New technology to save African environment

Published: 01 July, 2007

Isaac Lufata and Emmanuel Bewayo, two Ugandan students who are being sponsored by the Haileybury Youth Trust, with Ben Daniels and Charlotte Gillies, the Haileybury gap year students

The Haileybury Youth Trust (HYT) is helping to pioneer a new technology which will revolutionise the building of schools and houses in Africa and have a significant impact on climate change.

The HYT has embarked on a project in Uganda, promoting a construction technology called an interlocking stabilised soil block (ISSB) that has the potential to change the way houses and schools are built across the whole of sub-Saharan Africa, while preserving the region's fragile environment.

Dr Moses Musaazi, an engineer at Makerere University in Kampala, has developed a technique which, by mixing soil and cement and then compressing the dampened mixture in a mould, produces an interlocking block (twice the size of a normal brick) that is stronger and more uniformly shaped than a conventional brick.

Dr Musaazi says: “Cutting down trees for firing bricks is second to charcoal burning in destroying Uganda's forest cover. The adoption of this technology will dramatically reduce this environmental damage.”

The technology has been endorsed by Hilary Benn when Secretary of State for International Development.

The HYT will continue to send GAP year students to work alongside Ugandan school leavers on projects and in promoting alternative technology in schools' curricula.

For more information, contact: Russell Matcham:
Tel: 01992-706-246
r.matcham@haileybury.com

Printer friendly version

Email this article to a friend

Bookmark this