An award-winning program in northern Tanzania that has shown villagers how to make high-quality bricks from local clay fired with agricultural residues rather than wood was one of four projects shortlisted for the 2008 UNEP Sasakawa Prize. More than 50 businesses created by the villagers have made enough bricks to build more than 100,000 homes with greatly improved comfort and durability in 70 villages, and also saved an estimated 1,500 kilo-tonnes of wood over five years.
Mwanza Rural Housing Programme (MRHP), which is based in Mwanza, Tanzania's second city, works in 70 villages further away from Lake Victoria which suffer from extensive deforestation and high levels of poverty. Houses in these villages are usually made from mud and need frequent repairs and rebuilding as they are easily damaged by heavy rain and minor earth tremors.
MRHP has developed a system to make bricks from local clay which uses readily-available agricultural residues like rice husk and cotton waste, instead of wood, to fire the bricks, for which it won a 2006 Ashden Award. It has trained local people in brick making and business management and enabled over 50 brick making businesses to start up.
Homes built from fired bricks are more durable, comfortable and clean than homes built with mud. MRHP developed a mould so all bricks can be made the same size. After drying in the sun, about 4,500 bricks are stacked into a specified shape to make a temporary kiln (made of the bricks that are being fired, and dismantled as soon as firing is complete), with an outside wall made of unfired bricks. The agricultural residue is poured between the stacked bricks. Users find it much easier to pack a kiln with residue than with wood because it flows more easily into the gaps between the bricks.
Paper or dried grass is used to start the fire which then ignites the residue. This burns slowly for three days during which time the bricks are fired. After four days the kiln is cool enough to be dismantled and the bricks are ready for sale. MRHP encourages brick-makers to build a simple canopy over the temporary kilns to protect bricks from rain which can be damaging during brick making, drying and firing. The development of the kiln system has been participatory with entrepreneurs feeding back suggestions for modifications.
Posted on YouTube by Ashden Awards Feb. 29, 2008.
Prior to MRHP's work, makers of fired bricks had even started to cut down mango trees as fuelwood. MRHP estimates that traditional firing of the 3,000 bricks needed for a typical house consumes 1 m3 of fuelwood; the 300 million bricks made by MRHP entrepreneurs has preserved about 100,000 m3 of wood (roughly 50,000 tonnes). Burning agricultural residue, unlike wood, does not contribute a net amount of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere. MRHP also runs a program of tree planting and reforestation in all the project villages, and has trained entrepreneurs to make and sell efficient cooking stoves.
The MRHP started in 1990 as a government project aimed at helping rural people in the Mwanza region to improve their housing conditions, then became an autonomous local NGO in 1990. Its staff of 16 assists villagers in improved housing, food security and housing finance through the establishment and support of micro-economic activities. Its projects include agricultural development, low-cost housing options, and a Savings and Credit scheme that provides micro-loans to local groups and individuals.
The agricultural project grew out of a 1998 evaluation which showed that many farmers could not afford to improve their housing, because agricultural production had been dropping due to declining soil fertility, declining seed quality, unreliable markets for crops, and over-exploitation of the farms. The evaluation recommended that MRHP help farmers improve their cash crop production in order to raise their incomes. In partnership with Catholic Relief Services, MRHP began a pilot project in 2000 to produce and market grain legumes such as greengrams, chick pea and cow pea as cash crops. Such legumes grew well in the area and fetched higher prices at local markets than traditional varieties; as well, the newly-introduced improved varieties were drought resistant and highly productive. The program was expanded to more villages and new varieties of cash crops such as sunflower and common beans were introduced.
This story was prepared from several sources: the MRHP website; information about Rural Housing in Malawi's One Household, One House Program; the Ashden Awards website; a story about the Mwanza Rural Housing Programme on the African Architecture blog; and a story about MRHP on the Timbuktu Chronicles blog. The photos come from the Ashden Awards website.
For more stories about tree-planting activities, see:
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