HIGH AND DRY IN MOZAMBIQUE
31st December 2004
Elizabeth Taylor of ‘Positive News’ tells how the villagers of Lionde have created an effective flood haven.
Children celebrate the completion of
Lionde's 'high school'. |
Living on the banks of the Limpopo River, the villagers of Lionde in Mozambique have always had to contend with floods; but now they longer need to fear losing everything. When the river overflows its banks, they can join the children in School! Lionde ‘High School’ is an innovative new building that serves as a village school for 100 pupils as well as providing a refuge, when needed, for up to 350 villagers and their belongings.
Flooding is the most common of all environmental hazards. It claims over 20,000 lives every year and adversely affects around 75 million people world-wide. Throughout history people have settled on floodplains where the land is fertile and the ground is flat for building. In the year 2000 the floods in Mozambique devastated the lives of 400,000 people living in the Limpopo and Zambezi floodplains. Many were stuck on roofs or up trees for days and 100 people died before the boats and helicopters of the international rescue effort reached them.
Global climate change is making the prospect of severe flooding ever more likely.
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After the relief effort, the Methodist Relief Development Fund (MRDF) decided to look for ways of preparing for the inevitable future floods. They wanted to help villagers to create a haven that could double up as a practical building for daily use. In this way they would be able to live with floods and lives would not be lost or devastated by them. They asked Parry Associates, who have specialised in intermediate technology for 25 years, to come up with a new solution. Parry’s had previously supplied equipment and expertise to projects in many countries including Sierra Leone, Ghana, Malawi, Nepal and Sri Lanka. They soon came up with the design for a ‘high school’ in Lionde.
The building used a new method of double storey construction that needs much less cement, but still makes strong blocks. This way of building is labour intensive, but cheap in materials – ideal for villages such as Lionde. The upper storey of the school rests securely on founded pillars and will be a dry haven for the village in times of flood.
All the blocks, tiles and components were made on the spot, using machines and moulds supplies by Parry’s. The equipment can be manpowered, so they do not need electricity. Machines are also relatively small and portable, as well as being inexpensive to buy.This means they can be set up anywhere.
You don’t need a factory and they are simple to use.
Local people quickly learned from Parry’s engineers and were soon making blocks and tiles for the new high school themselves. By doing this they avoided the expense and environmental cost of importing them. They also made use of whatever was available locally rather than buying in basic materials.
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Villagers building the roof with the
concrete tile they have made.
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Villagers off-loading local sand
onto the site at Lionde. |
As well as providing a flood haven, the Lionde school has been a great community project with villagers coming together to build. It has provided work and there is the potential for more now that they have learnt to manufacture the necessary components and to construct this type of building.
Now the school at Lionde has been completed, the equipment has been moved to nearby Chokwe where a Multi-Purpose Centre is to be built. It will have a church downstairs and above it there will be a community meeting place.
The MDRF plan to build more high schools at three kilometre intervals along the Limpopo valley. If all goes well, Mozambique’s floodplains will become safe places to live with every village having its own ‘ark’ for times of flood. |
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