The Desert Sun

Shyam Bhatia, India Today's West Asia correspondent, reports on a project to harness solar energy in a small Egyptian village.

Shyam Bhatia: February 15, 1978

A new solar energy project with profound implications for developing countries, including India, is being conducted in a remote Egyptian village. The project is located in Basaisa village about 95 km northeast of Cairo.

It consists in the first instance of a solar energy panel, donated by a private firm, which charges a 12 volt car battery during the day to provide television viewing for the village in the evening. The second half of the project consists of using two parabolic collectors - concave wooden dishes covered with plastic - which transmit heat to insulated water tanks.

The project is being sponsored by physicist Dr Salah Arafa, from the American University in Cairo, who says he wants to show, how low-cost solar energy units can meet the basic needs of Egypt's rural population.

His work has already attracted considerable international interest. Only last year the National Science Foundation of America invited him to apply for a grant that would allow his project to be expanded to a much wider geographical area. When the grant is approved, the 35 year old scientist hopes to extend his work to more villages in Egypt and also in the Sudan.

Dr Arafa, a solid-state physicist by training, originally formulated his plans about three years ago when he had just become interested in solar energy as a fast developing branch of science. "The professional choice I faced was whether to continue as before - part pure researcher and part teacher - or to use my abilities to meeting human needs on a practical everyday level."

Having made his decision, Dr Arafa then began searching for a suitable area in which to carry out his field work. He chose Basaisa because of its proximity to Cairo and also because it contained features common to many Egyptian villages.

Basaisa is a typical Nile delta village with its 40 families living in mud-brick houses thatched with grass roofs. There is no electricity, literacy levels are a low 10 per cent and the annual per capita income is only Rs 3,000.

The solar project in Basaisa has not led to a dramatic rise in the standard of living, but its impact on villagers' lives has none the less been considerable. Says village spokesman Mohammed Shafei, aged 40, "We used to talk a lot in the village about how different our lives would be when the Government provided us with electricity.

"Now instead of waiting for the Government, we are changing our lives by our own efforts. We think many things will be possible in the future by using the sun's rays." So enthusiastic are the villagers that they have been pressing Dr Arafa to come up with still more ideas for harnessing solar power. As a result work has already begun on constructing a solar unit to provide power for a huge communal oven in the village square.

Another idea under consideration is to use solar energy for de-salination and purification purposes. This idea, which has received wide publicity in the village, is to condense brackish and stagnant water. Condensation thus aids filtration and thus provides clean water for everyone.

The villagers' current enthusiasm is a far cry from two years ago when Dr Arafa's arrival was treated with suspicion. In order to overcome any hostility Dr Arafa decided to introduce the concept of solar research only after he made friends with all the local families.

For two years he ran weekly classes in English and carpentry which led to regular contacts with all the families. Then six months ago he brought a simple lense with him to the village and used it to light his friends' cigarettes. "Their reaction was stunning," he recalls. "They thought at first that I was using magic. Later they realized this was all part of what I had talked about on previous occasions."

Within a few weeks the villagers had agreed to accept a solar panel that would power the battery cells for a single television set in the evenings. They also agreed to provide the labour for digging two insulated water tanks. Even the parabolic collectors were built and paid for by the villagers themselves.

Dr Arafa hopes to persuade the Government to earmark funds for other solar projects in the country. "What I hope the Government will realize is that basic energy needs can be met by other than huge and expensive capital-intensive programmes, for example those involving the construction of nuclear power plants.

"Moreover," he adds, "the social spinoffs of grass-roots energy projects are considerable. For example, the villagers, because of their own direct involvement, will not steal vital equipment and sell it in the cities."

The next step for Dr Arafa is to choose six nearby villages where other solar units can be constructed. But this time he will not need audience approval before he begins work. The steady stream of visitors to Basaisa - 5,000 at the last count - since the completion of the first two solar units indicates that surrounding villages at least are likely to give him a free hand.

Meanwhile he is taking time off to write to scientist friends in other countries to acquaint himself with the latest efforts in solar research elsewhere. In this connection he is especially interested in hearing from relevant experts in India because, so he says, development problems in India and Egypt are very similar.
Another point is that the excellence of Indian scientific research is appreciated all over the world, and Dr Arafa wants to see what the latest experiments in India are all about. "Can you put me in touch with solar scientists from India,"he asks?"Who knows, our joint efforts today might lead to something really big in the future?"