Kuwait's inferno: how will the
world's hottest city survive climate change?
Malls and office complexes continue
to spring up in Kuwait City, built by migrants often working illegally in
soaring temperatures. But as oil and water reserves dwindle, the
energy-guzzling citystate heads for an existential crisis
Ruth Michaelson
Friday 18 August 2017 07.00 BST
It is 9am and the temperature in Kuwait City is 45C and
rising, but already people working outside. A row of litter-pickers are already
hard at work along a coastal highway, their entire bodies covered to protect
them from the sun. Outside one of the city’s many malls, valets hover beside
the air-conditioned entrance, while two men in white hats huddle wearily next
to their ice cream stands.
Other city residents are luckier. They can avoid the
outdoors altogether, escaping the inferno by sheltering in malls, cars and
office buildings, where temperatures are kept polar-cold.
For years, Kuwait’s climate has been steadily heating up. In
the summer months, the Gulf state now frequently touches 50C, and was last year
awarded the grim prize of being the hottest place on earth, when temperatures
reached a staggering high of 54C.
But while the capital is making plans to prepare for climate
change and the rising heat, there are growing concerns for those residents who
cannot afford to shelter inside, and mounting questions about how such an
energy-intensive city can survive as resources such as water and oil dwindle.
Nearly 70% of Kuwait’s population is made up of migrant
workers, many of whom power the near-constant construction of new office
complexes and malls across the state. Though labour legislation now bans work
outdoors between 12pm and 4pm, many are seen toiling through the hottest hours
of the day regardless.
During a recent visit, the Guardian witnessed tens of
labourers on a building site close to Kuwait international airport working well
past the 12pm deadline in 47C heat. Climbing on scaffolding amid the skeleton
frame of a future shopping mall, some tried to take shelter in the shade
available, as others swigged from bottle of water to cool down. The irony: they
were installing air conditioning.
One company manager overseeing the site, who asked to remain
anonymous, said: “Here in Kuwait or in the Gulf, you can see that most of the
labourers are not citizens. They come from Egypt, India or Bangladesh.” Many of
the toughest jobs on the site are subcontracted out, he explained, allowing
companies to flout laws designed to shield workers from the heat.
If the labourers decline to work in these conditions, “they
won’t get any money and will be forced to return to their home countries”, he
said. He added that he had never witnessed a government inspection targeting
working conditions, and that official were only concerned with workers’
residency visas.
The conditions for those men and women forced to work
outside are set to worsen: between 2010 and 2035, Kuwait’s annual average
temperature will increase by 1.6% to 28.7C , according to the country’s
Environmental Public Authority (EPA), making for increasingly sweltering summer
temperatures and more of the dust storms that already plague Kuwait City and
beyond.
“Yes, we’re under pressure,” says Shareef al-Khayat, head of
the climate change division at the EPA. “Not just from rising temperatures, but
sea level rises – the demand for electricity and water will also be harder in
the future.”
His colleague, Sameera al-Kandari, jokes: “But we’re
prepared – we have air conditioning everywhere!”
One of the problems at the heart of Kuwait City’s struggle
against the effects of climate change is the central role that oil has played –
and continues to play – in the construction of the urban landscape: the
discovery of the precious resource in 1938 not only created a deeply felt
symbol of national pride, and massive wealth, but reshaped the design of modern
Kuwait City from the ground up.
The 1952 “Kuwait masterplan” drew ideas from British urban
planners – such as Ebenezer Howard’s garden city movement – to completely
remodel the city, demolishing the previous close-knit mud-brick buildings
adapted to the local climate that made up the Old City, and replacing them with
more western notions of what an urban environment should look like.
Kuwait City subsequently underwent a radical transformation,
switching to a grid system where cars – powered by cheap petrol – were required
to navigate the maze of highways for almost all everyday tasks.
“The planners who came [in the mid-20th century] planned
according to the highways and then started filling in the blanks,” explains Dr
Nasser B Abulhasan, head of AGi Architects, a firm trying to spur sustainable
building in Kuwait. “Unfortunately in this region, the way they look at
sustainability is limited.
In practice, Abdulhasan says, this means “using solar panels
to feed air-conditioning machines on the roof of fully [glass] glazed
buildings. But why do I have a fully glazed building, as I need to pump more
energy to cool it?”
How will such an energy-intensive city cope as the abundance
of resources such as oil and water dwindle? Dr Mohammed al-Rashid of the Kuwait
Institute for Scientific Research predicts that by 2030, “30% of the oil
produced here will be needed for electricity and water production”.
Around 99% of the country’s fresh water comes from
desalination, itself an energy-intensive process currently heavily dependent on
oil. Covered reservoirs, blue-and-white striped like candy, jut out of the
dusty landscape along desert highways – essential in a region with the highest
water consumption in the world. And yet here, water is heavily subsidised by
the government: the average consumer pays just over £2 [0.8 Kuwaiti dinars] per
1,000 gallons, supplementing the real price of £25.50 [10 KWD].
Though Kuwait has the second-largest reserve of water in the
Gulf Cooperation Council – made up of the UAE, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Oman,
Qatar and Kuwait – this is only enough for nine days’ worth of consumption,
says al-Rashid, though it could last 50 days with conservation. Either way, it
is clear that the city-state is heading towards an existential crisis in a
world that needs to learn to live without oil.
One solution AGi proposes is a rethinking of the way
buildings are designed, offering an alternative to the large, glass-clad
structures reliant on continuous air conditioning. The firm’s creations are
designed to use less energy from their inception, and are often inspired by
traditional Persian windcatcher towers, clad in terracotta and with
carefully-placed windows that face away from the sun. These draw in air from
outdoors, channelling it across a pool of water at ground level to cool the
entire building through a central courtyard. “Environmentally, but also
socially, it goes back to what the traditional city was like,” says Aisha
Alsager, managing director of AGi.
Al-Kandari of the EPA also explains that construction on an
$4bn eco-friendly “smart city” for Kuwait will begin in 2019. “This means
applying technology to make life easier,” he says. “The city will have buses,
not cars, for transportation. There will be more places for walking, and
sensors will monitor water consumption, helping us to reuse water. Air
conditioning will be controlled by block, not by house.”
The project will be built by a consortium of South Korean
construction companies, and is expected to accommodate 25,000 to 40,000
households.
But not everyone is convinced. “They say they want to make a
green city, but they haven’t made the basis of what makes a greener city
clear,” says Dr Abulhasan of AGi. “The only thing defined so far is using solar
panels and better quality glazing – they haven’t said shrink everything,” he
added, emphasising that becoming accustomed to living in smaller spaces is a
key part of the transition to a more sustainable environment.
“We need to change the way we live, and the way we move
around the city,” adds Alsager. “Everywhere around the world is removing
highways, and in Kuwait we’re increasing them tenfold.”
Adapting to rising temperatures will require a radical shift
in thinking in Kuwait, especially concerning the most vulnerable. “We can’t
manage the way these companies work,” says the construction manager, referring
to the contractors who incentivise labourers to work outside in punishing
conditions. “Of course, when I see labourers working after midday in this heat,
it’s horrible. But what can we do? It’s their rules.”
Sem comentários:
Enviar um comentário