Gaviotas

by Alan Weisman

In 1971, a group of Colombian visionaries and technicians, reasoning that surging populations must someday learn to inhabit even the world's harshest regions, decided to prove they could thrive in one of the most brutal environments on earth: their country's barren, rain-leached eastern savannas. For nearly three decades the scientists, artisans, rural peasants, ex-urban street kids, and Guahibo Indians living in the village called Gaviotas have elevated phrases like sustainable development and appropriate technology from cliche to reality. Sixteen hours from the nearest major city, they invented windmills light enough to convert mild tropical breezes into energy, solar collectors that work in the rain, soil-free systems to raise edible and medicinal crops, solar "kettles" to sterilize drinking water, and ultra-efficient pumps to tap deep aquifers - pumps so easy to operate, they're hooked up to childrens' seesaws. The United Nations named the village a model for the developing world.