Pakistan Floods
Highlights
- Pakistan devastated by floods
- Homeless people got a bamboo house to live in
- Bamboo house able to withstand flood and earthquake
Pakistan Floods: A South African non-governmental organization (NGO) is providing houses made of bamboo to economically weaker people of Pakistan, which are capable of withstanding floods and earthquakes. Safia Musa, founder of the NGO ‘Spiritual Chords’, said that houses made of bamboo, lime, clay and other strong-durable materials withstood the ravages of the recent devastating floods in Pakistan, but structures built of mud bricks were destroyed. . ‘Spiritual Cords’ focuses on providing eco-friendly sustainable solutions to tackle the problem of poverty and unemployment. Musa told PTI, “After the 2011 floods in Pakistan, when we decided to extend a helping hand, I was very curious about eco-friendly sustainable architecture. The quality of the bricks was mediocre and the houses made of mud bricks were not able to withstand the wrath of floods and earthquakes. I wanted to provide a practical long-term solution.”
‘Bamboo’ house built like this
He said, “After two and a half years of investigation, I called up Yasmin Lari, the first woman architect of Pakistan. I requested him to help in developing a system which is eco-friendly and does not tamper with it while providing residential facilities to the people.” Lari is best known for working on the revival project of the Mughal emperor Akbar’s Sheesh Mahal in Lahore. He had found that the plaster coating on the walls of Sheesh Mahal centuries ago was made of lime, clay and other durable materials. Musa said, “Yasmin made a structure with the help of bamboo, which was plastered with the addition of this mixture with soothing and readily available clay. Bamboo is a naturally regenerating commodity, has zero carbon emissions and can be grown over a period of three to five years.”
We don’t give tents, we give houses: Musa
He said, “Based on this vision, we started construction of houses in the villages affected by the 2011 floods. Gradually the local people started joining it. Women started carving beautiful art on the walls.” Musa said, “We brought water to the houses through hand pumps and wells. After that build toilets there. In the next phase, eco-friendly non-electric chulhas were developed. “We don’t give them tents, we provide them houses,” Musa said on the displaced thousands of people in Pakistan this year due to devastating floods.
Five thousand bamboo houses will be built every month
The Government of Pakistan and NGOs in the country are planning to partner with ‘Spiritual Cords’ to build houses that are able to withstand the ravages of floods and earthquakes. Musa said, “We are going to set up five additional centers to train enough people to build about a thousand houses every month. Five thousand houses can be built per month in these centers. He told that Bangladesh has also started building such houses.
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