Energy use by housing represents up to 40% of total energy use. The energy requirement will rise significantly as Pakistan becomes more urbanized, with higher density and increased use of RCC frame construction and RCC slab roofs in particular.
Heat gain through the roof is the major cause of discomfort in the case of un-airconditioned reinforced concrete buildings and the major energy load for air conditioned buildings. As most residential buildings are 1,2 or 3 storey in urban areas, heat transmission from the roof ranges from 30-70 percent. Heat absorbed by RCC slabs in daytime is commonly radiated over several night time hours, thereby affecting thermal comfort particularly in rooms where people are sleeping and needing fans or AC to improve the internal environment. The need for electrical solutions is cause for greater concern when there is extended load shedding and when the unit cost of electricity is rising. This affects lower middle class households in particular. Electricity bills at up to 20% of the household income is a serious problem, apart from additional costs for purchase and repair of electrical fittings.
While there are a number of other shortcomings in building design and construction affecting relation to solar heat gain, UN-HABITAT has selected the heat gain from RCC slab roofs for improvement measures for the following reasons:
UN-HABITAT has carried out desk review of national and international best practice for improving thermal performance of RCC slab roofs including reflective, insulative, and radiant barrier methods, with traditional, conventional and innovative technologies.
The Project activities have started in the pockets of extreme urban poverty in four cities: Rawalpindi in collaboration with Friends Foundation, Hyderabad in collaboration with Sindh Agricultural and Forestry Workers Coordinating Organization (SAFWCO), Muzaffarabad in collaboration with a consortium of NGOs (Sungi, Children First and Saiban) led by Sungi and in Islamabad in collaboration with Plan. Most of the targeted slums in these cities inhabit extreme poor minorities and refugees. UN-HABITAT is also starting the project activities in Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) and Gilgit in coming months, thereby completing the targeted figure of ‘6 informal settlements in 6 different cities of Pakistan’ in the first phase. The project will also be extended to target informal settlements in ten other selected cities located in Balochistan, Sindh , North West Frontier Province (NWFP) and Punjab, to bring the total of all the targeted cities in Pakistan to sixteen.
Situational analysis and its dissemination through three Regional Workshops and one National Workshop on the topic of ‘Gender Mainstreaming in WASH’, with the collaboration of Pakistan Institute of Environment Development Action Research (PIEDAR), was completed in December 2009. These workshops also helped in capacity building of almost 100 Government officials and the leadership of CSOs in all provinces of Pakistan.
Effort are also being directed to enhance the willingness and commitment of policy makers and water stakeholders and in creating the necessary institutional and human resource capacity to implement pro-poor and gender responsive policies and programmes.
Some of the key elements of this project are:
(a) Assessment of the effective demand of women and communities for water and sanitation services;
(b) Building concrete, project-oriented partnerships between local governments, other service provider agencies and community groups;
(c) Implementing low cost demonstrative projects; and
(d) Improving water policies and implementation strategies.
