Photo: Asif Hassan/AFP/Getty Images.
A resident with her flood-resistant hut made from bamboo at a cost of about $87.
The news of floods this week is tragic. In Libya a dam suddenly broke, wiping away villages, and even near me, a quixotic rainfall — 11 inches in about 6 hours — submerged many homes in one city while the rest of the region was untouched.
Pakistan, of course, has suffered worse. That’s why it’s extra interesting to read about a sustainable, cost-efficient way that some poor areas there are rebuilding.
Zofeen T Ebrahim writes at the Guardian, “A year ago, Shani Dana’s mudbrick house was swept away in the worst floods on record to hit Pakistan. More than 1,700 people were killed and 900,000 homes damaged or destroyed. Sindh province, where Dana lives, was the worst affected.
“While waiting for government money to rebuild her home in Wasram village, in the Tando Allahyar district, word reached Dana that the Heritage Foundation of Pakistan (HFP), founded by a renowned architect, Yasmeen Lari, was building one-room homes in neighboring Pono village.
“The buildings ‘looked like rounded chauhras [traditional huts], but were octagonal in shape and the walls were much sturdier,’ says Dana.
“The foundation agreed to help Wasram rebuild and in March the HFP team joined villagers to construct 50 new homes. Prefabricated bamboo frames were built on meter-high raised platforms. Walls made of bamboo canes were fixed and plastered with mud mixed with rice husk and lime, and radial-style conical roofs were fitted. Four solar panels, six water hand pumps and 25 toilets were also built.
“ ‘This will not be swept away if the floods come again. It is not built at ground level, it’s airier and brighter since there is a window – ours didn’t have one before – and also looks much neater, since the walls and floor are plastered,’ says Dana outside her new home. …
“The HFP has helped build more than 5,000 chauhras since September [2022]. ‘In the next two months, I should be able to build another 2,600 homes,’ says Lari, who is urging every villager who has built their home to help 10 others build theirs.
“A year after the floods, tens of thousands of people are still waiting for help to rebuild. Organizations like HFP and the NGO Karachi Relief Trust have been stepping in.
“About 250 of the 1,000 one-room homes KRT is building in villages across Sindh, Punjab and Balochistan provinces … are being built using burned-earth bricks or cement blocks with roofs made of steel girders and precast cement slabs. ‘The houses we built in 2010 have survived and aged well,’ said Ahsan Najmi, the trust’s architect. …
“The Sindh People’s Housing Foundation (SPHF), which is overseeing the rebuilding, hopes 50,000 one-bedroom ‘resilient’ cement, brick and steel homes will be livable by September. It has enough money to cover the cost of 350,000 homes, but needs at least $500m to finish all the work. …
“However, Lari questions the cost of the project and believes rebuilding could be cheaper and more sustainable. The houses SPHF is asking people to build cost 300,000 rupees [~$1,030] each, about the same amount KRT’s homes are costing.
“HFP homes, which are made of fully cured bamboo, the ends of which are covered with lime to protect them from termites, cost just 25,000 rupees. The lime in the plaster and bamboo also absorb and store carbon from the air, helping mitigate the effects of the climate crisis.
“ ‘I’m not doing anything new. I may have tweaked the design, but the material used is age-old, indigenous and easily available,’ says Lari, who began her humanitarian work after a 7.6-magnitude earthquake shook northern Pakistan in 2005. …
“Lari, who is this year’s recipient of the Royal Institute of British Architects’ royal gold medal, one of the world’s highest honours for architecture, says she would like the government to adopt sustainable alternatives to housing. ‘I am happy to provide any assistance if they would like to provide a better quality of life for the poor,’ she says. ‘Our design is open source, available free. We can also identify many trained master artisans. It is up to the government. We are there to further the cause.’
“An essential part of Lari’s work is involving communities in the rebuilding process so they learn a trade. While the foundation pays for the bulk of the materials and brings its expertise, local people collect the mud and rice husk, and provide the labor.”
More at the Guardian, here. No firewall. Donations encouraged.
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