Complex Problems can have Simple Solutions

Recently I found myself in the ramshackle town of Bara Kau, a 15-minute ride from the Federal Secretariat in Islamabad. After negotiating some narrow streets my friend, who had insisted that I accompany him, parked outside a single storey modest building. It housed a charitable school for the poor neighborhood kids; we had come to attend the celebration of its 5 th anniversary.

About 50 students sat on durrees on the floor, while the invited guests were lodged on chairs along the wall. With only two ceiling fans barely moving the air, the room was uncomfortably warm. The children’s poorly presented recitals of verses, stories and songs reminded me of an insufferable, 1950s Radio Pakistan’s program for kids that used to be aired every Sunday morning, and may still be there. Watching the youngsters perform, I felt that nothing had changed in these 50 years – even the same old, joyless songs being delivered in the same shy, shaky voices. No spark of delight or creative enthusiasm – exactly as I remembered from my childhood.

After the kids had done their bit and were applauded by the adults, there came the turn to praise the founders for this venture. They were commended for offering the students a free meal, daily. This was a notable achievement, which recalled India’s way of reducing dropouts using a State-supported school meal as bait. In this case it was done courtesy of the founders and friends of the school.

Then the visitors related their success stories with feigned modesty. The achievements of a Sardarji from NASA was highlighted, who had not only managed amazing feats for the US space program but had also set up schools for the unprivileged in India. A well-meaning guest wanted to teach the students ethics and religion and was willing to donate money for religious books. Several stated the obvious that given the chance these kids could do as well as those in elite private schools. Another insisted that since these kids were to compete with these richer cousins it was essential that the school be upgraded to that of elite private schools. He volunteered to contribute funds to make that happen; while others, fearing this to be bluster, tried hard to change the subject of the conversation. Some passive types sat looking at the floor sheepishly. It was not necessary for this school to ape the others asserted one. It could serve a valuable purpose if the students learnt skills that would get them moderately good jobs, he explained. We were reminded that standards had fallen only in the last 20-30 years, indicating that all the adults in the room had been lucky to receive their schooling in a golden era. The State was uniformly criticized for not doing enough for education.

One of the visitors, clearly tired of the heat- largely caused by the sun’s rays beating directly on the roof- and aggravated by the profundities of the elders, opted to entertain himself by asking the kids what they found most interesting in Bara Kau. Silence! After some prompting by the teachers and the other elders, four kids shyly declared that they found a ’house’ to be most interesting. I wondered whether this was a particular house or the home of each kid. This became clear when the questioner asked these four to draw the house. Everyone drew the same house –with the same inverted V-shaped sloping roof common to places that receive heavy precipitation. I doubt that there’s a single house in Bara Kau sporting this kind of roof! Obviously, they had all seen pictures of such houses in some book and were merely reproducing it. One of the teachers awkwardly explained that these kids spend the summers in Murree, where such sloping-roofed house are a common sight!

The incident is illustrative of the continuing failure of education in Pakistan since the country’s inception. The un-contextualized rote-learning evidenced in the kids’ representation of the foreign houses, was reflected in the clichéd problem-solving by the adults. No one talked about the need for developing creativity in the kids. This was possible only if they themselves had been brought up to think and learn in such an enlightened mode. Only one lady wisely remarked that the kids needed to be made conscious of their own surroundings. How contextualization can be encouraged in our educational system needs to be discussed. But first, what’s needed is the realization that creativity is critical to any liberal educational system!

Let’s continue the theme of ’heat’ that I experienced in Bara Kau and what millions experience due to power outages throughout the country. Much of this is caused by a lack of creative thinking by our planners and implementing organizations such as WAPDA. To delve a bit deeper, I ask you to leave the newspaper you are reading this morning (and if it is in the evening, do it tomorrow) and climb to the top of your building. Look around while on the terrace and ask yourself, why the rooms below are so hot? You may point at the sun as the cause, which of course is true. Then you also realize that the south-facing walls do not have any trees to provide good shade. True again, but growing appropriate trees now will take time and changing the whole wall is so expensive that no one gets it redone. Just like the visitors at the school we are often too ready to blame past mistakes, largely that of others. The fact is that you can rectify the heat problem yourself once you recognize the correct source of it. In this case the source lies under you feet! It is the roof that needs attention. An inexpensive treatment can significantly cool your house and considerably reduce the electricity bill. And if done countrywide, this simple measure would greatly reduce energy demand nationally.

My previous cool, first-floor abode, build by the owner who is a civil engineer, had a white mosaic floor on the roof; in contrast, my current rented residence has dark red bricks. There may be some insulation under them, but during the hot summer day they absorb a lot of energy and then release it to the air above and also to the rooms below. In fact 90% of the roofs, even in the United States, are dark-colored. These low-reflectance surfaces reach temperatures of 150 to 190° (66 to 88°C) and contribute to: (a) Increased energy use and higher bills; (b) Overburdening of the grid; (c) Reduced comfort; (d) Accelerated deterioration of roofing material. The temperature figures must be considerably higher in Pakistan.

In contrast, cool roof systems with high reflectance (percentage of solar energy reflected back from the surface to the atmosphere without absorption ) and emittance (percentage of energy that is radiated back to the air after absorption) stay up to 70ºF (39ºC) cooler than traditional materials during peak summer weather. Conventional roof surfaces have low reflectance ( 0.05 to 0.25) and high thermal emittance (typically greater than 80%). Benefits of cool roofs include reduced heat-gain and saving on summertime air-conditioning bills and reduce electric power demand.

Cool roof applications have a smooth, bright white surface to reflect solar radiation, and are little more than a layer of bright white paint. A wash with water and paint touch-up at the start of the season to increase its effectiveness will give heat protection for several years. An average house of 3 rooms could have its roof covered for less than Rs 2000. A far cheaper, temporary solution is to have a day laborer whitewash the roof with white lime at the end of spring. This very inexpensive washable paint will provide protection until the rains come, after which the weather cools down. This is of course for houses with dark roofs. With greater public knowledge of the basic physics of absorption and reflection of solar energy, more and more houses will be constructed with good insulation and white tiles or mosaic flooring to avoid the need for applying paint.

Once the idea has sunk into people’s minds, they will also stop buying black cars or having dark upholstery in their light colored vehicles. Creative thinking may also force people in areas near the ocean, such as Hyderabad, to return to the wind catcher of yester years. With the craze for split level air-conditioners in rich homes it will become apparent that placement of these gadgets near the ceiling only ends up heating the hot air near the roof! Attractive public interest announcements on TV networks could easily make people aware of the practical applications of basic science and how they could help save large sums of money for the individual and the State.

The failure of society and successive governments to encourage creative thinking and the proper use of knowledge has had dire consequences. I have merely touched on two areas – the case of rote learning in school, and the inability to see how a bit of thought could make our lives more comfortable, while saving money and reducing demand on the electric grid. Besides, being creative saves us from dullness and boredom. It’s fun.