Mercy Corps and the Cool Roofs Pilot in Niger- Good People News Spotlight on Organizations Who "Give it Up"
By Michael Castro - Good People News
People all over the world face difficult situations that challenge their ability to have a good quality of life. Mercy Corps is an organization that helps people in all sorts of tough circumstances, and they respond to many humanitarian crises around the world, aimed at reducing suffering and giving vulnerable and damaged people a chance to rebuild their lives. Mercy Corps operates in over 40 countries and in 2019 alone helped 29 Million people in various crises.
Mercy Corps started in 1979 as the Save the Refugees Fund aimed at reducing the suffering of those affected in the Killing Fields of Cambodia. It has evolved to a dedicated world-wide organization, providing valuable relief and assistance in such situations as in 2003, when 1 million people were displaced by war in Iraq in 2003. Many fled to Jordan and Syria and Mercy Corp helped refugees with humanitarian aid, education and job training.
Other examples of Mercy Corps’ important work were in the devastating earthquake in Haiti in 2010, and in Africa and Yemen in 2017, when famine threatened 20 million lives , and Mercy Corps responded with emergency food, water and support to help people survive. There are so many people in so many places who have been helped by the dedicated team of Mercy Corps.
One of many Mercy Corps projects which Good People News wanted to spotlight is in Niger, the poorest country in the world. According to www.concernusa.org , a combination of a GNI per capita of $906, life expectancy of 60.4 years, and a mean 2 years of schooling (against an expected 5.4) lead to Niger once again topping the UN's human development report as the world's poorest country. Recurring climate shocks have left the country unable to produce enough food for its ever-growing population so help to the people of this country is much needed.
The project, known as the Cool Roofs Pilot, aims to help some vulnerable and economically disadvantaged people in Niger be able to have thermal cooling in one of the hottest places on the planet. Niger lies within the Sahara Desert and often experiences extreme temperatures of 45°C (113 Fahrenheit) and above during its hot season, affecting the health, productivity and food security of its population.
Through the Cool Roofs Pilot, Mercy Corps looks to address one of the heat’s issues by introducing a new passive cooling technology. According to Robert Lankenau, Niger Country Director for Mercy Corps, “Our project is part of the Million Cool Roofs challenge – a global initiative to introduce Cool Roofs in different countries – to which we applied and received one of 10 booster awards.’
Started in 2019, the initiative is new to the Sahel region, and it’s widespread adoption could bring thermal relief to millions of Nigeriens who do not have access to mechanical cooling. It could also allow businesses and households - and ultimately the country - to save money by reducing the consumption of electricity used for cooling. Robert communicated that one of the goals of the project is to create a commercial market for the cooling technology and the coatings and have local businesses compete to be suppliers, thus creating jobs to a region that needs it.
With the Million Cool Roofs Challenge, the innovation is a low-cost, low-tech approach that consists of applying highly reflective elastomeric coatings to roofs or walls in order to increase their reflectance and to reduce the absorption of solar radiation (Ultra-Violet, Infra-Red, etc.), which in turn improves indoor thermal comfort and reduces the need for energy consumption for cooling. .
More info on the challenge can be found on their website, https://www.coolroofschallenge.org/
Robert stated that they are working with American company Topps Products that manufacture the coatings.
Also according to Africa Media and Communications Manager Grace Ndungu , “Cool Roofs approach aims to cover and cool an area of 10,000 square meters of roofs at schools, health centers and other community sites, while creating awareness for this technology, stimulating the development of a commercial market to sustainably continue our passive cooling work, and finally generating jobs in the form of trained Cool Roofs applicators/technicians in a new sector. The long-term goal is to boost the adoption of cold roofs in 25,000 homes and businesses in Niger - mostly in Niamey but also some rural areas - and dozens of public infrastructure at the community level, affecting an estimated 175,000 people.”
The genesis of the idea came from a philanthropic program called The Kigali Cooling Efficiency Programme (K-CEP), which supports the Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol by focusing on improving the energy efficiency of cooling in tandem with the F-gas transition. “The Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer, also known simply as the Montreal Protocol, is an international treaty designed to protect the ozone layer by phasing out the production of numerous substances that are responsible for ozone depletion”, according to Australian Govt Dept. of Water and Environment (https://www.environment.gov.au/).
People are the focus, as well as the environment. ” According to the challenge’s website, “K-CEP has partnered with the Global Cool Cities Alliance, Nesta’s Challenge Prize Centre and Sustainable Energy for All to deliver the Million Cool Roofs Challenge, a $2 million, two year competition to rapidly scale up the use of highly solar reflective ‘cool’ roofs in countries with the greatest need, with the ultimate goal of closing the cooling access gap globally.”
According to the site, “studies have shown that in a building without air conditioning, replacing a dark roof with a white roof can cool the top floor of the building by 2 to 3 degrees Celsius and that the net annual energy use for a one-story building with air conditioning is reduced by up to 20 percent upon raising the solar reflectance of the roof from 10 to 20 percent to 60 percent.”
Robert ended GPN’s interview with him saying that “We’ve only recently started, and we are creating awareness for the product. If a commercial market develops for Cool Roofs and the product takes off, we could be impacting thousands of Nigeriens that either don’t have access to AC or through money saved from lower AC/electricity costs.
Mercy Corps is in the process of bringing these cool roofs to the people of Niger, and we wish them luck in the endeavor.
You can help out by donating directly to Mercy Corps at https://www.mercycorps.org/donate.
