A reduction in these high costs, by means of adjusted dwelling standards,
appropriate technology and self-help, is indeed being advocated throughout the
world but meets with considerable resistance in practice. Thus, for example, in
many developing countries, there are formal standards of land development and
building which are geared to those of industrial countries or have been adopted
from them without modification. It is therefore possible that in site-and-service
projects, for example, the individual sewer connections with the building plots
are over-sized and much too expensive, because the relevant development norm is
the same as for building plots in the USA, where it was designed for several households
with washing machines, dishwashers and the like.