When the women choose to walk.

• Position: Social opportunities of getting well water - World Decade for Cultural Development, 1988-1997

A well is drilled in an African village. The first few days, women line up excitedly before the new well. There's a joyous atmosphere in the village. Photos of wet hands and happy faces are taken, images to be used for years to come in development magazines and in annual reports of far-away aid foundations.

A week later, the party is, literally, over. The village women refuse to use the new well and are seen trekking back to their old water hole, two hours away by foot from their homes. What happened?

The long walk to the well was the only opportunity the women had to be by themselves, their only moment to communicate. At the old well, they also met women from nearby villages. The brand new well in the village saved time but destroyed their social life-in fact, it wiped out what may well have been their only leisure time.

The women quickly realized this. They also realized that the time saved by using the new well was immediately usurped by new domestic burdens which they would not have had if they continued using the old well.

"To take account of the cultural dimension of development means assessing how it will change the quality of life of people, as people themselves see it", says Decade Secretary Basile Kossou.

It is not a question of quantity -how many wells have been drilled and how many thousands of women benefit from not having to walk. Because, maybe, they do want to walk.

A technology should not simply be adopted because it saves time and effort, Mr. Kossou says. What people do with that extra time and energy must be taken into account. Will that time be used in idleness or in social isolation, or for creative leisure and education? In other words, the question is whether the time saved is going to be used in a way that will enhance the quality of life of the person-as that person sees it.

This is the kind of question that will be asked during the Decade. @@0078045339 1309Hya044FDFF

Most people in developing countries at times underestimate their own cultural values which are seen as "traditional" and primitive" compared to those of the developed societies.

We seem to value the creations of developing countries after they are incorporated in the North. Then the new elite group in the South starts seeing them as no longer primitive and traditional. It is a long way to go to assess one's own cultural identity.

One example of reevaluating indigenous culture is that ladies' dresses with...