Give us a problem to solve, we say.
What kind?
Any kind. A tackle-able social problem. Something we can use knowledge and design to solve.
Teleportation?
We’d love to solve that but our knowledge is limited. Plus, there are other people working on it. Something more here and immediate.
Ok, here is one. How do we stop people from stealing taps from hospitals?
Water taps?
Yes. We had all these nice taps installed in the bathrooms in the hospital and within a week, they were all gone. We had new ones put in, not as nice as the ones before, and again they were gone. Towels, soaps, dryers. It all gets stolen. Towels and soaps, ok. But taps…
Who steals them?
Who knows? Random people. Desperate people. We don’t really know. They leave the water gushing out from the pipes and that’s another problem. Water is scarce in Kathmandu as it is and a hospital can’t afford to run out of water.
***
It’s evening and the Slovak friend has her living room floor littered with pipes and taps.
These are anti-theft, she says, picking a silver one. See this slot here? You put in this turn-key. It stops people from stealing water.
What about the tap itself?
That’s a different kind of problem.
Who buys these taps?
We sell these in California now. It sells really well where there’s drought.
***
The German guy laughs.
We had that problem in Berlin a year or so ago. Someone stole all the taps from the new headquarters of the German Federal Intelligence Service.
They must have caught the thieves?
Not that I know of. The building was flooded, destroyed the doors and wires and safety features.
***
There’s a growing collection of pictures of water taps in public spaces on my phone. Push pedals under bathroom sinks. Ornate stone taps that are known to be stolen. Bulky, awkward designs that are just pipes with regulators attached. Water fountains that only spurt while a button is pressed (an annoying design that would deter any thief, I think, though the others disagree).
The most effective for a hospital, though, is one of a large bathroom mirror built into a wall that we find in a hardware store. I take a picture of the design and slip my phone into my pocket.
The unit is built into the wall. The mirror juts out a little and an icon indicates that water will be dispensed here. Beside it are icons for a sensor soap dispenser and sensor dryer. The whole chunky unit is secured in metal casing. It cannot be carried out of the door. To dismount and dismantle would take a lot of time and effort.
That would do, wouldn’t it?
Sure, but modifications would have to be made. Send me the photo later.
Later, I discover that the phone is longer in my pocket. It’s not in the hardware store. It’s not hiding under the chunky bathroom unit that cannot be stolen. It’s not been turned in by any of the customers and is not lying on the painstakingly retraced path . The phone, along with all the photos, is nowhere to be found.
(Abha Eli Phoboo is a writer based in France. She writes for her column Broadside. )
***
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