Concrete Roof Tiles, puzolanic cement, earth houses, ecomaterials: EcoSur

Experience shows that it is extremely difficult to move fast from an emergency situation to reconstruction.   The situation of living in a shelter that does not provide security for life and goods prevents people from going about their normal activities, including going to work and earning an income.

• Temporary installations should not just provide shelter from the climate, but also security and a reasonable degree of privacy.
• They should be available within days or weeks after the phenomena that caused the emergency
• They should be reusable, either as the core unit for a new house or made of reusable materials
• They should be affordable

Peter Arndt, the "inventor" of the dry toilet, developed a new type of toilet bowl that can separate the liquids from the solids. In laboratory tests, the bowl can separate up to the 75% fo the liquids that are aimed to the walls.

This new bowl design, plus the already known eficiency of the dry toilet, allows the liquids to get dried and compacted faster.

In this second version of the dry toilet, the design has been simplified in a way that could be possible to remove the plastic tanks in the bottom of the pit, and maintenance will be reduced to a minimum.

From Peru, Ramon Barua Costa, general manager of Fosfatos del Pacífico, Cesar Arias, project engineer and Luis Garcia Baux, comercial manager of Distribuidora Norte Pacasmayo, visited the Vertical Shaft Brick Kiln (VSBK) in Chambo, Ecuador.

 The Peruvian company Cementos Pacasmayo (web site) and its subsidiary Fosfatos del Pacífico have made a project about a brick factory in Piura, northern Peru, to promote the sustainable economic development and to facilitate the access to market opportunities and promoting the local understanding as a way to grow and to realize productive projects that benefits the communities.

The peruvian visitors were gladly impressed by the efficiency and productivity of the Kiln, as well as by the construction method and the organization of the artisanal brick producers around.

EcoSur will provide in a near future technical assistance and training for the construction of one Vertical Shaft Brick Kiln in the area of Piura.

The german NGO DESWOS, german society for the development and housing, will focus its help efforts mainly through the EcoSur Network. In its website (in german), states:

• What will DESWOS do to support the rebuilding?
  Together with our partner organization, the EcoSouth Network, with a base in the neighboring Dominican Republic, we will focus the reconstruction aid for Haiti in the urban outskirts and rural areas. In these regions, after such catastrophes support often arrives only too late and is too little...."

Deswos also points out the 34 years of experience that EcoSouth partners have in development cooperation in the construction sector, especially in earthquake and catastrophe endangered areas in Central America. See Post disaster reconstruction (PDF file, english only)

Visit DESWOS website (www.deswos.de in german) to read the full article

How Can We Help Haiti?
Disaster areas require immediate assistance and, unfortunately, the type of economic development work Pedals for Progress does not lend itself to disaster relief. However, P4P has a long-standing relationship with EcoSur.

 Pedals for Progress had received prizes like the Forbes Enterprise Awards, the Rolex Awards for Enterprise, the Royal Geographic Society award, among others.

Read the full note in the website from Pedals for Progress: www.p4p.org

The Swiss newspaper “Die Südostschweiz” published in its edition of Wednesday, January 20, an interview with the Architect Kurt Rhyner about ideas for the post-disaster reconstruction in Haiti. The interview, entitled “The first room for Life after the Catastrophe”, begins:

“A house, for many in Haiti will remain only as a dream. For life after the Earthquake Kurt Rhyner and the Network (EcoSur) wishes to make a start in this direction through the “Core Shelter Program”

You can download here the full interview (gernan only, PDF, 285 Kbytes)