Strong Elevated Housing Foundations to withstand Flooding.

About 1,000 lives have been lost and over 15,000 households displaced and homeless in the Southern Region Malawi alone due to the effects of Cyclone Freddy that caused landslides and flooding leading to destruction of houses and loss of life and other property to the Southern Region of Africa as well as Malawi. Cyclone Freddy came in during the time when the country was recuperating from Cholera pandemic and this therefore has further compromised efforts towards enhancing access to quality water and sanitation as most water sources are contaminated.

However, a closer look of the quality of most houses that got destroyed by floods, save for those that were affected by the landslides were made out of cheap materials such as unburnt bricks and built with mud. Underprivileged households in Malawi cannot afford building strong foundations of houses that can be raised above the level of flooding water. Over 60% of houses that got destroyed were constructed using such cheap materials. It has been noted that mostly in dwelling areas, water have not swelled up above 0.75 meters except in the valleys and in areas where flee flow of water has been blocked by structures due to poor planning. Mostly, structures have been falling due to seepage of water from the floor dissolving housing bases causing them to collapse. Some houses that were built using strong materials are seen to stand out among those that were constructed out of mud.    

Construction and provision of strong housing bases built out of stones and concrete can help reduce the effects of Climatic and Weather Changes to the underprivileged population on Malawi. If these households are provided with only strong housing foundations made of stones and concrete and raised to a height of 0.75meters above the ground and 0.75m below the ground can provide very strong foundations that cannot easily be destroyed by floods. These can also act as safer spaces for people to stay during floods. Such strong housing spaces of at least 8 by 5.5 meters can accommodate a family of 8 people and cost less than USD500.00. These foundations can be provided as part of contribution to their subsequent efforts of building the rest of the house. This will be left out to them to decide how they finish off with the construction whether using unburnt bricks or using cement blocks. 

The choice of constructing using stones and concrete comes in firstly because these are readily available across Malawi and secondly because stones and concrete cannot be dissolved in Water. Use of these materials has again non effect to climatic changes. We shall only need to use stones that have already been separated from hills or mountains. Eight (8) tones of stones which can be used to build one (1) foundation can be accessed and transported to building sites at an average cost of USD200.00. A total of 15 bags of Cement  and 4 tones of sand costing a total of USD210.00 can be used for concrete Construction labor therefore cost less than USD90.00.

Dzimwe Community Radio is the first established community media institution in the Southern Region Malawi and located in the region where Cyclone Freddy had mostly impacted on the lives of people. The media was established to create a platform where people can articulate issues impacting their lives and come up with lasting solutions that develop their lives. The radio implement a number of Projects and transmit to a total of 2,400,000 people. 

This Project can only be provided to the underprivileged population who earn less than USD1.00 a day and whose houses got destroyed by the effects of Cyclone Freddy. With a total population of 15,000 households displaced, an assumption of USD1,000,000.00 support can provide safe housing spaces to 2,000 households. Priority in this regard can be given to grandparent headed families, Female headed families, Children headed families and People Living with Disability.  

Dzimwe Community Radio Station work closely with people from the grassroot community and is aware of the problems that people face and particularly has clear knowledge of households which got affected by the Cyclone Freddy. Secondly, one of the institution mandate for establishment is to speak on behalf of the people on issues that contribute to environmental degradation such as careless cutting down of trees for charcoal within the Nankumba Peninsula. We understand that if not controlled, as the communities will be constructing new dwelling homes, more harm is going to be done to the environment as firewood is mostly used to cure bricks for constructing houses. We want to use the radio to advocate for use of climate smart resources and use the project to motivate the people implement the conservation agenda.

We have community radio listening clubs which we work with throughout Mangochi District which is one of the affected Districts with Cyclone Freddy. We do understand their needs directly and are being engaging in developing safer ways of making the affected households being resilient from effects of climate change. Coming up with such housing came up and is being supported by them.

Dzimwe radio is registered as a Trust with a Board of Trustees in place. Members of the board of Trustees were widely selected from the areas where the radio is heard and represent the communities we serve. Projects that are intended to serve the people are implemented by a management team at Dzimwe Radio headed by the Station Manager. The management team is backstopped by the Board of Trustees. The Board of Trustees elected an institution Patron who oversee the general operation of the Institution. The Radio has a total of 32 members of staff.

2,000 people.

I hope Solve can help me in advocating for this innovation of providing strong housing bases to the underprivileged community. We see the housing problems that people have but the authorities deliberately create both a blind eye and  deaf ear which seems as if the problem has no solution to the. We want to provide a model solution to the problems that the underprivileged who cannot afford proper housing face. Solve can help in advocating more for this innovation which can lead in mobilization of financial resources and engagement of architects who can contribute further in housing designs etc. As an institution we don't have financial resources that can benefit such masses but we can provide a voice to let the wider community know about the challenges our people are facing in the areas we live. 

The proposed solution describe our solution approaches in the sense that will help the rural poor communities to build houses on strong platforms that are also resilient to climate change. This will help save the National budget which is mostly used to care for the homeless people due to the destruction of houses by floods as they only manage building houses out of mad. Secondly, the system will discourage use of trees for constructing housing walls thereby saving the natural vegetation and wood resources which would have otherwise been destroyed. Thirdly, since the foundation will have already been set-up, it will help cut the budget for constructing the entire house which the under-previledged community members would not have managed. Stones and cement are readily available and have less harm to the natural environment if we consider the tonnage which can be used for constructing such housing foundations. 

We intend to advocate for resource mobilization this year and embark on actual planning and construction work in the subsequent years. The solution intend to improve planning in the housing infrastructure of the rural communities thereby creating more space for tree planting, agro-forestry and other social amenities. We intend to collaborate with the department of lands and physical planning to come up with land demarcations for each household and determine locations for houses. 

Target

By 2030, upgrade infrastructure and retrofit industries to make them sustainable, with increased resource-use efficiency and greater adoption of clean and environmentally sound technologies and industrial processes, with all countries taking action in accordance with their respective capabilities

Target

Facilitate sustainable and resilient infrastructure development in developing countries through enhanced financial, technological and technical support to African countries, least developed countries, landlocked developing countries and small island developing States.

Integrated planning and management of land resources is the subject of chapter 10 of Agenda 21, which deals with the cross-sectoral aspects of decision-making for the sustainable use and development of natural resources, including the soils, minerals, water and biota that land comprises. This broad integrative view of land resources, which are essential for life-support systems and the productive capacity of the environment, is the basis of Agenda 21's and the Commission on Sustainable Development's consideration of land issues.

Expanding human requirements and economic activities are placing ever increasing pressures on land resources, creating competition and conflicts and resulting in suboptimal use of resources. By examining all uses of land in an integrated manner, it makes it possible to minimize conflicts, to make the most efficient trade-offs and to link social and economic development with environmental protection and enhancement, thus helping to achieve the objectives of sustainable development. (Agenda 21, para 10.1) The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) is the task manager for chapter 10 of Agenda 21.

This is based on the understanding that rural households will not be able to finance strong housing bases. However their provision will provide an opportunity for them to use as bases for constructing their houses so this will be an attraction to them. The foundation architecture will provide basic design for them to use using there own building materials so this will allow them to use improved designs in an approved pattern which can allow easy access. This will in the end enable development of better access roads etc. leading the communities to some transformation.

The core technology is based on the strength on the building materials being proposed, their resilient to water and flooding, elevation of the building base and deterrence to use of wood resources as the communities try to build new homes now and again.

I know that this technology works because I built a house out of these materials just near a stream which when it floods, the water just flow below the bases without any harm to the walls of the building. The structure has withstood a test of time and is still existing. 

I work with a Community Radio Station which was established to provide a platform to discuss solutions to problems. We speak and work for the under-previledged such as women, girls, physically challenged, the elderly and children. We have a Management Team which consists of 6 people out of which 3 are women and 3 are men. We have a total staff of 26 and consist of 14 women and 12 men. 

As a media institution we are non profit making but we are able to raise funding and sustain operation through Marketing the needs of our listeners. We broadcast to a total population of 4,000,000 people and therefore we sell airtime and a few radio programs that are funded by clients especially those that also benefit both our clients and listeners. As a media institution the listeners benefit through our engagement with public service providers and make them accountable on their behalf to bring quality services to our listeners. Some of the services that we have seen improved over the past 5 years has been access to health services, access to water and sanitation, capacity building to local education institution committee members to determine what it takes to achieve quality education standards and currently working to achieve them etc.

We would like to advocate for funders to support our work. One housing foundation costs USD350.00 so we would like to lobby support to fund an initial of One Hundred houses which is USD35,000.00. We will also use part of our airtime sales to contribute to this.

Our Organization was established in November 1998. We have since been operating sustaining ourselves and are able to pay salaries to a total of 32 members of staff including the Management Team.