CAIRO: Paper, food, cotton balls, and glass bottles fill the allies of Garbage City (known as the Zabaleen community). Waves of flies cover the waste.
The stench is overpowering and, in the summer heat, difficult to endure.
Streets are unpaved, and buildings seem under construction. Poverty strikes every corner.
Yet the residents have reason to be hopeful. Thomas Culhane, a graduate of Harvard University, began the Solar Cities project in Garbage City and its neighboring area, Darb Al-Ahmar in October 2007. The mission is “Connecting Community Catalysts Integrating Technologies for Industrial Ecology Systems. The aim is to teach residents of poverty stricken areas such as Garbage City to build solar-powered water heaters using recycled items.
“Solar energy is a way out of poverty, a way to get into harmony with nature and find our comfort and dignity by being able to take care of our own needs, said Culhane.
Culhane came to Egypt in 2003 as a Harvard foreign exchange student at the American University in Cairo. He was concerned with the underdeveloped regions of the country, and wanted to find ways to make a change. He enlisted the help of USAID and young coordinators such as Hana Fathy from the Garbage City and Mahmoud Dardir from the neighboring Darb Al-Ahmar.
Culhane began teaching residents of both areas how to build and maintain the heaters. Currently there are 12 heaters in Garbage City and four in Darb Al-Ahmar. Solar Cities aims to have 30 such heaters up by October 2008.
“Everyday electricity and petrol gets more expensive, so places like this won’t be able to afford energy, said Fathy, an agricultural engineer from Ain Shams University. “This project will allow people to keep up with the fast-paced world around them.
The solar water heaters are made of copper pipes, styrofoam and aluminum covered in plastic. They can hold up to 200 liters of water. The tanks cost $2,000 each to make.
Culhane recommended a visit to a home in Mansheyet Nasser, at the entrance to Muqattam where the project was successful and where they worked together on a solar hot water system. “The family was still using an ad hoc system of burning garbage to heat water, Culhane said.
Families such as this are asked to assist in building the heaters, thereby minimizing the cost of upkeep. In the end the residents don’t only get hot water, they also get a learning experience. This, according to Culhane, is the most important aspect of the Solar Cities initiative.
“As the simplest of renewable energy projects, learning to build a do-it-yourself solar hot water heater puts us on a path that leads to more sophisticated projects as our understanding of the laws of physics and nature grows, said Culhane.
According to Culhane, building these heaters will eventually lead to an understanding of how to use local material to open the doors to other forms of self-provisioning.
Fathy, Dardir and others working with the solar cities project will be able to create solar adsorption chilling, and solar air conditioning, and an understanding of ground source heat pump technology. Home biogas, rooftop gardening, water purification, composting and all other forms of ecologically sensible self-provisioning start from learning how to use the power of the sun.
However, with October 2008 approaching quickly, Fathy and Dardir worry about funding, and what they will do when USAID discontinues its support for Solar Cities.
“Businesses here are cost conscious, said Fathy. “They won’t pay without a clear profit.
Fathy and his coworkers at Solar Cities have found it difficult to find funding from both the private and public sector. Although Garbage City has been the focus of many NGOs’ attention because of its appalling living conditions, they say that not enough is being done.
“During elections the candidates will come in and start building a road, or better plumbing, or any number of projects, said Fathy. “As soon as elections are over these projects are stopped, and we are worse off than before. What this area needs is help to be able to help itself, and that’s what Solar Cities is offering.
Fathy feels that projects like these are precisely what he and the people of Garbage City need.
“It taught me a lot, this is my future, he said. “Pretty soon everyone is going to be thinking this way, and it’s the wave of the future. I’ve met big companies, seen what people are thinking for the future. This is a huge opportunity for us to change our lives.
