Bangladesh, and Pakistan. The cost of an automatic washing machine is closing on below $100 with mass manufact

I worked with appliance makers a lot, in Turkey, Bangladesh, and Pakistan. The cost of an automatic washing machine is closing on below $100 with mass manufacturing taken to its extremes. Think of it, a PVC tank with a handle for $20-$30, or a normal washing machine made by a profit making business for $100?

dashundchen 5y ago
I would imagine the manual powered machine is intended for areas where electricity or water hookups aren't necessarily reliable or even available.
- baybal2 5y ago
  What about those billion dollar NGOs not funding Bill Gates'es space toilet, or these expensive PVC tanks with handles, but actually trying to do just something on the ground like building a power station?
  - burkaman 5y ago
    Before posting a question like this, why not take a few seconds to see if any NGOs are working on expanding access to electricity? I think you'll find there are quite a few. And why work so hard to find a negative angle on this story? There's plenty of actual bad stuff happening in the world for you to criticize.
    - baybal2 5y ago
      I am abhorred at an enormous spend on many vanity projects by the "development community," and hipster NGOs. That's why. I keep repeating a line about Bill Gates'es space toilet exactly because of it being the most glaring example of that. For the money spent, Bill could've easily built like 200-300 sewage treatment plants.
      - burkaman 5y ago
        I understand you're upset about that, but it's not productive to take out your frustration on unrelated stories like this, and ultimately it probably won't make you feel better.
      - anonymousab 5y ago
        Sometimes the blockers are not purely money-based, and greasing palms can do more harm than good. And sometimes you run out of palms to grease.
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
burkaman 5y ago
These are being sent to refugee camps, where people don't have regular access to electricity or water (or $100).
- baybal2 5y ago
  A generator + second hand industrial washing machine will cost less than $1000 together, and will probably be enough to wash clothes of hundreds of people in a day. That's more usefulness than any of these space toilets NGOs splurge millions of bucks on.
  - burkaman 5y ago
    If you have a plan for a generator that can power washing machines for an entire refugee camp, plus the machines themselves, plus a supply chain to deliver fuel for the generator, plus a stable supply of water for the machines, plus plumbing to distribute water throughout the camp, plus electrical infrastructure for the camp, plus education and materials for residents to maintain and repair all of that, all for under $1000, I'm sure Oxfam would be very interested to hear it.
    - baybal2 5y ago
      I see it very simple, and my firsts ache to reach the face of a first person to shout "lets do SWOT analysis!" First, water must be coming to the camp some way, or another, or people would've been dead. Whether it's in tankers, or anything else. Second, just go, and buy a 2nd hand 1kva generator from eBay for $150-$200, and a cheapest owned 10-15kg washing machine. Spend the rest on few months of water in tankers, and fuel.
      - mschuster91 5y ago
        > First, water must be coming to the camp some way, or another, or people would've been dead. The water (and fwiw, also food, medicine, literally everything) coming into refugee camps is extremely, extremely rationed to a point where even in summer months, people have to get by with sometimes half a liter per day and person. Forget about showering, forget about washing clothes. The biggest single cause of the 2015 mass migration was that Germany withdrew its UNHCR funding from 301 million $ to 143 million $ (per https://www.heise.de/tp/features/EU-Staaten-hatten-2015-fast-durchweg-Hilfen-fuer-syrische-Fluechtlinge-gekuerzt-3375668.html https://www.heise.de/tp/features/EU-Staaten-hatten-2015-fast...). The result of that loss of a small amount of money was that suddenly hundreds of thousands of people lost access to food. With the current financing situations, the last thing refugee camps need is more to take account for in the supply chain.

dashundchen 5y ago

I would imagine the manual powered machine is intended for areas where electricity or water hookups aren't necessarily reliable or even available.

baybal2 5y ago
What about those billion dollar NGOs not funding Bill Gates'es space toilet, or these expensive PVC tanks with handles, but actually trying to do just something on the ground like building a power station?
- burkaman 5y ago
  Before posting a question like this, why not take a few seconds to see if any NGOs are working on expanding access to electricity? I think you'll find there are quite a few. And why work so hard to find a negative angle on this story? There's plenty of actual bad stuff happening in the world for you to criticize.
  - baybal2 5y ago
    I am abhorred at an enormous spend on many vanity projects by the "development community," and hipster NGOs. That's why. I keep repeating a line about Bill Gates'es space toilet exactly because of it being the most glaring example of that. For the money spent, Bill could've easily built like 200-300 sewage treatment plants.
    - burkaman 5y ago
      I understand you're upset about that, but it's not productive to take out your frustration on unrelated stories like this, and ultimately it probably won't make you feel better.
    - anonymousab 5y ago
      Sometimes the blockers are not purely money-based, and greasing palms can do more harm than good. And sometimes you run out of palms to grease.

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

burkaman 5y ago

These are being sent to refugee camps, where people don't have regular access to electricity or water (or $100).

baybal2 5y ago
A generator + second hand industrial washing machine will cost less than $1000 together, and will probably be enough to wash clothes of hundreds of people in a day. That's more usefulness than any of these space toilets NGOs splurge millions of bucks on.
- burkaman 5y ago
  If you have a plan for a generator that can power washing machines for an entire refugee camp, plus the machines themselves, plus a supply chain to deliver fuel for the generator, plus a stable supply of water for the machines, plus plumbing to distribute water throughout the camp, plus electrical infrastructure for the camp, plus education and materials for residents to maintain and repair all of that, all for under $1000, I'm sure Oxfam would be very interested to hear it.
  - baybal2 5y ago
    I see it very simple, and my firsts ache to reach the face of a first person to shout "lets do SWOT analysis!" First, water must be coming to the camp some way, or another, or people would've been dead. Whether it's in tankers, or anything else. Second, just go, and buy a 2nd hand 1kva generator from eBay for $150-$200, and a cheapest owned 10-15kg washing machine. Spend the rest on few months of water in tankers, and fuel.
    - mschuster91 5y ago
      > First, water must be coming to the camp some way, or another, or people would've been dead. The water (and fwiw, also food, medicine, literally everything) coming into refugee camps is extremely, extremely rationed to a point where even in summer months, people have to get by with sometimes half a liter per day and person. Forget about showering, forget about washing clothes. The biggest single cause of the 2015 mass migration was that Germany withdrew its UNHCR funding from 301 million $ to 143 million $ (per https://www.heise.de/tp/features/EU-Staaten-hatten-2015-fast-durchweg-Hilfen-fuer-syrische-Fluechtlinge-gekuerzt-3375668.html https://www.heise.de/tp/features/EU-Staaten-hatten-2015-fast...). The result of that loss of a small amount of money was that suddenly hundreds of thousands of people lost access to food. With the current financing situations, the last thing refugee camps need is more to take account for in the supply chain.