Driving through Kandahar, Afghanistans second-largest city, youre likely to see taxis with large rectangular boxes mounted on the roof and large tubes extending from them and into the cabin, through a rear window or through a hole cut into the roof. They are handmade cooling devices meant to replace the cars built-in air-conditioning systems, which tend to break down when they are most needed and cost a fortune to repair. Similar to industrial evaporative air cooling installations, these boxes can lower temperatures by 12 degrees Celsius through water evaporation, they are less noisy than air conditioning systems and consume way less power. Theyre just not meant for vehicle installation.
These cars AC systems didnt work, and repairs were too expensive. So I went to a technician, [and] had a custom cooler made, one taxi driver told AFP.
This works better than air conditioning, another driver said. ACs only cool the front. This cooler spreads air throughout the car.
With temperatures often exceeding 40 degrees Celsius during the summer months, taxi drivers have to get creative to keep passengers cool and these evaporative air coolers have proven very reliable and cheap to maintain.
