tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1952616372952513902024-03-13T16:04:56.076+00:00Wolfe in TransitionViews and news from our life as it goes along - from rebuilding ruins in Portugal, adventures in Scotland through post-disaster recovery around the world where disasters and poverty are permanent overlords.
These are some of our stories and quests for transitionMagnushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15258662256324051363noreply@blogger.comBlogger94125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-195261637295251390.post-83326739322637592642021-10-29T11:45:00.001+01:002021-10-29T11:45:54.012+01:00Surfing - Bangladesh<p><span style="font-family: arial;"></span></p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: right;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div></span></div></span></div></blockquote><p></p><p style="text-align: right;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0cpsL80d2qIkle-gaur1RoF9YQ-iOM38e_0SBvJyuM8QmSXnTzb1OzX4WGPkOza1QfTZASWsXltOLeFIaZxUayZRa6iRH6bCQ9NZLj_CQDHelf_3SSm5LWv2CCNocJ1SzL5jXLUQwPwxy/s2048/Boat+boarding.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1351" data-original-width="2048" height="422" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0cpsL80d2qIkle-gaur1RoF9YQ-iOM38e_0SBvJyuM8QmSXnTzb1OzX4WGPkOza1QfTZASWsXltOLeFIaZxUayZRa6iRH6bCQ9NZLj_CQDHelf_3SSm5LWv2CCNocJ1SzL5jXLUQwPwxy/w640-h422/Boat+boarding.JPG" width="640" /></a></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">I'd heard there were waves in Cox's Bazar - in fact there is nothing blocking this part of Bangladesh from direct exposure to everything the Indian Ocean has to offer (which is some of the best surf in the world). So it should have epic exposure. Alas, there's a massive continental shelf sticking out about 150 miles - probably made up of silt and minerals from millennia of deposits from the great river systems pouring down from the Himalayas. The end result is that open ocean swells (that bring the waves) loose their energy as they march along continental shelves, robbing said waves of their final </span><i style="font-family: arial;">harumph </i><span style="font-family: arial;">as they hit a coast somewhere. Still, some do make it in, and break on what they proudly call the "longest beach in the world". </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjx8Z1_I0GnLtAF1q5imIlsz1Wx8_KQldmXpE3Ydz5NIFWI21lZEMxndIZ6thchQ4PXAy2UxqH_aVtJfMb0ZvOlH5CJahEq8Sp_EfQ5ch24j_o2-Ikn8PAbVt4RtKgZoNouLyqRqa2EtC4c/s2048/surfers+walking.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1365" data-original-width="2048" height="474" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjx8Z1_I0GnLtAF1q5imIlsz1Wx8_KQldmXpE3Ydz5NIFWI21lZEMxndIZ6thchQ4PXAy2UxqH_aVtJfMb0ZvOlH5CJahEq8Sp_EfQ5ch24j_o2-Ikn8PAbVt4RtKgZoNouLyqRqa2EtC4c/w640-h474/surfers+walking.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><p><span style="font-family: arial;">And along this coastline, between Chittagong port and the Myanmar border (and the Rakhine state where the refugees once lived) are endless beach breaks and a local surf community that is remarkable and unique in so many ways. Hugely refreshing compared to the commercialised, macho-bravado and highly competitive vibe almost everywhere else. </span></p><p></p><div><span style="font-family: arial;">So here follows a little window into this semi-topical surf world, stuck as it is between the wretched semi-development that comes with rapid urbanisation, serious social protection problems (like child labour, child marriage, urban poverty, corruption) and the once-lush forest that covered the landscape. </span></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">Travelling surfers have been visiting for years and many have left boards. Since the refugee crisis got worse in 2017, thousands of internationals have been through and some of them brought more. This has fed a surf community with equipment (that constantly needs repairs - which is how I spend some of my time, helping fix broken boards, a skill most surfers have had to pick up to prevent boards absorbing water and falling to pieces). As these kids grew up into young adults some became really talented surfers. None are sponsored and only about 1% have travelled out of the country for surf. </span></div><div><br /></div><p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhC3oMrl7p0jRpR6wsNoJHNLCap0e7PrKsoRRLUQmaO1pu1Y-oBGI-vcTVRUTA7ZC20BWhAR2aYcVvuV-dLXJ4ly5qc5Wlv4nMIzGOgPS0AOm9l1_bn4ZWL6HxIPf9Yke9AXo6CgJeK_MJK/s2048/DSCF3436.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1490" data-original-width="2048" height="466" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhC3oMrl7p0jRpR6wsNoJHNLCap0e7PrKsoRRLUQmaO1pu1Y-oBGI-vcTVRUTA7ZC20BWhAR2aYcVvuV-dLXJ4ly5qc5Wlv4nMIzGOgPS0AOm9l1_bn4ZWL6HxIPf9Yke9AXo6CgJeK_MJK/w640-h466/DSCF3436.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial; text-align: left;">A surf safari, where one of 4 "surf clubs" in Cox's organises a bunch of jeeps and we all pile in and head</span><span style="font-family: arial; text-align: left;"> down the coast in search of better waves. If this was anywhere else it would be notorious for bringing a huge crowd to some isolated secret spot. But here, there are no other surfers on any spots. When we get there, it's kind of messy,with waves everywhere, meaning there is plenty of space for everyone to have a shot. Lots of different breaks. Food and water organised, as well as a volleyball net and what a day that was. (until the jeeps that brought us left as soon as they had dropped us off and we had to organise back up vehicles for the piles of boards, kids and equipment. Half of hitched back. Ah well). <br /><br /></span></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifA3hALBMSpp7X7OvK2KxEER7Zjvw3ulCl67mJ4ZfJ2he6TAhfM1ySGYhz48xy1VYJZnMv6YL45496cVhEGG_sGkujUNloD0_OTjsjlgtFO2R8EmlLfO-QkC0JBojrpkEStI7V3MIGksi_/s2048/DSCF3445_1.jpg" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1365" data-original-width="2048" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifA3hALBMSpp7X7OvK2KxEER7Zjvw3ulCl67mJ4ZfJ2he6TAhfM1ySGYhz48xy1VYJZnMv6YL45496cVhEGG_sGkujUNloD0_OTjsjlgtFO2R8EmlLfO-QkC0JBojrpkEStI7V3MIGksi_/w640-h426/DSCF3445_1.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: left;">Amazing that a few girls have been allowed, even encouraged to start surfing here. And I say amazing because, except for the mega rich, teenage girls across South Asia are barely seen once they turn 10 or so. This is a cultural phenomenon, not a religious one, I wish to point out. And it's the same in the Rohingya community. Essentially as soon a girl comes of age / starts menstruation they are kept in virtual isolation until marriage. Some families do allow them to go to school during this time, but attendance drops massively. The pandemic didn't help but let's not go there. Anyway, somehow ended up in one of the jeeps with this lot - such cool energy; some of them get to attend the Jaago school and are part of the WFP programme, which is great. (more on that WFP project below..)</span></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><p></p><p><span style="background-color: white;"></span></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8EeFoaoyw75x45o_N2820mHjNZKr5Fo85z1bOOQlUO_swQXbFgEtJyzbO0KDD0eMVq5JD7NUu3WbfsqPtC3EgfIyQ2ksHi38cpodJkyrgDTzAFYirhDhyphenhyphenbz7K6NBZTqZ_DAdvVoAoXVOb/s2048/DSCF3425.jpg" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1365" data-original-width="2048" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8EeFoaoyw75x45o_N2820mHjNZKr5Fo85z1bOOQlUO_swQXbFgEtJyzbO0KDD0eMVq5JD7NUu3WbfsqPtC3EgfIyQ2ksHi38cpodJkyrgDTzAFYirhDhyphenhyphenbz7K6NBZTqZ_DAdvVoAoXVOb/w640-h426/DSCF3425.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Nasima here is 14. She surfs pretty good and given the opportunity could go on to get sponsored... Represent her nation at the Olympics? Who knows. But it's not easy to change cultural norms and family-community expectations on girls, what they are expected to do, what would be seriously frowned upon; practices that have been in place for what feels like centuries. In any case, if there's going to be change it has to come from within their community, not from outside. After so long I've learned that trying to change how people think about a situation can be counter-productive, superficial, meaningless and actually presumptuous, as if our attitudes to a certain approach are better or smarter. <br /><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white;"></span></div><p></p><p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRIMOZr-vadasGJ9KofNPVQ35GsxdZ-E6k7e80ZBLezLVeHW_FZGtHXnxyYafK0x1ZZy6n2DNN8cB81_eE3q5ZdKggEeJ6G-11JzngiQe6r0clKnBTWr1085yX862xnjK3uYbXew3_MPqw/s2048/Richard.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1202" data-original-width="2048" height="376" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRIMOZr-vadasGJ9KofNPVQ35GsxdZ-E6k7e80ZBLezLVeHW_FZGtHXnxyYafK0x1ZZy6n2DNN8cB81_eE3q5ZdKggEeJ6G-11JzngiQe6r0clKnBTWr1085yX862xnjK3uYbXew3_MPqw/w640-h376/Richard.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A shout out to Richard here, Americano and head of World Food Programme (WFP) in country who has been behind a small project to support local surf kids with accessing education (that most never had the chance for) at a centre run by Jaago, a local NGO. The kids also get training in life-guarding / ocean safety, and a bit of surf coaching. Once a month the kids, or their families, get to collect a small food package, or rather they can chose from different items. So good to see head of a major UN agency a) in the water and b) thinking out of the box and creatively about food security in this part of the local community. </td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihFJB2nFOmBk3NZxzoR-sL2iFFXjX9loOXrsRpKnlbY7_A9BPGkGe7oPgPh5lITAuHkTaELOqutDanD1WRiLZAH2ocFh3CleBveEM5vIitWqlVhRdTXzKOW14xSz08eMIL_GGeCq9FCDWR/s2048/Sifat+surfs.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1240" data-original-width="2048" height="388" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihFJB2nFOmBk3NZxzoR-sL2iFFXjX9loOXrsRpKnlbY7_A9BPGkGe7oPgPh5lITAuHkTaELOqutDanD1WRiLZAH2ocFh3CleBveEM5vIitWqlVhRdTXzKOW14xSz08eMIL_GGeCq9FCDWR/w640-h388/Sifat+surfs.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sifat - also deserves mention here - he runs one of the 4 clubs, which is a surf and life-saving initiative really. He works as a life guard and trainer, and is out there every morning, every weekend drilling kids on ocean rescue. For sure needs a dedicated story board, together with the photos of all the students going for it. </td></tr></tbody></table><br /></p><p><span style="text-align: center;">Very few kids own their own boards, rather they are associated with one of the clubs, who have accumulated collections of boards from visiting surfers, aid workers and, well that's it. There is a national surfing association in Dhaka, but they're never seen or heard of until there is a competition, or a trip abroad and then they want a cut of the pie. None of them surf. </span></p><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLJUkggOzL6f0Io0guRRDONHeEV3mXclUNx9qsIkRjWFEqd-y9ZU885PaqAkbR36p_Z0Zuv3gZo2Qg4X68hwV2ZqP1fARn4IIdR-jU9JhogwJq2XYkE9FSL_ZppnI1MjCrp3iNxTEjb9SE/s2048/DSCF3431+%25282%2529.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1425" data-original-width="2048" height="446" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLJUkggOzL6f0Io0guRRDONHeEV3mXclUNx9qsIkRjWFEqd-y9ZU885PaqAkbR36p_Z0Zuv3gZo2Qg4X68hwV2ZqP1fARn4IIdR-jU9JhogwJq2XYkE9FSL_ZppnI1MjCrp3iNxTEjb9SE/w640-h446/DSCF3431+%25282%2529.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Bunch of the kids from Rashad's club (Rashad with green shirt on his head there), on of the surf safaris. </td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjI3p3iUbccJMg-FoQQxR75BjDI664B_899ltqVI5akb4dOfRtJbFz6LZTuQvUWp8G5fVFgs2ZmcWDa9utz__RXdaaZpFY1tP52AXMLFmRvAbB2BFD3iNCE3VQMto_SSVV_vW1M1wMY0Wyd/s2048/Shagor.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1260" data-original-width="2048" height="394" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjI3p3iUbccJMg-FoQQxR75BjDI664B_899ltqVI5akb4dOfRtJbFz6LZTuQvUWp8G5fVFgs2ZmcWDa9utz__RXdaaZpFY1tP52AXMLFmRvAbB2BFD3iNCE3VQMto_SSVV_vW1M1wMY0Wyd/w640-h394/Shagor.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Shagor, one of the top 3 local riders. Flowing, energetic, explosive on the waves; this pic doesn't really do justice. He should definitely be sponsored, I reckon the top 3 should be. I just have no idea how to get sponsors interested. If you do - let me know! </td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNrDMiMyT8wfYGy4m8g50lNox5glAA2G4KAeY-CmRCkx_Ic2wT4IbIcIRJ34Awz0P58MMDaU5CI4DYXy2xCiF-kUDq6mE0pmF2cUwA9rnMB0PyoK2MQcKjaXj_qnsyenHUePLl7E5jtjFA/s2048/good+lefts.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1365" data-original-width="2048" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNrDMiMyT8wfYGy4m8g50lNox5glAA2G4KAeY-CmRCkx_Ic2wT4IbIcIRJ34Awz0P58MMDaU5CI4DYXy2xCiF-kUDq6mE0pmF2cUwA9rnMB0PyoK2MQcKjaXj_qnsyenHUePLl7E5jtjFA/w640-h426/good+lefts.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">One of the spots down the coast, with a bit of a reef and real potential on the right tide. <br />Sadly, we didn't stop here that day.. But it does show what is possible..</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div><br /></div><div>I could go on and on. I actually have loads of other pics somewhere, between phones, cameras and computers. Let me know what you want more of, and i'll flow. </div><div><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjd6kQZ1VhrlBepw7zc36zcw6rdzMIR35sFn3vH0PHy1TU-kN-tBG9kKacSv8Oe-9NAIwg4GfrbppURWXTr59sI29Qi44VmWZuKQJk5VGVSoVGqy3nNQH6K5qj3_hOocA2hK6Mf4mbK9uAc/s2048/sunset.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1359" data-original-width="2048" height="424" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjd6kQZ1VhrlBepw7zc36zcw6rdzMIR35sFn3vH0PHy1TU-kN-tBG9kKacSv8Oe-9NAIwg4GfrbppURWXTr59sI29Qi44VmWZuKQJk5VGVSoVGqy3nNQH6K5qj3_hOocA2hK6Mf4mbK9uAc/w640-h424/sunset.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">No story about Cox's is complete without the sky, in rainy season especially, which just switches on after the sun drops over that horizon. </td></tr></tbody></table><br />Magnushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15258662256324051363noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-195261637295251390.post-76882960337425859062017-10-28T10:49:00.000+01:002017-10-28T10:49:27.104+01:00How to rebuild 100,000 houses <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; text-indent: 18pt;">I'm going to use this blog to describe how we managed to construct just over 107,000 houses over 4 years, saving almost $70m compared to "conventional reconstruction" models. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Drafting reports and evaluations of this effort I have realised that these
remarkable results may never see the light of day. The whole
endeavour could be forgotten about in a few years as fresh disasters flood
those of yesteryear into distant memory. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;">About me and my perspective: I've been the shelter advisor to the UK's Department of International Development (DFID) Pakistan since 2010. I have been deeply involved in the design and implementation of this programme so perhaps my view is somewhat biased. I'd like to use this blog (and other publications hopefully) to make this work more transparent - to let more people know and to challenge it. The work described here should help people cope with flooding for years to come; their homes should not collapse next time major floods occur. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri" , "sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">Starting in 2010, severe monsoon rains and widespread flooding
destroyed over a million houses across Pakistan. This led to the world's largest humanitarian
appeal at the time. By September the next year an unprecedented 40
days of rain fell across Southern Sindh, destroying another half a million
earthen homes in conditions an old man told me “<i>in all our lives we've never seen weather like this</i>”. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "calibri" , "sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">A year later - 2012 - and another flood – this time a
mind-boggling five days of incredibly intense rain (one year's rainfall in a day in some areas) brought down a further 400,000 houses. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_2OHmoPtbuxnDuYR_1BXDRbWoDNqxhzpFSruM5wHo-v9M-51uiuMGD6NB33EDS_P9apL7n1UbHrGCveNudHzWJ_vbtWlAuqiDBmYeiPL1MUuf81e_KetQAwCdWtmykFKnU_uFtixqoAVv/s1600/JGH_2012_2421_1200x798.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="424" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_2OHmoPtbuxnDuYR_1BXDRbWoDNqxhzpFSruM5wHo-v9M-51uiuMGD6NB33EDS_P9apL7n1UbHrGCveNudHzWJ_vbtWlAuqiDBmYeiPL1MUuf81e_KetQAwCdWtmykFKnU_uFtixqoAVv/s640/JGH_2012_2421_1200x798.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">September 2012 - after the floods in Northern Sindh.<br />(Picture: Joon / Norwegian Embassy who had the chance to survey these floods by helicopter).</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri" , "sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">That's around two million homes in ruins which means
that around 14 million people - already battling poverty, malnutrition,
contaminated water, numerous health hazards, find their world inundated, awash
with new problems, debts. And homeless
to boot. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; text-indent: 18pt;">People sometimes ask what is that I do in my job.</span><span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; text-indent: 18pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; text-indent: 18pt;">Well these kind of</span><span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; text-indent: 18pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; text-indent: 18pt;">crisis sets the scene; the</span><span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; text-indent: 18pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; text-indent: 18pt;">tangible suffering and misery you sense when visiting some of the kindest and most welcoming people you are likely to meet anywhere, can trigger an inner call to action.</span><span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; text-indent: 18pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; text-indent: 18pt;">And action, or doing something about the problem, has been my way of translating empathy into something more useful.</span><span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; text-indent: 18pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; text-indent: 18pt;">The other thing about my work is that there's a whole collective of us that do this stuff, and some of the best things happen when good people put their minds together and collective shoulders to the grind stone.</span><span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; text-indent: 18pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; text-indent: 18pt;">And that's what we've been doing these past years, with the</span><span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; text-indent: 18pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; text-indent: 18pt;">people worst affected by the flood.</span><span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; text-indent: 18pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; text-indent: 18pt;">I will try and use this article to let you see their perspective too..</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri" , "sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">First, a quick summary of the project. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri" , "sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">Scale: between 2011 and 2015 this project
supported 107,000 families to build flood-resistant homes. Training on better building practices was given
across thousands of villages to men and women in communities devastated by
floods. Rather than a wave of external
contractors or hired builders rebuilding people’s homes, this has been a
community-led movement that has seen the re-skilling of hundreds of thousands
of people. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwJBBM3lxSOE5EUsiZmDWCAfZuIPp_dudttJA6aE5114cryA262C7NRYqR7NEC9mBmFq2_XKDEoKX3Wo0Bnq7SE_1ZjEpm8MqvKwMaM_62aUadz_W2wWS8IUHsfinV-X71PKuNBxCx4WLa/s1600/20130530_092709.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="488" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwJBBM3lxSOE5EUsiZmDWCAfZuIPp_dudttJA6aE5114cryA262C7NRYqR7NEC9mBmFq2_XKDEoKX3Wo0Bnq7SE_1ZjEpm8MqvKwMaM_62aUadz_W2wWS8IUHsfinV-X71PKuNBxCx4WLa/s640/20130530_092709.jpg" style="cursor: move;" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Tharparkar, Sindh (Photojogi village), a home built by people themselves, following design and guidance from our partners covering that area - IOM, their local NGO and training advisors, Heritage Foundation. But the people did the work themselves. Cost : about $350</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri" , "sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;"><b>Low-cost</b>: the budget for each reconstructed
home ranges from between £210 to £350 which includes the agency staff,
transport, admin and overheads – as well as the external consultancies
providing training and technical oversight.
In case you’re wondering this IS a remarkably low price for a
flood-resistant house which should last for generations. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri" , "sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">In comparison, most housing supported in the
post-flood (after 2010) was costing around
£750 – many models costing twice that. So, this is a saving of around
£50m ($70m) across the 107,000 target shelters.
This “saving” has of course been used in the project itself and has been
translated into thousands of additional families living in houses that should withstand future floods. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri" , "sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;"><b>Low-carbon</b>: By choosing to avoid fired bricks and cement wherever possible this project has saved approximately 370,000
tonnes of CO2. This is equivalent to 3 days emissions from the city of London,
24,000 Brits carbon emissions for a year, or 170,000 inter-continental return
flights. I have calculated these
emissions reductions using a peer-reviewed life cycle analysis of building
materials from around the world. See footnote for source. </span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4eYecohAP6Ukyl5aELpfJAa2SFMCxd9wL2w9DZ-L8ZLMjpl4KcUUWyC5ywRk_MjvpLT1sM0_Fp4lP560UuKs7efihrAapaXbCGCHeAZJXVXw3ib7xNkoxaTcd0oYCuaZ6pksNJkr6aTMe/s1600/people+of+lime+meeting.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4eYecohAP6Ukyl5aELpfJAa2SFMCxd9wL2w9DZ-L8ZLMjpl4KcUUWyC5ywRk_MjvpLT1sM0_Fp4lP560UuKs7efihrAapaXbCGCHeAZJXVXw3ib7xNkoxaTcd0oYCuaZ6pksNJkr6aTMe/s640/people+of+lime+meeting.JPG" width="360" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Lime stabilised soil blocks:</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Various different mixes of soil and lime are tested underwater for </span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">months before the correct ratio is selected. </span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri" , "sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;"><b>Lime</b>: Used for almost 5,000 years lime is one
of mankind’s oldest building materials. Formed over 300 million years ago from
a previous time of extreme global warming lime is far more than an additive, it
has been the key stabilising material that can turn ordinary soil into completely
water-resistant blocks. By employing a
basic formula and tests used by Roman builders 2,000 years ago, the lime
consultants from <a href="http://www.strawbuild.org/">Strawbuild UK</a> have
shown local villagers how to experiment with their locally available soil until
they find a mix that can sit underwater for months, indeed, indefinitely. This
happens when lime is combined with the right amount of clay (or volcanic ash if
you happen to have it) to create hydraulic lime – known to solidify
under-water. The entire village can see this process – earth bricks thus made
remain steeped in buckets of water indefinitely. The “seeing is believing”
adage couldn’t be more true in this case: local people are so confident in the
ability of their building materials to withstand water that a visitor will be
greeted by a lecture on the finer arts of lime construction in remote villages
across the land. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri" , "sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;"><b>Linking emergency-recovery and resilience</b>:
three consecutive floods from 2010 – 2012 meant that humanitarian organisations
were often responding to emergency shelter needs (people literally displaced on
roads or any higher ground) at the same time as working on durable shelters in
another part of the region from a previous years' flooding. </span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyxMAQ-_x9V-NesE0z6AI42XFPBkeCJTebC4hMggxSwXv2e6Kjk9xklF3bsoP9QuzLUMSPCUkDpOnSAc32s_A8WZfX5cEEqu1lG-pgyaColVB6Fa-QHhZxEqFU8NjppcQTCUVwPe1h67lh/s1600/20130327_103318.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyxMAQ-_x9V-NesE0z6AI42XFPBkeCJTebC4hMggxSwXv2e6Kjk9xklF3bsoP9QuzLUMSPCUkDpOnSAc32s_A8WZfX5cEEqu1lG-pgyaColVB6Fa-QHhZxEqFU8NjppcQTCUVwPe1h67lh/s640/20130327_103318.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">A "roofing kit" designed by HANDS - inlcudes a steel girder two plastic sheets, enough bamboo poles for a roof in the future a solar lamp and a water filter. The design of this temporary shelter could be improved but it's what people decided on. The main point is that these materials can be used in the reconstruction phase, which a tent, for example, cannot. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "calibri" , "sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "calibri" , "sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "calibri" , "sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "calibri" , "sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">Realising
the inevitable link between these phases of recovery one of our local partner organisations,
<a href="http://hands.org.pk/live/">HANDS</a>, developed a roofing kit that would provide ample accommodation in the
emergency phase and be dismantled and brought home when return was possible.
Here it could be re-used for semi-permanent transitional shelter and again a
third time when the funds for durable, flood-resistant shelters were raised.
Costing no more than £70 ($100) the kit included sufficient bamboo poles for a
normal roof (and a good sized temporary shelter), plastic sheets and a steel
beam that would become the central structure of the temporary and, later, the
permanent dwelling. This may be the
first time in Pakistan that building materials have been used across the “relief to
development continuum”; it has also reduced the cost of providing shelter
support to the same family twice. In fact it has enabled HANDS to become our largest shelter partner, reaching over 50,000 families over this period. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Another important factor: </div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvroNW8IRtLvE0xdBOR75sdfQNo9gG7TW_1bD5_ubgGQ_W-l9hyphenhyphenYZ4SqeYZwjVB9pb655_rupZpnUsvenhQE9jI8u1igJ6repWt9QDv210r-myJnSk_erbXX60kM8ex1r0CU2UziqlLtpz/s1600/20121115_123221.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvroNW8IRtLvE0xdBOR75sdfQNo9gG7TW_1bD5_ubgGQ_W-l9hyphenhyphenYZ4SqeYZwjVB9pb655_rupZpnUsvenhQE9jI8u1igJ6repWt9QDv210r-myJnSk_erbXX60kM8ex1r0CU2UziqlLtpz/s640/20121115_123221.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">OK here's me (eeks) - in a village in Jacobabad, North Sindh, where I'd visited a couple of years before, and was bringing them a picture from that last trip. Staying on the same programme for years means you can understand better what works and what doesn't (as well as keeping in touch!). </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "calibri" , "sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="font-family: "calibri" , "sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;"><b><br /><br /><br />Sustained donor engagement: </b>the fact that DFID
approved the submissions from the humanitarian team at DFID Pakistan year after
year, sustaining a focus on shelter (as well as livelihoods) has been critical
to the success and continuity of the programme. Indeed DFID has been the
leading donor in the shelter sector since the 2011 floods, contributing over
£30m towards this effort. This enabled a
British shelter adviser (er, me) to remain engaged with DFID-Pakistan, living
in Islamabad through most of the project period, travelling extensively across
every district and meeting beneficiaries in hundreds of villages. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpum-hjwt5tTgFXzvjTW-3LoJPwq4eU-XnwZTHMLf6EGavwzpUf_sPdkTFHfTKDwpddx_kP-NyES20lVfrGx7Bt4Lg8Samt9sPmPkjefPxdpTJWgW6iCWkbcgC1ROhgyfNBdQpQi1kG3Yd/s1600/DSC00315.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpum-hjwt5tTgFXzvjTW-3LoJPwq4eU-XnwZTHMLf6EGavwzpUf_sPdkTFHfTKDwpddx_kP-NyES20lVfrGx7Bt4Lg8Samt9sPmPkjefPxdpTJWgW6iCWkbcgC1ROhgyfNBdQpQi1kG3Yd/s640/DSC00315.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A home made with lime-stabilised earth blocks supported by <span style="font-family: calibri, sans-serif;">ACTED (NGO). The large shading is to protect the render from</span><br />
sunlight while the lime render cures properly (it shouldn't dry <span style="font-family: calibri, sans-serif;">too fast). </span></td></tr>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDptWeiIwtfOM7ByvxZdFOx0vXd-Qml5yC9ZQncUOoqSrpHX_RmG_c_5YdzITuPwTF7c6DiDPvrO6Ekuc_SUri9cscCW3qMPTKCt2JrMQQbAiJkcriQYhhyphenhyphen-cpnsGTGMw6GdOUu7hc37hg/s1600/DSC00346.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDptWeiIwtfOM7ByvxZdFOx0vXd-Qml5yC9ZQncUOoqSrpHX_RmG_c_5YdzITuPwTF7c6DiDPvrO6Ekuc_SUri9cscCW3qMPTKCt2JrMQQbAiJkcriQYhhyphenhyphen-cpnsGTGMw6GdOUu7hc37hg/s400/DSC00346.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri" , "sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">So far this project has reached around 750,000 people across flood-prone
areas in Sindh, Southern Punjab (Rajanpur specifically) and two districts of
Eastern Baluchistan. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjr6bz194t9QseVhnq3bEImTaDpJ3LhyphenhyphenhxtHkAAOKkrW8sXNb3u6dlouZAKe-kLrG0JaWiQaQykyqq48PRjtW_tUT8Iya1oCT7w4KkZlOTymdpkV6ELHDZf1vkVdYv2FK5kqqYhTJ0lM_ax/s1600/20130206_143522.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjr6bz194t9QseVhnq3bEImTaDpJ3LhyphenhyphenhxtHkAAOKkrW8sXNb3u6dlouZAKe-kLrG0JaWiQaQykyqq48PRjtW_tUT8Iya1oCT7w4KkZlOTymdpkV6ELHDZf1vkVdYv2FK5kqqYhTJ0lM_ax/s640/20130206_143522.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">So much of this process is about community engagement. Here in a community HANDS was working in Mirpukhass they had encouraged community-based-organisations to plan their own recovery. One each for men and women. And wow! they were so vocal, active and engaged it's always inspiring. This is one of thousands of Hindu communities that live across SE Sindh, in peace with their Muslim neighbours - and without any kind of persecution from the Government it has to be said. </span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlyKrxHj_GxyhQMvv7o04dbSimFM09pKfoGIsaLEI0Ax0k8gGpr0hH_ATzlP2Xjuc0ojrLQUsuDY8CWjap_YUnN2LJN7HguKGrFYvMgwtQ8jyju_XbVTf_eI7GIcXM2qW8aVt0jc05uF8l/s1600/DSC_0370.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="268" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlyKrxHj_GxyhQMvv7o04dbSimFM09pKfoGIsaLEI0Ax0k8gGpr0hH_ATzlP2Xjuc0ojrLQUsuDY8CWjap_YUnN2LJN7HguKGrFYvMgwtQ8jyju_XbVTf_eI7GIcXM2qW8aVt0jc05uF8l/s400/DSC_0370.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Love this picture because it says so much about who benefits from this</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">work. A large "female headed" family, who were living in a basic shack</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">for almost two years after the floods. And Waqar, in the background,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">one of our DFID drivers who used to love coming out on these visits </span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">(we did so many together) </span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri" , "sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;"> OK, so that’s the overview of the project. Why is this such a big deal? Well… Extreme
flooding is becoming a regular event in Pakistan (Nepal and India too) made
worse by climate change but also really inappropriate land management further up the
watershed. For example, the rampant deforestation in Northern areas means less
water is held higher up the landscape. Without trees and vegetation on the land
water flows downhill as the natural means to hold it has been taken away (often
by unscrupulous “timber mafia” who get away with clear cutting). I’ve heard
Pakistan’s forest cover has reduced from about 25% to 3% over the last 50
years. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri" , "sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">Bad news. So, systems and technologies to build
affordable homes that can cope with annual flooding are going to be needed for
generations to come. What we’ve done
here is prove that a model exists that doesn’t need to cost the earth. But the problems further "upstream" really need to be tackled to in a long-term landscape regeneration programme at enormous scale. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiP0miPzS8NbiGbaXcFEZ1bUWnKVQhSWJL10bIIJ9j2a0QyH6jKfvbzCz9FcZze-kTNE2aAvTW7W_AjaYrI0uhGQTgzIR0CyX7icZOn9RRctFWzfJ9MOyjsmyW2O0T0JjL_xl3Z5aktQJnq/s1600/IOM+ER+ORS+2012+%25282%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiP0miPzS8NbiGbaXcFEZ1bUWnKVQhSWJL10bIIJ9j2a0QyH6jKfvbzCz9FcZze-kTNE2aAvTW7W_AjaYrI0uhGQTgzIR0CyX7icZOn9RRctFWzfJ9MOyjsmyW2O0T0JjL_xl3Z5aktQJnq/s400/IOM+ER+ORS+2012+%25282%2529.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Classic "Chora" house in Tharparkar district (SE Sindh) which the family rebuilt <br />with support from Heritage Foundation, IOM and their local NGO partner. </span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: calibri, sans-serif; text-indent: 18pt;">This initiative shows that it's possible to take an alternative, low-cost, low-tech and
low-carbon reconstruction programme to scale - that is: not limited to a few hundred houses as alternative projects often are.
Our amazingly dedicated partners trained men and women in some really
isolated places to build houses to a high standard. People who were
mostly illiterate – but dilligent and committed. Now, as I move around other countries of the
world I see how many other flood-prone communities could use some of these skills, so to start
off I'm going to write about what we did in Pakistan, how and why, how much it
cost, then you can decide if it's worth taking further. </span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "calibri" , "sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;"> </span><span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; text-indent: 18pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; text-indent: 18pt;">Local and
traditional building (vernacular architecture)</span></b></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "calibri" , "sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;"> </span><span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; text-indent: 18pt;">Vernacular building in much of rural Pakistan consists of earthen or thatch
walls, seldom stabilised or water resistant.</span><span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; text-indent: 18pt;">
</span><span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; text-indent: 18pt;">Fired bricks are available, but they are expensive, so the vast majority
produce their own sun-dried mud bricks – using the earth around them. Our aim here was to work with the vernacular, find ways to improve and enhance it, to make the design and materials changes necessary to allow homes to be flood resistant. </span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_1v00ZnZqsfPnLEbL8SG-e8MqUmXGs89MtQkMYLWpj6YHnEn4zo9hq5yyp9oOp3Lc_mSZ-LLBMGkdSiWi4WoL_OxzGzIeXy9eUshnmv3l6zidNsc66DKdhEJ9iftBMkYWN3W0BbB6Q-n7/s1600/20130226_073034.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_1v00ZnZqsfPnLEbL8SG-e8MqUmXGs89MtQkMYLWpj6YHnEn4zo9hq5yyp9oOp3Lc_mSZ-LLBMGkdSiWi4WoL_OxzGzIeXy9eUshnmv3l6zidNsc66DKdhEJ9iftBMkYWN3W0BbB6Q-n7/s640/20130226_073034.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Made with wood and straw, covered in mud, with no roof eaves these houses are vulnerable to intense rainfall as the walls can collapse from the top down. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: calibri, sans-serif; text-indent: 18pt;">Roofs provide
scant protection from the rains; there are rarely protruding eaves, which
leaves the entire house all too exposed to heavy downpours: water penetrates
and softens the tops of the earthen walls until they cannot support the weight
of the roof and the whole shelter collapses. </span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdlW8Cc2E53nINBelpjiImqeqrc_hi1dyzXBz_P0at-6rgah8LRRANUuw0HpzpqPpn0SLELIeIr4tRT3m1wqLcrN_CE6lOh-OVBu1yRF1LcfZxSCYccuhQlzF2OFxEiHJOsGyW7P1TS8Ig/s1600/P1060486.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdlW8Cc2E53nINBelpjiImqeqrc_hi1dyzXBz_P0at-6rgah8LRRANUuw0HpzpqPpn0SLELIeIr4tRT3m1wqLcrN_CE6lOh-OVBu1yRF1LcfZxSCYccuhQlzF2OFxEiHJOsGyW7P1TS8Ig/s640/P1060486.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Other types, these from Southern Sindh, with twin-pitch roofs, <span style="text-indent: 18pt;">with better eaves over the walls. But the walls collapse when </span></span><span style="font-size: x-small; text-indent: 18pt;">submerged for too long. </span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri" , "sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="font-family: "calibri" , "sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;"><b>Partnerships </b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri" , "sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">The project was a product of a close partnership
between DFID-Pakistan and several local and international organisations. The
main implementing partners, between 2011 and
2014 were: Health and Nutrition Development Society (<b><a href="http://hands.org.pk/live/">HANDS</a></b>), a Karachi-based
local NGO, the <a href="https://www.iom.int/pakistan">International Organisation for Migration</a> (<b>IOM</b>), a UN agency, and <b><a href="http://www.acted.org/en">ACTED</a></b>, an international NGO.</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZRvzWSXxsLkuFY9Giki1mM17GMootVxCY9FB95uc5Bl4ly6BcCxubL5KiYamgECBNSZyONjFn4MRFr9duJJed7xqRAfi8RtEkxD3ZOpPL7O6H8VnUPBJjQUPP7ZmRsI0nvrnlIWhjaOsw/s1600/20130206_104502.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZRvzWSXxsLkuFY9Giki1mM17GMootVxCY9FB95uc5Bl4ly6BcCxubL5KiYamgECBNSZyONjFn4MRFr9duJJed7xqRAfi8RtEkxD3ZOpPL7O6H8VnUPBJjQUPP7ZmRsI0nvrnlIWhjaOsw/s320/20130206_104502.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Ghulam Mustafa, from HANDS, who has also</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">stayed the course over all these years. A really</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">dedicated humanitarian dude!</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; text-indent: 18pt;">Two other organisations contributed technical design,
materials consulting, advice and training: </span><a href="http://www.heritagefoundationpak.org/Hf" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-indent: 18pt;"><b>Heritage Foundation</b> </a><span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; text-indent: 18pt;"> – a
Karachi based NGO working in cultural heritage restoration and in traditional and natural building, who worked
with IOM and local communities to rebuild using local materials, especially
bamboo and lime; and </span><b style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-indent: 18pt;"><a href="http://www.strawbuild.org/">Strawbuild</a>,</b><span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; text-indent: 18pt;">
</span><span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; text-indent: 18pt;">a UK-based consultancy firm specialising in natural building systems.
Strawbuild developed detailed training on working with lime (CaCO</span><sub style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-indent: 18pt;">3</sub><span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; text-indent: 18pt;">)
and worked with all three implementing NGOs - Hands, IOM and ACTED - to
incorporate lime in their building materials and practice.</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1h_2uvvRgbAXXozNmnVU4cCpEwlhUS_09Mem8eHhsuS-c5MEWbAoWDR5VmXLfYU_URdVmTJ-FA7HFbUs5quGsuou2vUQQtPzX-cGbQ7BRE5Pl1SS-t9r57K-zCvR2dKQOQXGZxSKpbDma/s1600/Yasmeen+at+roundhouse.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="275" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1h_2uvvRgbAXXozNmnVU4cCpEwlhUS_09Mem8eHhsuS-c5MEWbAoWDR5VmXLfYU_URdVmTJ-FA7HFbUs5quGsuou2vUQQtPzX-cGbQ7BRE5Pl1SS-t9r57K-zCvR2dKQOQXGZxSKpbDma/s400/Yasmeen+at+roundhouse.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="padding-top: 4px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Yasmeen Lari, founder of the Heritage Foundation, Pakistan's first</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">lady architect and now one of its strongest and relentless advocate</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">for natural building, heritage conservation and preservation</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">of vernacular architecture. </span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9G6tMVRBmBDchGHfqTQiVjRgQM0Rn0MOv2OVj578PkWzh7CnsTRVkPtjl_naowwkA9iHwcrzpZkpOG5m1KmTNPRLpuoJnq1Drx1nUfmp2ziFpvdOl7VpyEdIRYYvtx5T0XFyZqVA1iQDh/s1600/IOM+ER+ORS+2012+%252873%2529.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9G6tMVRBmBDchGHfqTQiVjRgQM0Rn0MOv2OVj578PkWzh7CnsTRVkPtjl_naowwkA9iHwcrzpZkpOG5m1KmTNPRLpuoJnq1Drx1nUfmp2ziFpvdOl7VpyEdIRYYvtx5T0XFyZqVA1iQDh/s400/IOM+ER+ORS+2012+%252873%2529.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Manuel Pereira - unstoppable project manager of IOM an</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">engineer from Lisbon whose energy and diligence was</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">unparalleled and an inspiration. </span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbcnx0u8ERue_4napIumvXUOT_TSeeTcRBWTrU6jEagZNKBfIwTZ1_Iwv_-mQRcsHxhzlKuvni-kM5oIfjEzrvfKM84XCX4KOsNOcfTOFy5qmT8hr4b6be2liARJHfoWIErCdowSru4qOU/s1600/P1060801.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbcnx0u8ERue_4napIumvXUOT_TSeeTcRBWTrU6jEagZNKBfIwTZ1_Iwv_-mQRcsHxhzlKuvni-kM5oIfjEzrvfKM84XCX4KOsNOcfTOFy5qmT8hr4b6be2liARJHfoWIErCdowSru4qOU/s320/P1060801.JPG" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Yousif Aziz, squatting during a community meeting, </span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">shelter manager from ACTED, another</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">great colleague since late 2010 when we started</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">collaborating on housing - and still going. With</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">this experience Yousaf and others should be senior</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">shelter advisors in Pakistan going forward.</span><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-hpg3SeqcEN05rRG3E54HLcywPurm295LzvnAtYF7yAyFTUmin7FP0DetRDqM1q-XaIZ1QST3tgUdvbOyq5bMYSNYsr1sRMF2jd5Yg1aVJ6810astoZpgZBZIrvRHAhakVLZuMTCT2zp1/s1600/DSC_0755.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="263" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-hpg3SeqcEN05rRG3E54HLcywPurm295LzvnAtYF7yAyFTUmin7FP0DetRDqM1q-XaIZ1QST3tgUdvbOyq5bMYSNYsr1sRMF2jd5Yg1aVJ6810astoZpgZBZIrvRHAhakVLZuMTCT2zp1/s400/DSC_0755.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Bee Rowan, founder of Strawbuild, one of the most passionate</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">advocates for natural materials, with decades of training and</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">design experience in lime and other natural materials. </span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Ammarah Mubarak, humanitarian coordinator at IOM Pakistan</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">since 2010 who has overseen one of IOM's most</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">impressive shelter cluster (coordination) and large scale</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">responses after every disaster. This kind of long term </span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">commitment stability is invaluable. </span></td></tr>
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<b style="font-family: calibri, sans-serif; text-indent: 18pt;">Project Ambition – what were the intended outcomes?</b></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqPrOnn9kqb12WC7OeCL0QU0QMl-j4atu_No5MCKG5683isKpGOy4eHAlWQ3E1mxTPxkK5U6rhDAy_8DaQvsPydghcCejGyq43w__IdA63JS1euIWb1gOnvHA-2x26FlxwiIE9VrmgrbjM/s1600/DSC_0467.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="424" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqPrOnn9kqb12WC7OeCL0QU0QMl-j4atu_No5MCKG5683isKpGOy4eHAlWQ3E1mxTPxkK5U6rhDAy_8DaQvsPydghcCejGyq43w__IdA63JS1euIWb1gOnvHA-2x26FlxwiIE9VrmgrbjM/s640/DSC_0467.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri" , "sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">Ultimately, the point of all this effort has been two-fold: restore people's homes and to
reduce the impact of future floods for people living in areas that are likely
to be exposed to extreme weather events.
By reducing the impact we'd also </span>hope to reduce, to some extent, people's vulnerability to “natural hazards”,
to increase their resilience to these predictable threats.</div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri" , "sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;"> Vulnerability
(and resilience) are however complex issues and it would be wrong to assume
that a stronger home, by itself can fix all the problems. For people that face myriad problems like
having only contaminated wa</span>ter to drink, barely any power or energy services,
denuded, deforested landscapes, chronic malnutrition, unequal access to land,
limited work and training opportunities, no access to financial credit,
insurance, dysfunctional judiciary systems – vulnerability means living in the
shadow of all these combined overlords of poverty. </div>
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<span style="font-family: calibri, sans-serif;">In terms of ambition, I think this is one of the largest shelter programmes in the world that has supported so many local people to build flood-resistant houses at such a low price, avoiding enormous atmospheric pollution, using lime and other natural, affordable, locally-available materials. So far the project has helped around 750,000 people across flood-prone areas in Sindh, Southern Punjab (Rajanpur specifically) and two districts of Eastern Baluchistan.</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMM8RbClAJe1QwIXJhBlau8TfIs8F2LnIvUIvb9MxWRvRn7NhbOICyPUfnZHF5rCE76gPi_1I8l-SBXKrQHjNqWXbwKjXj9HZVrfu2b2MBt5CwxLAQtLtqe1nkZuYTCD1FEIjCf15MUbjt/s1600/20130206_105347.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMM8RbClAJe1QwIXJhBlau8TfIs8F2LnIvUIvb9MxWRvRn7NhbOICyPUfnZHF5rCE76gPi_1I8l-SBXKrQHjNqWXbwKjXj9HZVrfu2b2MBt5CwxLAQtLtqe1nkZuYTCD1FEIjCf15MUbjt/s640/20130206_105347.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">For years after all of the major floods people lived in shacks like this, shown in the foreground, using some basic materials (they hadn't received the longer term roofing kits, which came later). The building behind has just been finished by the family - the older couple's son still displaying recent plastering work on his shalwar khamiz! But this just shows how a (hopefully) durable shelter can help move people from vulnerability and deprivation to a place of more confidence and ... resilience. </span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri" , "sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;"><b>Environmental and Social factors - should we put a value on these?</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif;">I'd recently completed a <a href="https://gse.cat.org.uk/index.php">Masters in sustainable building and energy</a>, so I, like every other graduate couldn't help but see the environmental impact of modern, energy intensive building materials - especially when there are so many low-carbon alternatives that do the job just as well. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif;"><a href="http://carbonwarroom.com/what-we-do/research-publications/pathways-efficiency-south-asia-brick-making-industry">Emissions and pollution</a> from brick kilns, cement production, local deforestation all contribute to a more denuded and vulnerable ecological landscape that leave people much more at risk from floods or storms. Which in turn are more severe because of excessive global pollution and climate change. A viscous cycle. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif;">Brick production in Pakistan should be understood by those building anything - if environmental and social impacts are counted and valued at all. The major brick kilns are largely unregulated and are mired in reports of unethical
treatment of workers such as bonded and child labour and
gruelling working conditions. Should humanitarian organisations be buying from unethical suppliers? Arguably, buying such bricks exacerbates environmental and public health crises, while condoning human rights violations. (Many an essay topic in there). </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Women were at the forefront of rebuilding their own homes. This example from Badin in Southern Sindh, following a Heritage Foundation design, which promoted massive foundations and "toes" and raised platforms to increase</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">flood resistance. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri" , "sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">The reconstruction projects are, by design, community-led. Each partner worked closely with each village, seeking active engagement and participation. In many cases the partner NGOs formed community based organisations (CBOs) including both men and women (jointly or separately); these became dynamic focal points for community action – beyond the housing project. For example, some CBOs are using their new capacity for organisation and collective “voice” to articulate wider needs and priorities.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: calibri, sans-serif;">How the money transferred..</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri" , "sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">Community members themselves managed the funds provided for purchasing shelter materials; this meant people were in control of the process. The payments are split over three tranches, each following the completion of an agreed building phase (such as foundations, top of walls, etc.). This way the people are in control of procurement, liaison with traders, timing of deliveries and funds administration. Regular monitoring by the implementing partners (and us, in DFID) revealed that there has been little or no misuse of the reconstruction funds. This approach has also saved enormous resources otherwise spent on the rental of warehouses, trucking contracts etc. Instead, market traders came to the communities to sell their wares, paying their own transport, managing their own logistics. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "calibri" , "sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;"><b>Funding:</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri" , "sans-serif"; text-indent: 18pt;">£30m over three years has been provided by
DFID based on detailed proposals submitted by the implementing partners. </span><span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; text-indent: 18pt;">That's about £40 a person - or £280 a family - which includes all agency overheads, staff, </span><span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; text-indent: 18pt;">technical consultants, DFID oversight, etc. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri" , "sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">So, to summarise... here are some </span><span style="font-family: calibri, sans-serif; text-indent: 18pt;"><b><i>LESSONS LEARNED</i></b></span></div>
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<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-pagination: none;"><span style="font-family: "calibri" , "sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">Link the response to emergency shelter needs to
longer-term, durable housing. It
makes more sense than investing twice for the same objectives. Think long term when you programme an
initial response. <o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-pagination: none;"><span style="font-family: "calibri" , "sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">Use lime in flood areas. There is ample evidence that lime
resists water better than any modern material. This dates back from the Roman and Indus
civilisations - whose structures, built over 5,000 years ago, are still
standing in Northern Sindh. <o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-pagination: none;"><span style="font-family: "calibri" , "sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">Lime is a complex material that requires training
from experts with appropriate experience.
It is not like cement that can be mixed in a simple ratio with sand
or earth. It requires extensive
local testing and research before it can be used at scale. Make sure you plan in at least 3
additional months for this research.
<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-pagination: none;"><span style="font-family: "calibri" , "sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">Promote community mobilisation and engagement
from the beginning. Reinforce
beneficiary ownership by giving control of local expenditure to the
community, rather than external agencies.
<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-pagination: none;"><span style="font-family: "calibri" , "sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">Deal with other issues in the community while
engaged in the housing. Can the
low-cost building blocks be used to build latrines too? Why not address
the health crisis sparked by the use of sub-standard cook-stoves by
introducing better models? <o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-pagination: none;"><span style="font-family: "calibri" , "sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">Involve local academia wherever possible. Local
students are thrilled to be engaged in ongoing projects. This way more
people observe, learn, practice and can disseminate the lessons that
emerge. [We so need to do better in this regard...].<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-pagination: none;"><span style="font-family: "calibri" , "sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">Publish findings, encourage discussions and spark
debates – make these projects widely known through journals, films and
articles, so they don’t remain isolated cases closed to anyone who wasn’t
directly involved in the project. </span></li>
</ol>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><sup><span style="font-family: "calibri" , "sans-serif";">1 </span></sup><span style="font-family: "calibri" , "sans-serif";">University of Bath, Embodied energy and carbon
in Construction materials (2008). Available at:
https://www.circularecology.com/nuqdjaidjajklasah.html</span></span><span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
Magnushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15258662256324051363noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-195261637295251390.post-37951931241195368272015-06-08T04:14:00.002+01:002015-06-22T14:49:55.274+01:00Where there is no toilet (& sewage treatment options when there is one)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Human poo & pee causes more death, malnutrition and economic problems than any other single issue; yet like animal manure, can be a source of nutrients that can build health soils, regenerate landscapes. This is the first of a few blogs where I'll explore consequences of terrible sanitation, better treatment options some of the radical new approaches to changing habit and practices that work, and some that really don't.<br />
<br />
When there's no toilets in a community people "go" in the open, behind bushes, buildings, wherever they can find. If you visit lots of villages you soon get that whiff of exposed poo, and if you spend a bit of time with that community you get to understand what happens when people are in such close and regular contact with their "wastes", from the high levels of diarrhoea and a host of other water borne diseases they live with (and pay for in money for medicines and visits to distant clinics). <br />
<br />
<br />
<a name='more'></a><br /><br />
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It's clear: dirty, unsafe water is almost always a result of contamination from faeces and sewage. And this continues to be one of the biggest causes for under-5 mortality, especially where there are no toilets. This has to be fixed. <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYWO0hNVeeAXswn8XurHZklxqSKMGPsiXUgdjQTajpQRKMJ16WdFvjSsvJgIMLwQO9eVipLNVEsjs_nY8CD6xryOJjsfZxSB7PG9Mn_xpCbCgoMfNF8bp_K0vLLEAJh-BP8yoT1UxnNk3I/s1600/20150513_102043.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYWO0hNVeeAXswn8XurHZklxqSKMGPsiXUgdjQTajpQRKMJ16WdFvjSsvJgIMLwQO9eVipLNVEsjs_nY8CD6xryOJjsfZxSB7PG9Mn_xpCbCgoMfNF8bp_K0vLLEAJh-BP8yoT1UxnNk3I/s400/20150513_102043.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This UNICEF poster I saw last week on a wall in Sindh pretty much says<br />
it all. Surely it's not rocket science, and yet getting people to change<br />
these habits and practices is one of the most challenging I have come across.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
In Pakistan alone, it's <a href="https://www.wsp.org/sites/wsp.org/files/publications/WSP-esi-pakistan.pdf">estimated</a> that around 93,000 people die <i>per year</i> from poor sanitation and related diseases - that's more than all the civilian deaths from earthquakes and floods in the country over the last decade.<br />
<br />
I have seen this in countless villages and urban areas across Pakistan but also Liberia and other countries. Globally the numbers are <a href="http://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/sanitation/brief/sanitation-facts-figures-resources">staggering</a>: some 2.5 billion people lack access to proper sanitation; 1 billion still defecate in the open - both of these are estimated to cause almost a million unnecessary deaths a year. <br />
<br />
Emerging evidence is also proving that lack of sanitation could be one of the leading drivers of malnutrition globally. This powerful <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/15/world/asia/poor-sanitation-in-india-may-afflict-well-fed-children-with-malnutrition.html?_r=1">story </a>in the New York Times explains it better than most, explaining how constant infection in the gut prevents children from absorbing nutrients - regardless of how much food or money they have access to. This causes chronic stunting whereby the body and the brain fail to reach their optimal potential, a process that can't be reversed; stunted children thus can't function academically, economically on a par with their peers. The implications this has on Governments in poor countries is staggering: address water, sanitation and hygiene or half your people will be half as productive and smart as they could be.<br />
<br />
This gets me thinking about recent trends from donors / banks to promote cash transfers (dubbed "social protection" or social safety nets). Billions of dollars are spent this way, and there's strong evidence to support that it works in some settings. But if water and sanitation aren't addressed in parallel... then these underlying drivers of vulnerability will just remain in place.<br />
<br />
Other studies have looked at the economic costs of this shitty situation. In Pakistan it <a href="https://www.wsp.org/sites/wsp.org/files/publications/WSP-esi-pakistan.pdf">is estimated</a> that poor sanitation costs the country some $5.7 billion annually in economic losses; while in India, which has the highest numbers of malnourished children in the world the losses are equal to a dizzying <a href="http://www.wsp.org/content/economic-impacts-sanitation">$54 billion</a> - per year!<br />
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Thinking back to my time In Liberia, during the peak of conflict in 2003 (managing health agency MERLIN's emergency response), when half a million people fleeing the rebel attack poured over to "our" side of the city, as the country's biggest cholera epidemic in years was killing far more than the bullets and bombs. We set up a lot of cholera treatment units, water tanks, toilets, and saved many lives, for sure, but had there been adequate treatment in place already, I'm starting to think it could have reduced so much mortality. Note to self: find out how much of cholera-endemic Liberia remains without adequate sanitation and get writing to the Government!<br />
<br />
But it's not just OD, it's also the scourge of untreated sewerage which seeps out of semi-urban and urban communities across Pakistan (and in so much of the world). This stinky sludge ends up contaminating our fresh water sources, killing off other plant and fish life, creating weird natural imbalances like algae blooms which when they die give off some other <a href="http://www1.ucsc.edu/news_events/press_releases/archive/99-00/02-00/algal_blooms.htm">toxic liquid waste</a> which is also really harmful, potentially lethal to fish, birds and humans. <br />
<br />
So all in all, human waste is equal to untold suffering, disease, pollution and contamination for people and other forms of life. But - this is only the case if you don't treat it properly, if your systems for treatment isn't designed with full treatment in mind, or if it's only partially complete, which seems to be the case pretty much everywhere in the world I go. <br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Pit Latrines and treatment options</span><br />
<br />
So... what are the options? Well first, it helps to understand the basics of the biology at play. Let's take an example of a pit latrine, it will hold the liquid and solids together in an underwater state which means that oxygen can't get in, so it's <i>anaerobic</i>. A multitude of harmful bacteria live in this state, which also produces loads of methane, and uric acid (from the pee) all of which smell bad. So if you step into one of these pit latrines you will want to get out as soon as possible. Really not ideal, but in an emergency, better than nothing when there are thousands of people living in a small area, and open defecation would be really dangerous for public health. <br />
<br />
The alternative in this case is a compost toilet, which prevents the waste from becoming anaerobic by adding sawdust, straw, leaves or any dry thing (rich in carbon, crunched up cardboard will do). This absorbs a lot of the liquid and allows for little bits of air (thus oxygen) to get in and around the pile, which thus remains aerobic. A completely different, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermophile">thermophyllic</a> process kicks in whereby in heats up, pretty much like a compost heap. These are unique "heat-loving" bacteria which exist in any composting process; over time they reduce these natural processes eliminate the harmful germs and bacteria: they "treat" our wastes, making it safe. Moreover, it transforms it into a a really rich source of nutrients for plant growth. One of the best books, brimming with resources to understand all this is the <a href="http://humanurehandbook.com/">humanure handbook</a>.<br />
<br />
In other words: <u>The problem and source of so much disease </u>and suffering has the potential to be a <u>great resource </u>for regenerating a denuded garden, tree planting, and so much positive growth. <br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Pour flush toilets and sewage treatment </span><br />
<br />
The other types of toilets are the pour flush ones that most people living in cities or richer countries use every day. Squat plate or sit-on-top they both hold a bit of water to receive your <i>delivery</i>, then water is added and it disappears, through a U-bend into a septic tank where it sits in that same anaerobic environment discussed above. Millions of naturally occurring anaerobic tolerant bacteria in the tank consume the solids, changing it over time from solid to less dense and then floating scum, which then rise and leave the tank as more waste arrives. <br />
<br />
Now, here's the gross and deeply unsettling part: septic tanks only partially treat this sewage. It is still highly contaminated and is known to be one of the largest sources of ground-water contamination. Bacteria, viruses, parasites (including worms and protozoans) are the types of pathogens in sewage waste and run-off from septic tanks. The bacteria can cause numerous diseases including typhoid, dysentery, gastroenteritis, cholera; the viruses meanwhile include such infamous horrors as polio, hepatitis A, viral gastroenteritis. <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijdRJx7tSedAXgy4eARls6GmY6uwngdulHhT7wi0yVLG_n9uj-Uu3Jl_jkkZe610uvYQxxxlj9OndUZzbWwXwt0sVVMvBD354aksWUVu4ecSD_EiRM6QWKYCQDGZAYnmin485hEmeeQ6uf/s1600/Picture2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijdRJx7tSedAXgy4eARls6GmY6uwngdulHhT7wi0yVLG_n9uj-Uu3Jl_jkkZe610uvYQxxxlj9OndUZzbWwXwt0sVVMvBD354aksWUVu4ecSD_EiRM6QWKYCQDGZAYnmin485hEmeeQ6uf/s400/Picture2.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Example 1: A latrine + septic tank built by a humanitarian organisation<br />
in a village in Sindh, Pakistan following floods. Good intentions, <br />
but potentially dire consequences as the overflowing septic tank has <br />
created a perfect environment for dangerous bacteria and viruses. </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-wjRzVlXp7ZMin4wr7Fw2zO0M1etvB2G9JBEDQ3Hz_8gCivMYiyUT7QLi5SV86F6VmdTAoR6_dRPsxorQtNOrOD4bQQfhLMpDm92za_f0Z3ov5g6gpu0jxh3gw3N_LiDBjv6Ogh7N3L_l/s1600/Picture1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-wjRzVlXp7ZMin4wr7Fw2zO0M1etvB2G9JBEDQ3Hz_8gCivMYiyUT7QLi5SV86F6VmdTAoR6_dRPsxorQtNOrOD4bQQfhLMpDm92za_f0Z3ov5g6gpu0jxh3gw3N_LiDBjv6Ogh7N3L_l/s320/Picture1.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Example 2: raw sewerage running through a semi-urban<br />
area of Jacobabad, Pakistan. These channels<br />
are often blocked with garbage and overflow into the street.<br />
Next stop: the nearest irrigation canal.<br />
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</tbody></table>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-Y3FPumPiCQ8FGnelv2XSh2ytzqBuyAxp6WvbTkApxAT_oYE_3y_VRv6aA4_acJ7-RP7uh6EkogbChN9_K6EI7H5yACVaRbQGoef7Ay8BQPxoMQ2osIsXskzV823ZMHW-hQMW0TxnNtj5/s1600/sewage+algae.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-Y3FPumPiCQ8FGnelv2XSh2ytzqBuyAxp6WvbTkApxAT_oYE_3y_VRv6aA4_acJ7-RP7uh6EkogbChN9_K6EI7H5yACVaRbQGoef7Ay8BQPxoMQ2osIsXskzV823ZMHW-hQMW0TxnNtj5/s320/sewage+algae.png" width="253" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Example 3. Another overflowing latrine (Punjab)<br />
another aid project, this time a good example<br />
of the algae bloom, causing very hazardous<br />
toxins. Is this any better than open defecation?</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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I have hundreds of examples; the point is that a septic tank alone does not treat the sewerage waste. Most designs recommend a soak-away pit. This is basically a hole in the ground filled with some gravel where the septic water seeps into, through a perforated pipe, or just straight into the gravelly hole. And then, into the ground, maybe into the ground-water, we don't really know. I've heard it said that soil acts as an excellent filter, but there's little research to show what happens when hundreds of households seep their waste-water into the same soil, it eventually builds up, and leads to contamination of ground water. <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDvMb79JzhFD9jmFd1zsW-8jQqCqUhvZqcSDWzGLLkk-dgFM8Ir9_gdiOdG49OKGCCwRFBSOeNcRkozE9phmrJP-wu9OQn1USUQU73F78JG8FwyKP8AN6FH6P5hTY_G5chP0k3Js7ThrQ5/s1600/20140408_134431.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDvMb79JzhFD9jmFd1zsW-8jQqCqUhvZqcSDWzGLLkk-dgFM8Ir9_gdiOdG49OKGCCwRFBSOeNcRkozE9phmrJP-wu9OQn1USUQU73F78JG8FwyKP8AN6FH6P5hTY_G5chP0k3Js7ThrQ5/s400/20140408_134431.jpg" width="225" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Built by IDEP in Bali, this constructed wetland is only about <br />
18 months old and is seriously flourishing.<br />
The water at the end of it smelled fresh. <br />
The trees were growing at a phenomenal rate</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
So, treatment options for septic tank waste-water? I have found nothing better than constructed wetlands that allow plants to absorb the nutrients, to literally transform the harmful pathogens into plant growth. There are quite a few different ways of doing this, which would (and do) fill entire books, but I have seen some excellent results here, by <a href="http://www.idepfoundation.org/">IDEP</a> in Bali. See picture, left.<br />
<br />
These are gravel-filled sealed tanks, into which water-tolerant plants are set. There is no soil, only gravel. The roots transform the nutrients from the sewage waste (nitrogen, ammonia and urea) into plant growth. The roots oxygenate the water. <br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRcb_el8VALMWLLu5TtG9UHXzDFquMScBlEKvz6Cc0ob2WT6X01-SQdyfwBFGD6oAOIh14O2ITzZBj62zUGNTBoQMo_qJ3SqOL5g2k4ot50K4IAYiUPvlfDQNMbv4T8piXSfV-KPNANibE/s1600/pcu_2.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRcb_el8VALMWLLu5TtG9UHXzDFquMScBlEKvz6Cc0ob2WT6X01-SQdyfwBFGD6oAOIh14O2ITzZBj62zUGNTBoQMo_qJ3SqOL5g2k4ot50K4IAYiUPvlfDQNMbv4T8piXSfV-KPNANibE/s320/pcu_2.JPG" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Constructed wetland by IDEP, at<br />
Ulluwatu in Bali. </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3gqQIKU9hQGNSk7-7KxGNS2ynhHz2JEstOIhIh73IEdVf28Nfy4FFW4VMtVj7dRy_4KYwVmxCdQFOTo3DerMq99raK0ncMG7Z___jmcBTkCkTYk3dR70nnAhMPTVq22bd8lgJqoBq3Z6p/s1600/large+WWG+thailand.png" imageanchor="1" style="font-size: 12.8000001907349px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="264" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3gqQIKU9hQGNSk7-7KxGNS2ynhHz2JEstOIhIh73IEdVf28Nfy4FFW4VMtVj7dRy_4KYwVmxCdQFOTo3DerMq99raK0ncMG7Z___jmcBTkCkTYk3dR70nnAhMPTVq22bd8lgJqoBq3Z6p/s640/large+WWG+thailand.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ecological treatment of wastes can go up to large scale - as shown here.<br />
Thanks to <span style="font-size: 12.8000001907349px;">Florence Cattin for this photo and for so much valuable advice on the theory and practice of waste water gardens. </span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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There are other wetland system too, like Jay and Clara Abrahams of <a href="http://biologicdesign.co.uk/page.php?pageid=home">biologic design</a>, who build "wetland ecosystem treatment or WET systems". These too are remarkable and I have visited many of their installations in England. Jay points out these WET systems are not simple horizontal or vertical flow reedbeds; instead the WET systems use soil as the purification medium, not gravel as do conventional reedbed treatment systems.<br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlN1Ac8v0jL7358CaqbFhckYFUrDXgQTMYzgmBxMOqtCThu2GzdgWH2Uy3kl-EashG5eiwAgsnspLESGpaVpgQBdUfb2EaBvhZBnXcODLG2tq0gCPDc7MTY45HaaKOcbqhc6dKHUBNf8LN/s1600/DSC_0526.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlN1Ac8v0jL7358CaqbFhckYFUrDXgQTMYzgmBxMOqtCThu2GzdgWH2Uy3kl-EashG5eiwAgsnspLESGpaVpgQBdUfb2EaBvhZBnXcODLG2tq0gCPDc7MTY45HaaKOcbqhc6dKHUBNf8LN/s400/DSC_0526.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A small portion of a WET system in the South of England, mid-winter.<br />
from a quiet large institution, this treated<br />
all sewage and grey-water wastes. </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
During our visits Jay points out that the bacteria in sewage is relatively vulnerable when it leaves its septic tank and that if you have created a viable ecosystem in an un-lined wetland, studded with hundreds of grasses, bushes and trees, the proliferation of much stronger bacteria devour these "new kids on the block". <br />
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The waste flows from one pond to the other through the soil banks that separate each. The extensive root networks and living soils provide a living filtration process. Fish and ducks can be introduced. Larger, older systems are like forests, attracting birds and enabling the return of biodiversity and health to the overall environment. Moreover, these systems promote rapid growth of high value species which can earn the owner serious money. In this case willow is planted which is harvested and sold locally. <br />
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Lastly, there's biogas. Human manure has less potential energy than that of cows, but it is still an organic material and will produce methane. It's such an obvious way to get energy from waste, but I doubt it would perform very well if the sewage weren't combined with other wastes, like sawdust and chopped up food waste, from kitchens or fruit markets. We installed such a system in our home, described in this <a href="http://wolfeintransition.blogspot.com/2012/01/biogas-digester-septic-tank-for-our.html">blog</a>, but we haven't lived there enough since then to really learn from it. But there is copious evidence already out there; we are well passed proof of concept. Check this 2 minute <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZGIG9_x4DPQ">video</a> for one. Crucially, we now know that biogas digesters are very effective at <a href="http://www.appropedia.org/Biogas_from_human_waste">treating harmful pathogens,</a> though not completely, so care should be taken of the slurry emerging as a bi-product. Again, not a problem if properly designed at the beginning. <br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">In Conclusion</span><br />
It's clear that ecological systems can treat our sewage waste if we allow it to: the problem becomes an opportunity - and part of a solution for another problem. We need to start making these links. <br />
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It need not cost much more than we are currently spending, if we adopt the right designs, for which we need more testing, experimentation and research. Last week I joined a team from IDEP Bali who were teaching local NGOs in Pakistan how to build basic constructed wetlands - so we can start to learn from these results soon.</div>
Magnushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15258662256324051363noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-195261637295251390.post-18214090933903217792015-05-07T18:16:00.000+01:002015-06-22T14:51:04.164+01:00Nepal earthquake: emergency shelter and earthbags<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
In this blog I discuss earth-bag construction as an option for shelter recovery in Nepal. I start off with a quick overview of how the humanitarian coordination is going with the relevant links to access this info for those people unfamiliar with the system. So skip down a bit if you want to get straight to the earthbag issues, links, etc.<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpPGSkYW7rrcA5sOCjjLLqUvZDTUIKeiLg6MTvWqoS0r2U0Ss8kgn4BtJTyTz-x9hFhwBwdKK9bgMBcGCUZPf57OITvOuRNvZxPrzw0ExesfsQaUPe8jnuGZ2pQN1He5xD9CVl2kx6ihaO/s1600/All+doors+and+windows+are+kept.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpPGSkYW7rrcA5sOCjjLLqUvZDTUIKeiLg6MTvWqoS0r2U0Ss8kgn4BtJTyTz-x9hFhwBwdKK9bgMBcGCUZPf57OITvOuRNvZxPrzw0ExesfsQaUPe8jnuGZ2pQN1He5xD9CVl2kx6ihaO/s400/All+doors+and+windows+are+kept.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">An earth bag school under construction in Nepal, before the<br />
earthquake. This one, a school, built by the local community with design and <br />
training help from <a href="http://www.edgeofseven.org/our-approach-2/projects/">Edge of Seven</a>, others shown below.<br />
Critical points are: these are extremely earthquake resilient, energy efficient<br />
and require a fraction of the logistics of importing bricks and cement up the damaged roads, etc. </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<a name='more'></a><br /><br />
The incredibly powerful earthquake which struck Nepal on 25th of April this year has killed over 7,500 people and injured at least twice as many. Latest reports are indicating that over 255,000 houses have been destroyed, with another 215,000 "damaged". Humanitarian coordination is already up and running and huge amounts of data and information is being placed online and updated regularly. The relevant entry point is <a href="https://www.humanitarianresponse.info/en/operations/nepal">here</a>.<br />
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The suffering and loss reported by the media and humanitarian agencies has been immense, unbearable for those families worst affected. Save the Children and UNDAC <a href="https://www.humanitarianresponse.info/sites/www.humanitarianresponse.info/files/assessments/150505_nepal_situation_analysis_osocc_assessmente_cell_1.pdf">report </a><br />
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<i>"In Sindhupalchok, the level of damage significantly increases higher up the valley. Families live
outside their homes under makeshift shelters of old tents, plastics, bed sheets, corrugated iron, and
boards. Observations in villages showed that almost all houses made of stone and mud plaster are
completely destroyed"</i>. </div>
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It reminds me of news, around ten years ago of the earthquake in Kashmir, Pakistan, which was actually slightly less intense than the one in Nepal (7.6 and 7.8 respectively, on the richter scale), but claimed more than 80,000 lives. At least, thus far, mortality in Nepal has been lower, by a a huge margin. <br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjN7x6Hk1VROwN_TK6y_43BisUZ-KeCdhpwms6-tZ03BxhLjCXdDdhpPAEK3ADv973Zs45LiT97VxDzJzkhm4Nvaf3TT0qLZNhEt2k0Ex4m7c_TK9VEOrAxAyWT3Mzeygkwf5P5p8EacDw0/s1600/flash+appeal+by+sector.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="242" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjN7x6Hk1VROwN_TK6y_43BisUZ-KeCdhpwms6-tZ03BxhLjCXdDdhpPAEK3ADv973Zs45LiT97VxDzJzkhm4Nvaf3TT0qLZNhEt2k0Ex4m7c_TK9VEOrAxAyWT3Mzeygkwf5P5p8EacDw0/s1600/flash+appeal+by+sector.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The main sectors in the UN Flash appeal<br />
including target numbers of beneficiaries. </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
The UN, in collaboration with local Government and the NGO community has moved quickly to put together a "<a href="https://www.humanitarianresponse.info/en/programme-cycle/space/document/flash-appeal-nepal">flash appeal</a>" which is requesting $415m for immediate funding for only the next 3 months (April to July) for critical areas like shelter, water&sanitation, education, logistics support protection, food security, etc. <br />
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So there are lots of areas to deal with and to the extent possible the local Government NGOs (and a whole range of “civil society” actors will be leading the response). These appeals and the consequent scaling up of UN and international NGOs try, to a large extent, to support these local efforts, rather than overwhelm things with outsiders and foreign stuff.<br />
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With over a quarter of a million houses damaged, there's a massive shelter and housing challenge - that has to be addressed ASAP before the winter - indeed before the monsoon rainy season which can start as early as June and go through September. <br />
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I’m going to focus on shelter options in this post, because of the mighty damage the <a href="http://www.sheltercluster.org/response/nepal-earthquake-2015/">shelter cluster</a> has reported. There are a few
factors to consider here: <o:p></o:p></div>
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<li>People need immediate (emergency) shelter now if they have
lost their home and are sleeping out in the open or with friends and family. </li>
</ul>
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<li>For those families who remain in or near their villages
reconstruction and recovery starts right away.
The concept of there being phases: emergency shelter, followed by some
transitional affair, then “build back safer” durable and “earthquake compliant”
shelter is not very close to their reality – or affordable. </li>
</ul>
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<li>There will not be enough money. The UN has already asked for
almost half a billion USD – for the first three months alone! (OK most of it
for food and cash vouchers), but how much money do you think the donor community
has to spare? (Don’t forget that the
latest appeal to support Lebanon is for $2.2 bn, which doesn't include the
needs inside Syria, Jordan, Yemen; let alone South Sudan, Ebola recovery and so on).
So: whatever is done has to be extremely good value (read: low cost and
robust). Or chose to support only a
small percentage of the total caseload with a full price (all signing all
dancing) reconstruction package.</li>
<li>News update as of 8th May, the UN says it's only received about 5% of it's $415m appeal (that's around $22m). This usually happens at the beginning of an appeal, but 5% is really low, so, as I said, money is going to be tight.</li>
</ul>
<o:p></o:p></div>
So I’ve had a look at the draft <a href="http://www.sheltercluster.org/response/nepal-earthquake-2015/">Nepal Shelter Cluster</a>
strategy which basically recommends:<br />
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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<li>Immediate life-saving shelter interventions such as tarpaulins, basic tools and fixings for damaged homes for displaced people, along with the appropriate non-food items. (And the shelter cluster provides a pretty cool info sheet on how to strap down your tarp in the best way possible).</li>
<li>Cash for the "most vulnerable" families (which in itself can be challenging to decide as so many have lost their homes and are vulnerable) to address urgent needs. Actually, I think that cash right now would be really useful and appropriate - assuming shops and markets are around. Much better than donating a tent or cooking sets, which cost a lot of money plus serious transport costs and hassle. People know what they need and they know how to get ahold of it, if they have money. However, I've also heard that building materials are really hard to buy right now and to transport to the more isolated areas. Moreover, cash alone doesn't pay for critical water and sanitation work to be done. </li>
</ul>
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The shelter cluster strategy goes on to talk about other really relevant issues on supporting local Government with quake resistant building approaches and other points more relevant to the recovery phase. Worth reading and getting involved with the cluster if you're part of the response. </div>
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So, what are the options now? As we’ve seen the
emergency phase is about tents, tarps n’ tools, or cash. But how well will these really suit the
coming monsoon and winter? <o:p></o:p></div>
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One friend wrote to ask about the suitability of bamboo
thatch with tarps. These are not bad, certainly could do for the next few months to stay dry, keep the rain out, etc. assuming the roof eaves are long enough to keep the rain off the walls. But the problem is that these kind of shelters aren't going to be very warm in the winter, they just don't have the insulation. But for an emergency solution to get people over the coming monsoon season it is what the majority of aid agencies are doing right now.<br />
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I heard from another colleague that it’s really difficult to buy or access materials out in the more remote areas; there’s not a lot of salvageable wood from the rubble and roofing sheets are damaged.<br />
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In which case - a really excellent resource - for anyone working with bamboo and tarps is this <a href="http://www.reciproboo.org/#/nepal-shelter-comparison/4589223816">"reciproboo" system</a>, developed by Shaun Halbert, which uses smart but really simple geometry to greatly reduce the amount of bamboo or sticks needed per shelter. <br />
<br /></div>
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Locals are saying that it gets cold and wet pretty soon – so insulation
and heating are really vital. So… what to do?</div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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The solution, I believe, is <b><u>earth-bags</u></b>. These are basically 50 kg rice or fertiliser
bags that are filled with any dirt you happen to be standing on, and stacked
with attention to levels, etc. to make walls.
Door and window frames are inserted as the walls go up. Ditto openings for a chimney. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcp1DePdi9j8pmlwgz9g-wW7GMVVzMZXFfOQidO7GiRKPf5AdfWw7CcBJx6qP5otHdo5cmwbIEYg_ThRuDUeLIYnes0CpZMKik7_5S81d27kKXq6p6fxXdF2SIRnO4FaYynKsurcCAfUC8/s1600/zoom_akaa9_sandbag_1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="267" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcp1DePdi9j8pmlwgz9g-wW7GMVVzMZXFfOQidO7GiRKPf5AdfWw7CcBJx6qP5otHdo5cmwbIEYg_ThRuDUeLIYnes0CpZMKik7_5S81d27kKXq6p6fxXdF2SIRnO4FaYynKsurcCAfUC8/s400/zoom_akaa9_sandbag_1.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Earth bag shelter built in Pakistan after the 2005 earthquake by<br />
Cal Earth Pakistan - see link and reference below. </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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Here it gets interesting: the building can be designed to be
round, and the roof made from the same materials in a dome structure. Quite handy where you don’t have enough
roofing material or money (or in some cases like in Pakistan, California, Europe or Iran,
you like the dome design, it’s an aesthetic advantage). Oh, and good to mention: these can be some of
the most earthquake compliant low cost buildings you can make. The <a href="http://www.earthbagbuilding.com/projects/sandbagshelters.htm">pictures here</a> show lots of good examples. </div>
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Could this work in Nepal? Well it turns out quite a number
have already been built there over the years by a few different agencies. I got
in touch with some of them and have already heard back from <a href="http://www.firststepshimalaya.org/">First Step Himalaya</a>, a New Zealand outfit which worked with a local community to build a
school. As you can see from this recent
<a href="http://www.3news.co.nz/world/earth-bag-building-still-standing-after-nepal-quake-2015050316#axzz3Z70cjyzh">TV news slot</a>, this building survived the earthquake just fine.</div>
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First Step replied to me yesterday to say that their local
teams are operational now, that they have a new relief fund set up and are doing
what they can like so many local groups. The challenge might be taking
it to scale: how many people can First Step train to build these kind of
structures quickly and properly in the next few months? <o:p></o:p></div>
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There are other groups who know how to do this however, including an old friend from Karachi, Shahid Malik Shahid has set up this <a href="https://calearth.org/learn-to-build/apprentice-alumni.html">really useful site</a> with loads of links.<br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHgilPYK0CEF4Ut-WXC5Q0xLtdIDDxBSJTvW1-bTv6b8GBmqSeO1OghNYeNI8n5h_tZyG7TBb-SUZ9gf7hI2gZMOn50Yy7AflbbvXkXiWIxHaUsDM6frFMT4ZwPjXz7GrbymhLddKnKuf9/s1600/sandbag24.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="228" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHgilPYK0CEF4Ut-WXC5Q0xLtdIDDxBSJTvW1-bTv6b8GBmqSeO1OghNYeNI8n5h_tZyG7TBb-SUZ9gf7hI2gZMOn50Yy7AflbbvXkXiWIxHaUsDM6frFMT4ZwPjXz7GrbymhLddKnKuf9/s320/sandbag24.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Earthbag building in Mexico.<br />
Souce: <a href="http://www.earthbagbuilding.com/projects/sandbagshelters.htm">here</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
It's nice to see that earthbags have been used all over the world, so they can be adapted to the social or cultural factors relevant within your community. Check this one on the right from Mexico, makes for really nice light and angles within. And it's amazing to think that no "normal" roofing materials were needed at all, like wood, steel, concrete, etc.<br />
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Meanwhile, I’d like to know if there are other designs and
material choices that would offer such good value for money at this time – when
money is so scare and need so enormous. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Here's some more information about the disaster:</div>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdOgboqV3OU-7pIzilu2eozgEmOPZaPog96wEF6eOucGEXNcxZscmLxZcC4J7fZBNzn7Pg_uJlv8tdvc2_9KAwXzQVllfLHX1HChOTP5Fe7OYRgYilul24qJE1cBP_YfQYAiZuAQ2QzY-o/s1600/Picture1.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="383" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdOgboqV3OU-7pIzilu2eozgEmOPZaPog96wEF6eOucGEXNcxZscmLxZcC4J7fZBNzn7Pg_uJlv8tdvc2_9KAwXzQVllfLHX1HChOTP5Fe7OYRgYilul24qJE1cBP_YfQYAiZuAQ2QzY-o/s400/Picture1.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Some of the really useful information managemnet data coming out of the shetler cluster in Khatmandu. This is a poor quality snapshot - go check out their website and links to all their docs <a href="http://www.sheltercluster.org/response/nepal-earthquake-2015/documents">here</a>. </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsPxgp26WcX6fei3H3c2uSc-t3Ih_nPjdfLQDuHtXam8ksk-bJTq3oBWO6wcXQvO55Qo6ibPu5W3JnVM4vD-Sr67YphxgGVWBdymDyMjZ3XuNWAdckMQmUntSj1PxmRyYeIpkigrAkxXxF/s1600/Picture2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsPxgp26WcX6fei3H3c2uSc-t3Ih_nPjdfLQDuHtXam8ksk-bJTq3oBWO6wcXQvO55Qo6ibPu5W3JnVM4vD-Sr67YphxgGVWBdymDyMjZ3XuNWAdckMQmUntSj1PxmRyYeIpkigrAkxXxF/s320/Picture2.png" width="291" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Another interesting one showing numbers of shelter items distributed so far, by who. <br />
Source: as above (Shelter cluster Nepal)</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYpWiPb7veW55dfdF6fXFLYhDtLyQRlAUBnULS_9pcR3Afbu1VDfCCBBWaJqQm7gpraWSmanZ2Oe-V8aH9JPyLSnyWUp9botkZDftnWFE-zzg_JF9pu7j3aUUxDI4GI_5vHqhknPN_BkjF/s1600/map.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="282" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYpWiPb7veW55dfdF6fXFLYhDtLyQRlAUBnULS_9pcR3Afbu1VDfCCBBWaJqQm7gpraWSmanZ2Oe-V8aH9JPyLSnyWUp9botkZDftnWFE-zzg_JF9pu7j3aUUxDI4GI_5vHqhknPN_BkjF/s400/map.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Focus area of the earthquake and worst-affected districts</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi85QnDGQrBGvzPDRs_NtqmwZmG8_LnetE8ldOnE5C5Iv047cfJyZJA-Xd6Q2uy7Q7vouV8IrSxWbbF1ZRxmAGW2jahpZIHuh861v4O1pcsZMjvRYkndIotIOoKxARrKtoZtjC5ml0fBt38/s1600/funds+per+sector.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="312" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi85QnDGQrBGvzPDRs_NtqmwZmG8_LnetE8ldOnE5C5Iv047cfJyZJA-Xd6Q2uy7Q7vouV8IrSxWbbF1ZRxmAGW2jahpZIHuh861v4O1pcsZMjvRYkndIotIOoKxARrKtoZtjC5ml0fBt38/s640/funds+per+sector.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A breakdown of requested funds per sector from the UN flash appeal </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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And some pictures I took in Kathmandu back in 2013, when a bunch of us went on the renowned "earthquake walk" through town...</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiF_eIJiCB-PRX3Mvv9G1R3UB1Y8XH5CfeLgETUHeYGg1dCIiA0AnIt6IBBzWU1H9Nv2Ua1W9FkkNaPshyphenhyphenLUANG-JWLZtq1cVIl-KR6iXShoC1qRWLJJkAn18xjToSHb1mEqdbqH1mliobc/s1600/20140401_082507.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiF_eIJiCB-PRX3Mvv9G1R3UB1Y8XH5CfeLgETUHeYGg1dCIiA0AnIt6IBBzWU1H9Nv2Ua1W9FkkNaPshyphenhyphenLUANG-JWLZtq1cVIl-KR6iXShoC1qRWLJJkAn18xjToSHb1mEqdbqH1mliobc/s400/20140401_082507.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRIeg7ZlPnGZCqlG-FHpMvBsoSkoa4jvFxB0az1CKjzrs3lffYauDFcz_SffR4h1dkU-Jjf30ovQ7hY5I8ttI7D8VMDLVVP6fZnIzw0tSDW4wefQH1Lvrqwq6_G6k3wgUYIfzdb85uZmmZ/s1600/20140331_171539.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRIeg7ZlPnGZCqlG-FHpMvBsoSkoa4jvFxB0az1CKjzrs3lffYauDFcz_SffR4h1dkU-Jjf30ovQ7hY5I8ttI7D8VMDLVVP6fZnIzw0tSDW4wefQH1Lvrqwq6_G6k3wgUYIfzdb85uZmmZ/s320/20140331_171539.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgD_ZGP4-ZVY2RphyBXP3yrUoybZo6_WTwATwhq2vR4WMzh4MnVwQP9xz0ZerTtbRq1tyyD_QN5WiQPwC9x3b9OOhczrO8E_uhqYNyZciDdafqNzhUYs-QI_6KsPBzDCRAaZIHHpbLJ4LLB/s1600/20140401_080839.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="390" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgD_ZGP4-ZVY2RphyBXP3yrUoybZo6_WTwATwhq2vR4WMzh4MnVwQP9xz0ZerTtbRq1tyyD_QN5WiQPwC9x3b9OOhczrO8E_uhqYNyZciDdafqNzhUYs-QI_6KsPBzDCRAaZIHHpbLJ4LLB/s400/20140401_080839.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Serious structural cracks already seen on this building. It would be a miracle if it remained standing</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihGtrk0zS9fWmdUyKK_B6bRzn_2yYsFs-2XY-Wcc-zU-S-xO_cpRuf3o-4gPdeg5k1W2FNAsfzbrILz2k6j2OFLRVjuw0PU3Hj2kuGB2-6OdwrtP82x4sjZF1Dp_VwZCRLD40hvxQ3FkuU/s1600/20140401_082458.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihGtrk0zS9fWmdUyKK_B6bRzn_2yYsFs-2XY-Wcc-zU-S-xO_cpRuf3o-4gPdeg5k1W2FNAsfzbrILz2k6j2OFLRVjuw0PU3Hj2kuGB2-6OdwrtP82x4sjZF1Dp_VwZCRLD40hvxQ3FkuU/s400/20140401_082458.jpg" width="225" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">lots of bizarre looking tall and thin structures like this<br />
have been built over the last ten years. I don't know<br />
how well they handled the earthquake, as many of the buldings<br />
around them appear really vulnerable. </td></tr>
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Magnushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15258662256324051363noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-195261637295251390.post-55319381774944894712015-05-03T10:24:00.001+01:002015-06-22T14:53:28.878+01:00Ocean blessings in Bali<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div dir="ltr">
Wonderful and remarkable how Balinese women prepare each day little blessings, today an ocean cleansing ceremony, the beach completely filled with local families playing in the powerful surf. While the wave riding addicts among us ride the planetary blessings:)</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXur34qxOScWojjnvkn-IZH0pYK-NsHPGAkJmwrT5PtDApj0vkNt6WD_vy51DA0TROLfAuoKcroZOsuf18aNzlXGSyYgRkTNkdIs59sNVFkY65QFW5gHDubUaZzKt0ZH23lpsKVan_Ekhn/s1600/20150503_083429.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"> <img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXur34qxOScWojjnvkn-IZH0pYK-NsHPGAkJmwrT5PtDApj0vkNt6WD_vy51DA0TROLfAuoKcroZOsuf18aNzlXGSyYgRkTNkdIs59sNVFkY65QFW5gHDubUaZzKt0ZH23lpsKVan_Ekhn/s640/20150503_083429.jpg" /> </a> </div>
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Magnushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15258662256324051363noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-195261637295251390.post-10682601121686416482015-04-28T09:03:00.000+01:002015-06-22T14:51:28.677+01:00Shelter, jobs and social stability in Lebanon<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Last month I went to Northern Lebanon, on a short mission with CARE International, to help them figure out a strategy to deal with the dire housing problems faced by Syrian refugees. To short cut to this presentation (more pictures than words, go <a href="http://www.slideshare.net/MagnusMurray/a-strategy-for-social-stability-in-tripoli-lebanon-care-international">here</a>). Almost immediately I was blown away by the scale of the crisis in Lebanon: a country of just over 4.2 million people is hosting almost 1.5 million refugees. That's around a third of the population! Meaning that Lebanon now has the highest per capital concentration of refugees in the world.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVK-i-mZR_lFJz899PFbp6EJVerMKCQCicGzxfCjzTUVPrLIu-rwwkKIQOccKGkk4l5l5QgJb8kzLoBiUUI8iksSXOHOfM-YZRxm6ugeghBDikjYqoKRA76cNoT-w1tMP57QlUYUowmTCI/s1600/DSC_1119.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="188" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVK-i-mZR_lFJz899PFbp6EJVerMKCQCicGzxfCjzTUVPrLIu-rwwkKIQOccKGkk4l5l5QgJb8kzLoBiUUI8iksSXOHOfM-YZRxm6ugeghBDikjYqoKRA76cNoT-w1tMP57QlUYUowmTCI/s1600/DSC_1119.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Tripoli, looking East over the mountains towards Syria</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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Imagine Britain or France taking in 20 million people, and the kind of impact that would have on public services that people often complain aren't good enough as it is. Well, it's not really any different for Lebanon, except that their public services have been in worse shape than those in rich European countries. Talking of Europe, it appears that the entire EU block has offered asylum to a grand total of 134,000 Syrian refugees, so around 10% that Lebanon has taken. Yet the population difference is so great it means that Europe is offering refuge to 1,000 times fewer refugees compared to Lebanon. <br />
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And let's not forget Lebanon's 15 year civil war, ending in 1990 - not that long ago. In fact it's quite incredible that the country seems relatively "normal" and quite organised, considering the deep sectarian and political divides that burned the country for so long. Or that over 300,000 Palestinian refugees live here, some for generations, others recently displaced again from Syrian, who have built entire urban neighbourhoods of their own (called "camps"), supported by <a href="http://www.unrwa.org/">UNRWA</a>, an agency created specifically for this community, but constantly in financial crisis.<br />
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But Tripoli, Lebanon's second largest city, with a rich history dating back to almost 1,500 years BC as an important trading and education centre, has been embroiled in what some call a "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syrian_Civil_War_spillover_in_Lebanon">spill-over</a>" of the Syrian conflict. As usual, it's complicated, but in essence Tripoli is home to what some call the most conservative Sunni Muslims, which continue to enjoy Saudi Arabian funding, and some Shia Allawite Muslims, aligned to the Syrian regime, but resident in Tripoli and Northern Lebanon for generations.<br />
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Meanwhile, I kept hearing that the Government in Beirut has marginalised Tripoli for years which has led to economic decline, unemployment and failing public services. A recent <a href="http://www.escwa.un.org/main/scroll/printwhatsnew.asp?id=890&referenceNUM=Tripoli-UPI-Jan2015">UN study</a> found that 77% of local residents are economically "deprived" (aka: the poverty line) and 35% have miserable accommodation (OK they used different language but that's the gist).<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTS3gJu4_KAFz4H2zFdN5Shw_FtiOAnwtklhcp-hqM-urdduDejLSejffeXrz-9Pw7YsAzKsVKe9ouXnoG5Jy8RCw6yd89CIKi1pSHjeJqEs6xzkYpVKe8UMa-VGuQJzgp4sL5Bp6nydDw/s1600/DSC_1313.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="214" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTS3gJu4_KAFz4H2zFdN5Shw_FtiOAnwtklhcp-hqM-urdduDejLSejffeXrz-9Pw7YsAzKsVKe9ouXnoG5Jy8RCw6yd89CIKi1pSHjeJqEs6xzkYpVKe8UMa-VGuQJzgp4sL5Bp6nydDw/s1600/DSC_1313.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Here I'm checking out roofing options to stop the constant<br />
leaking in the dwelling of refugees below. With Ahmad<br />
Al-Ayyoubi of LRC</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
So it is this precarious social eggshell that the 180,000 or so Syrian refugees in Tripoli and surrounding areas found themselves. (For more info see this enormous <a href="http://data.unhcr.org/syrianrefugees/country.php?id=122">information bank on the refugee crisis in Lebanon</a>. I heard from a lot of people how welcoming local communities had been at first. Empathy is a powerful emotion and I think it's universal. But after a while, it wears thin, especially if the new guests are putting additional strain on things that matter to everyone, like spaces in classrooms and clinics (refugees are supported, to some degree, by the UN to access both these public services). But also jobs: Syrians traditionally take low paid work like moving stuff in markets, construction, agriculture. But with there being so little other work around I heard from some locals their feeling of being "smothered", needing to find work themselves, and struggling. And food, power, rent is EXPENSIVE in Lebanon...<br />
<br />
The vast majority of refugees in Lebanon rent a place to live, that's just the norm. There are quite a few small informal settlements around, but not really in or around Tripoli, where most rent really basic flats in overcrowded blocks. Refugees pay between $200 and $400 a month which sometimes includes electricity and water, but not always. We visited quite a few such places and they were pretty basic, though they did include small kitchens and toilet. Actually I was quite impressed at the extensive sewerage piping network that has been built, often retrofitted to temporary shacks. OK, there's no such thing as sewage treatment: it all flows into the closest water course which is of course completely contaminated, as will be the ocean where it all ends up. But still, compared to the open sewers across South Asia...<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirTsFweA4_dsFSmDM6hcippxzfXeuequ3Otl3SNlkhl2yUMnMHPEoEheE7VEHAOFK1d8x8V2wxuE-eBqJiDJKyd2HXdKbDhD2XRfYVr2dFPCssRD81KxstCjhk6ORiqwo9G9MKBwxREnjz/s1600/DSC_1304.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirTsFweA4_dsFSmDM6hcippxzfXeuequ3Otl3SNlkhl2yUMnMHPEoEheE7VEHAOFK1d8x8V2wxuE-eBqJiDJKyd2HXdKbDhD2XRfYVr2dFPCssRD81KxstCjhk6ORiqwo9G9MKBwxREnjz/s1600/DSC_1304.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">In a typical damp refugee dwelling, costing $200 a month, with<br />
Rayan El-Fawal, project coordinator of Lebanon Relief Council<br />
one of CARE's partner NGOs.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
CARE had already partnered up with a local NGO called the Lebanon Relief Council (LRC) to do a survey of accommodation standards. They found lots of examples of really bad conditions, like damp - in some cases leaking down the walls, lack of windows and gaps at the top of walls where mice and rats entered. On my visits I noticed really dodgy wiring, lack of ventilation, insulation, heating facilities. Overall, really unhealthy and depressing places to live. But what choice do they have? Risk death on the Mediterranean to reach Fortress Europe? Go home and be incarcerated by the Regime?<br />
<br />
<br />
We also heard from quite a lot of refugees how they can't afford to send their children to school - despite international donors providing upwards of $60m so far to support local schools to accommodate some refugee kids (to pay registration fees, staff, etc.). But even so Syrians have found it really hard, stigmatised and academically challenged as subjects are taught in English and French in Lebanon, rather than Arabic they were used to back home. Some <a href="http://www.merip.org/educational-aftershocks-syrian-refugees-lebanon">reports indicated a 70% drop out </a>rate while in some areas of the country it works better. Of the refugees I met, about half said they couldn't afford the fees for schools or hadn't been accepted into the UN/NGO school support programme. And when you meet kids who have no choice but to spend all day at home - a dingy room with nothing to do, is when the desperation of the situation really hits home. <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEie5gxQXSk0fBJ-5WUIMlYj5KIowhpkM32l4VAfgbhL92KbE13JMTcClR9X75SuHiF1pwQG0mMcNS6p4_nV6l2WWh3Ej1rHGa_4T9-SrUh3dGW1chmuIyZKalerWPZapUZQwTmRn9zFVCoo/s1600/DSC_1223.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="424" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEie5gxQXSk0fBJ-5WUIMlYj5KIowhpkM32l4VAfgbhL92KbE13JMTcClR9X75SuHiF1pwQG0mMcNS6p4_nV6l2WWh3Ej1rHGa_4T9-SrUh3dGW1chmuIyZKalerWPZapUZQwTmRn9zFVCoo/s1600/DSC_1223.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Widad Sharan and her three children from Homs in Syria.<br />
Hiba Daher, her daughter, far left, is 13 (my daughter Kira's age!) is polite, intelligent, really friendly - hasn't been to school since leaving Syria in 2013. Her siblings neither. </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
I asked if anyone within the Syrian community had organised some kind of community school, within these very rooms, or outside, or wherever. After all there must be teachers among the refugees and other adults who can teach kids literacy and maths and all that. Apparantly not, so far anyway. Why? because any adult who isn't home looking after kids has to be out trying to find work - to pay for rent and food and living. <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxy1jaoW2_NAzcHZwxaSB8eHGbh34NCxbrXZITFnt4lo0QWUd5uAKdJvmbxNpgayrlXg5ZqLLilEiPrWYJJdM3V9M24-qx5r44JhArfVw6TwEfqOaUvzNja703n-WHtFXZyMGPInKe1nz3/s1600/DSC_1317.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxy1jaoW2_NAzcHZwxaSB8eHGbh34NCxbrXZITFnt4lo0QWUd5uAKdJvmbxNpgayrlXg5ZqLLilEiPrWYJJdM3V9M24-qx5r44JhArfVw6TwEfqOaUvzNja703n-WHtFXZyMGPInKe1nz3/s1600/DSC_1317.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ahmad Al-Ayyoubi, Chief of LRC, chatting with one of the<br />
most academically inspired kids I've ever seen. <br />
She was thrilled with the attention and the time he gave her<br />
and it just shows how much difference some kind of <br />
community education project could make. Also really<br />
appreciated how Ahmad took the time in our meeting<br />
to just hang out with her, rather than getting involved<br />
in the chatter; shows real humanity and confidence.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Right there, in that room we had a big discussion on the potential for a project to support this kind of community education (it may well be happening in other parts of the country, but that means little to Hiba, her siblings and so many like her in Tripoli). Friends from LRC said they could find some young people from the local community to volunteer, some teaching materials could be bought, or donated by UNICEF, which leads on education in emergencies, but the most important impact would be just engaging with these kids - doing something positive, keeping up with some classes and having a bit of fun. <br />
<br />
Our mission was not education however, it was shelter, or rather proposing a strategy for housing. But soon enough I realised that it's wrong to separate out the accommodation woes from all the other ills of local society. <br />
<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHEaYGLeqhUEc1FHHSdX-mETnbOxPRZ_ikTiZKoNxZmWSYA0E3fuWFxgQ5YgnyfjAd0ETd1APrdwktBt8LlOm-QndoPHiVkbi-3VPNh79JoyMB0jCR_eXrjJtEqlmmC7XldZe1TXjBG53f/s1600/DSC_1234.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHEaYGLeqhUEc1FHHSdX-mETnbOxPRZ_ikTiZKoNxZmWSYA0E3fuWFxgQ5YgnyfjAd0ETd1APrdwktBt8LlOm-QndoPHiVkbi-3VPNh79JoyMB0jCR_eXrjJtEqlmmC7XldZe1TXjBG53f/s1600/DSC_1234.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Local hero - this serious dude had dedicated countless hours<br />
to fixing problems in loads of refugee homes. A refugee<br />
himself and a talented handyman, he could be linked up with<br />
a mixed team of Lebanese & Syrian tradesmen to undertake<br />
the most pressing maintenance problems in their community.<br />
For refugees and locals alike. </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Outside every home piles of garbage litter the streets, no doubt causing public health problems (and outstanding rodent territory). Meanwhile huge areas between the concrete blocks were denuded and destitute, where community farms or gardens or play-parks could be erected. <br />
<br />
Together with Daniel Delati, my Tripoli guide and programme coordinator at CARE who had recruited me for this job, we realised that this was much more an integrated strategy. We needed to re-frame this problem as one of social stability for the entire area. We'd visited quite a few Lebanese families living in equally dire accommodation across the city. Meanwhile refugee and locals alike suffered from the lack of any kind of meaningful and sustained employment. We had to find donors that would support a kind of social-economic recovery programme for the entire area. In fact given the recent "troubles" between Sunni and Shia communities, one could argue that investment in livelihoods, business, public services and urban regeneration could mitigate future conflict. And the refugee community could be part of this regeneration. Much better than focusing entirely on the refugees and ignoring the equally needy local people who had already done so much to host these war-affected people.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1uv0F3fV0I6L_LgTFURdXkI7rkQ-x_jWF1oY0De0ITI1zqbwOQnMUqtpBouqQMBskTDTbgigYt7hpJmeux5EdJlkrYOT__STsyrcWP96LbjCP-X7Eb-1zPJPp058TTiyzxvCAjwcVfCwV/s1600/DSC_1200.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1uv0F3fV0I6L_LgTFURdXkI7rkQ-x_jWF1oY0De0ITI1zqbwOQnMUqtpBouqQMBskTDTbgigYt7hpJmeux5EdJlkrYOT__STsyrcWP96LbjCP-X7Eb-1zPJPp058TTiyzxvCAjwcVfCwV/s1600/DSC_1200.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A typical scene in Tripoli, garbage and a wasted opportunity for community<br />
farm or gardens. </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Looking at the city with my "green" or environmental design lens I saw countless opportunities for urban farming, household gardens, waste management (Daniel knows a company in Beirut that processes waste plastic into new products, who could be urged to start a plant in Tripoli?).<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
For solar lighting in the often black-out neighbourhoods. For a new industry of lime-based building materials, given that the entire country appears to be built on limestone. For ecological treatment of sewage through <a href="http://www.wastewatergardens.com/">constructed wetlands and smart design</a> - a practice barely understood by the global WASH community, local Governments or donors anywhere, but with potential to re-green denuded cities and landscapes and to generate new and sustained income streams. Yes it means thinking quite far out of the box, and challenging quite a lot of preset models and ideas, but these are desperate times and fairly radical solutions are needed. <br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdB3GJ_UtgHaqobOxZsBJbKay-CXrIYB020Xf7liMtlJynvgPUJN6dT0NDqRrGD3xJRXhHPOi6KV7QfK63fPdCODqjQsKLp-NzTW_Hn1HeUp0H9YotYcL9ozSxiMlMUeqLQKwSP68ayFhI/s1600/DSC_1288.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdB3GJ_UtgHaqobOxZsBJbKay-CXrIYB020Xf7liMtlJynvgPUJN6dT0NDqRrGD3xJRXhHPOi6KV7QfK63fPdCODqjQsKLp-NzTW_Hn1HeUp0H9YotYcL9ozSxiMlMUeqLQKwSP68ayFhI/s1600/DSC_1288.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Almost a garden. With the right design help these people<br />
could direct their grey water (or even post septic-tank water)<br />
into constructed wetlands (for black water) and gardens for<br />
grey water. </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
Opportunities for employment exist, that's for sure. But there are certainly challenges too. For example the Lebanese Government has come out with increasingly draconian regulations on the rights of Syrians to work - or rather that they are not allowed to work. In fact to stay in Lebanon, officially, every Syrian must pay $200 a year and sign a declaration that they will not work, or face detention. I think every Government anywhere would have to do the same thing, given the pressure from voters and taxpayers on jobs; many local municipal Governments have shown enormous flexibility and understanding anyway and have not enforced these regulations. But to move forward, the international community will have to negotiate shared benefits of new investment in economic regeneration.<br />
<br />
A presentation on the strategy I drafted for CARE is given <a href="http://www.slideshare.net/MagnusMurray/a-strategy-for-social-stability-in-tripoli-lebanon-care-international">here</a>. <br />
<br />
For now, the international community has one of its finest humanitarian leaders running the show on behalf of the UN - the indomitable Ross Mountain, now the UN Humanitarian Coordinator (who I first encountered in 2004 doing a stirling job in post-war Liberia). Ross appears to have quickly grasped the need to address the fragility of the crisis as can be seen in this really well drafted <a href="https://docs.unocha.org/sites/dms/CAP/2015-2016_Lebanon_CRP_Brochure_EN.pdf">Lebanon Crisis Response Plan</a> (this link takes you to the 8 page brochure and highlights). In fact I'll leave you with a quote from this document, this appeal for a little over $2bn, to address this crisis. I suppose it's fair to assume that if we fail to support Lebanon in this hour of need, the consequent crisis could cost much more, and it would be a humanitarian nightmare without precedent.<br />
<br />
<i>The number of
poor currently in Lebanon has risen by nearly two-thirds since 2011,
and Lebanese unemployment has doubled. Children and youth are
most affected after four years of economic hardship and limited
access to essential services. Lebanese national health, education and
infrastructure services are overstretched and a third of Lebanon’s
young labour force cannot find work. For many of the poorest and
most vulnerable communities, including displaced Syrian families
and Lebanon’s long-term Palestine refugees, daily life is increasingly
dominated by poverty and debt, fewer cooked meals, rising waste
and pollution, long queues at health centers, over-full classrooms,
disease outbreaks, falling water quality, and increased competition
for work. </i><br />
<i>(LCRP, Dec. 2014)</i><br />
<br />
And some more photos from the trip in Tripoli:<br />
<br />
<br />
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</div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGgMyrrnvZZ7E2nyYQqwlpLaZo3k7PFcUKs7uKMxf_PkKm42fMqOM_c4fZOfcksXwDIP7X-pkAjx3IrKztgGto9QE9g5628XdT_c-Oc3n751xTeM2v8WgbNu_ZQCi-6N7sJSH1xKy1be6Q/s1600/DSC_1121.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="211" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGgMyrrnvZZ7E2nyYQqwlpLaZo3k7PFcUKs7uKMxf_PkKm42fMqOM_c4fZOfcksXwDIP7X-pkAjx3IrKztgGto9QE9g5628XdT_c-Oc3n751xTeM2v8WgbNu_ZQCi-6N7sJSH1xKy1be6Q/s1600/DSC_1121.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Urban sprawl. Overlooking the river, this must have been<br />
a splendid vista back in the day of the Ottomans, or the Persian <br />
empire or further back. <br />
<br />
It's amazing how there's almost nothing left of the old<br />
architecture left, perhaps giving way to more profitable<br />
buildings (more people = more money)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixzLQbsZMsaxvERzQi9pi64MC9tN2JHPMHmOfj-zRXpwDOZL-xlMT-TnqOg1Gg883RBcYsGjoVQdGedgQkpy9IwzR3SMIjIiZ4CB_H84kYxvkhWbuAcQNXkO_a49Gv_i8hdb3h6NCqLfMr/s1600/DSC_1146.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixzLQbsZMsaxvERzQi9pi64MC9tN2JHPMHmOfj-zRXpwDOZL-xlMT-TnqOg1Gg883RBcYsGjoVQdGedgQkpy9IwzR3SMIjIiZ4CB_H84kYxvkhWbuAcQNXkO_a49Gv_i8hdb3h6NCqLfMr/s1600/DSC_1146.JPG" width="212" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Looks like a typica refugee rented property<br />
but could just as well be a Lebanese family in there. </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikJaLFWT92MCP7-yvcOGrAJMO_KfgUw1Uz8QTRXYzcWPJjwCz3iimAqptMNWtGQwgJc6yNk8gQAy438ix1dYGxNO5mwx20aR3sx7d0LBvO7UMZKpNIkYkPK0uQFCUDWRZ6zCB4kSvpZilj/s1600/DSC_1157.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikJaLFWT92MCP7-yvcOGrAJMO_KfgUw1Uz8QTRXYzcWPJjwCz3iimAqptMNWtGQwgJc6yNk8gQAy438ix1dYGxNO5mwx20aR3sx7d0LBvO7UMZKpNIkYkPK0uQFCUDWRZ6zCB4kSvpZilj/s1600/DSC_1157.JPG" width="265" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Near the old souk, market area, signs of the vernacular<br />
architecture, mostly from Ottoman period, which lasted<br />
about 500 years. </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnAuakD-ED1Unn9UEjJuBAfLOhT7iVFdKNiKPUVJh956R7ibcm4b1uH7z3atugBPkmrBDYVecZR7Ic_wkKwkDwNF8J_IVTuoL47kNhcPkLW7kxSUl7Tr15UDcos5wV-PrvTrRN_WE3nbj6/s1600/DSC_1175.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="211" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnAuakD-ED1Unn9UEjJuBAfLOhT7iVFdKNiKPUVJh956R7ibcm4b1uH7z3atugBPkmrBDYVecZR7Ic_wkKwkDwNF8J_IVTuoL47kNhcPkLW7kxSUl7Tr15UDcos5wV-PrvTrRN_WE3nbj6/s1600/DSC_1175.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Part of the old market (souk). Now there's only one shop there, selling locally made soap. <br />
Nice, but where are the other traders? How could such a place buzz with business for over a thousands years, then nothing... Lebanon now imports around 90% of its food, invests almost nothing in agriculture development, or new businesses, maybe that's why. Or has globalisation got something to do with it? </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEif0vEUbnqH5ZxPhKGMjQiwG4C7HH3iO10GOX3yFzHHR_G399K_5-GsEDm7TfL6OXfM8pmJl0pxBhbafLLMeFmtOexdfhDbM0FCI-NhOTcA0ReTZh50gmuugNkZkVmV6IGXrtxsOPHbt_pU/s1600/DSC_1177.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEif0vEUbnqH5ZxPhKGMjQiwG4C7HH3iO10GOX3yFzHHR_G399K_5-GsEDm7TfL6OXfM8pmJl0pxBhbafLLMeFmtOexdfhDbM0FCI-NhOTcA0ReTZh50gmuugNkZkVmV6IGXrtxsOPHbt_pU/s1600/DSC_1177.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A self-build, on some rented land. A refugee family from<br />
just outside Damascus. Quite nice inside too, and delicious<br />
coffee.. The point is they are used to quite high standards,<br />
came from a paid job, was able to sell property before leaving,<br />
has a brother working in the Gulf. Not all families are<br />
completely destitute, we need to remember that. </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHz-pFhjNOzSaagS1NwexYi6iM2yBAMT4iu7I8Rf9Q9-aKRDXjdHR0MlNJQuUwln37be600cK5nGoIcL39WdCTtkqETQR_DPN7-QsXX8TwafrQ6rAdn14RNouxu4htMrx3RqHM736H9ucK/s1600/DSC_1180.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHz-pFhjNOzSaagS1NwexYi6iM2yBAMT4iu7I8Rf9Q9-aKRDXjdHR0MlNJQuUwln37be600cK5nGoIcL39WdCTtkqETQR_DPN7-QsXX8TwafrQ6rAdn14RNouxu4htMrx3RqHM736H9ucK/s1600/DSC_1180.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Perfect spot for a raised bed garden!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTL-yL-9cRGuOqZsbKh2-o9xqmez6G1gXzjMt9PuteceLLieURSIpcFavsqsqSclr8w_DGZXxRJ4efitrmCPViB0zQx5N_Uzj-7877xqWdp5n0S7OXxwImvcOvMomt0pewLHXhkghbUEDz/s1600/DSC_1184.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTL-yL-9cRGuOqZsbKh2-o9xqmez6G1gXzjMt9PuteceLLieURSIpcFavsqsqSclr8w_DGZXxRJ4efitrmCPViB0zQx5N_Uzj-7877xqWdp5n0S7OXxwImvcOvMomt0pewLHXhkghbUEDz/s1600/DSC_1184.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Follow the trees: look where things want to grow. Right where<br />
we thrown our garbage. With a small investment and some training<br />
this whole area could be a garden of abundance and productivity. <br />
Space left for social gatherings and playing. <br />
Instead only the rats play here and the kids stay at home. <br />
And everyone pays a fortune for<br />
imported vegetables and fruits. </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg87mKLnk_zSIXZeqIDlTLqlvvK2x2Rv4-o9TTmJm9lhGhvoyEPTcy1oY3F8SMxE-mgIRIXnFkUYmoIfIr6RN0PaWkTZCYd4tNVSAO58Vm5g70KLwic5_qXAjlALPmV04ItbbC8CD-NIzo6/s1600/DSC_1194.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg87mKLnk_zSIXZeqIDlTLqlvvK2x2Rv4-o9TTmJm9lhGhvoyEPTcy1oY3F8SMxE-mgIRIXnFkUYmoIfIr6RN0PaWkTZCYd4tNVSAO58Vm5g70KLwic5_qXAjlALPmV04ItbbC8CD-NIzo6/s1600/DSC_1194.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Passion fruit vines anyone? <br />
Vertical garden heaven right here, yet nobody plants anything - why? </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyZlBSw24IlK2VZCUdajd4Y5Fw3dnk4PQpP-4bheg1X-D4I0Ct9pZunhAe9Xyq4AdbyWJjwq42HRHmv_xAGKSFNOks9nNnYsm6d5uFH3TSt4yDafRkkS2D-iPk5SNdchcLK5WdqZNM_Ms4/s1600/DSC_1215.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyZlBSw24IlK2VZCUdajd4Y5Fw3dnk4PQpP-4bheg1X-D4I0Ct9pZunhAe9Xyq4AdbyWJjwq42HRHmv_xAGKSFNOks9nNnYsm6d5uFH3TSt4yDafRkkS2D-iPk5SNdchcLK5WdqZNM_Ms4/s1600/DSC_1215.JPG" width="265" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Those sewerage connections I spoke about <br />
earlier. It would make it easy to tap into this<br />
nutrient-rich waste that could fertilise some<br />
small urban forestry project. Or not, we could<br />
just let it pour un-treated bacteriological contamination <br />
into the communal water course. <br />
Yeh, that sounds like a much better idea...</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEr_gIH6VAfq21zlP5CTl2yARaLOWLiyDi9GU_xGVDjdjDs04LKP0W5GyXJ_GgwiAHYz7Wf92FXMg2_fF7-JgXHJMCzA3kyaav1ihtoFuz7D1A8GKbNJPHrlopHnjq67Oy-hAErD6ISRae/s1600/DSC_1230.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEr_gIH6VAfq21zlP5CTl2yARaLOWLiyDi9GU_xGVDjdjDs04LKP0W5GyXJ_GgwiAHYz7Wf92FXMg2_fF7-JgXHJMCzA3kyaav1ihtoFuz7D1A8GKbNJPHrlopHnjq67Oy-hAErD6ISRae/s1600/DSC_1230.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The kitchen - bathroom set up in a rented property </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9Y-U-jIrBJ7v-qCFlg3kNM8wBk7rtZKTel4iBkL439MvAceZ7R-PK_vQQdgqFYubIU_m4bxfpmD9ye-lCgkj0ShecfDgbUQPB9ffa2blv6HvH6KnZW0K7SC1EyDpeLk2NwZanYzsYuwze/s1600/DSC_1249.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9Y-U-jIrBJ7v-qCFlg3kNM8wBk7rtZKTel4iBkL439MvAceZ7R-PK_vQQdgqFYubIU_m4bxfpmD9ye-lCgkj0ShecfDgbUQPB9ffa2blv6HvH6KnZW0K7SC1EyDpeLk2NwZanYzsYuwze/s1600/DSC_1249.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The infamous garages - upgraded from mechanics workshops or shops to rent out to refugee families. Miserable, dark, cold and unventilated. </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqvsht9itdFwD2R1RcO_II-8Cri0ljDTgsKi5_aFDzDYtme6OSeGCRPiAH52eH-qQMTfeX_i_PmHsl3MM_uT1j80dLMExCCiS_3Czl9zDlQk6-_5tJPvpF6fAIuJkr6Tk6AHIUiRAVyLZe/s1600/DSC_1282.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqvsht9itdFwD2R1RcO_II-8Cri0ljDTgsKi5_aFDzDYtme6OSeGCRPiAH52eH-qQMTfeX_i_PmHsl3MM_uT1j80dLMExCCiS_3Czl9zDlQk6-_5tJPvpF6fAIuJkr6Tk6AHIUiRAVyLZe/s1600/DSC_1282.JPG" width="212" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Diesel-fed heating stoves.<br />
First time I've seen these. Quite impressive<br />
despite the use of the fossil fuels. These<br />
people said that 2 litres keeps it hot for<br />
about 24 hours! wow. UNHCR<br />
has distributed them to many "most vulnerable"<br />
refugees, but huge gaps remain. </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgevcDC98zlfRzeHVkY4eNPJcTriixooVmkNA4ZhD6lZqRZgtCElg73syTt9-WhW7AJnMGJC__Tx0e-EoK8sYhl40NU82msllROfGm4AFLc-_rz3vouTg29ALmKlYZ6jYbc4IGNSxq6Yndq/s1600/DSC_1293.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgevcDC98zlfRzeHVkY4eNPJcTriixooVmkNA4ZhD6lZqRZgtCElg73syTt9-WhW7AJnMGJC__Tx0e-EoK8sYhl40NU82msllROfGm4AFLc-_rz3vouTg29ALmKlYZ6jYbc4IGNSxq6Yndq/s1600/DSC_1293.JPG" width="212" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Local kids, well Lebanese - Egyptian, but local</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyAezdj2FctRS4UKNd6caEJ9Az0TXWRaCrg2xJ-TsQh9vpaCI41ql4sG0w37buK7kQxFlsX5ueSYWJm9cuiXIpgXRwvwHdQYXw7LaKGifBRn3f80pJJggj4FNNFAMNBr4twAUxx5ackeEn/s1600/DSC_1325.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyAezdj2FctRS4UKNd6caEJ9Az0TXWRaCrg2xJ-TsQh9vpaCI41ql4sG0w37buK7kQxFlsX5ueSYWJm9cuiXIpgXRwvwHdQYXw7LaKGifBRn3f80pJJggj4FNNFAMNBr4twAUxx5ackeEn/s1600/DSC_1325.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Daniel Delati, from CARE in Lebanon, from the US at one point, but also from Tripoli and a passionate citizen he is, with so much hope, passion for the city history and optimism for the future. A great asset for CARE, and a superb guide to local cuisine too!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLOCRLWq7AqrIlvTOKRC_TM-RrX5nmXBF4JciWQ6cGWUs4PDUSEOdLdxcu5fd8U8t0f1vr_Ow7gxB4kqdyOeOzTBabDDor9o99u-tLXfijofdPmxB24jmDMKjPK4-Me9TiDIzfBOTYIkpI/s1600/DSC_1326.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLOCRLWq7AqrIlvTOKRC_TM-RrX5nmXBF4JciWQ6cGWUs4PDUSEOdLdxcu5fd8U8t0f1vr_Ow7gxB4kqdyOeOzTBabDDor9o99u-tLXfijofdPmxB24jmDMKjPK4-Me9TiDIzfBOTYIkpI/s1600/DSC_1326.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">How the fossils fall. Plastic waste below a block. The inevitable<br />
result of a dysfunctional city waste management system. </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgna8nkCvbAL7jhN2XACZoEvw4_v6-Z5aPr0rkbETJkLatDVXagvqY_Qaq3fEeHIvmEZGPcfvHxxw34EQSbD28WV2WzjXfNgl21Qm8JdhTM7DbMF8MwP-Grjd384wgNV1eZuLEQa5Ix2xWB/s1600/DSC_1334.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgna8nkCvbAL7jhN2XACZoEvw4_v6-Z5aPr0rkbETJkLatDVXagvqY_Qaq3fEeHIvmEZGPcfvHxxw34EQSbD28WV2WzjXfNgl21Qm8JdhTM7DbMF8MwP-Grjd384wgNV1eZuLEQa5Ix2xWB/s1600/DSC_1334.JPG" width="212" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The scars of war in Tebennay district of Tripoli<br />
where things are slowly returning to some kind<br />
of normality (albeit with well armed military checkpoints<br />
on most corners). </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-kZ0aFaS0QG9Ul_XfB9w59epP_RzdNtxYAQVflvaokg5fXWBqDqbLnsLyx2gDh0HP-fJSyvzVrRIWfVMrPLDetkkP00AK4RRsDXLvlfQZxGa82UmKg08Q17Ub1GTGA2H5yhyphenhyphenwYv-y2jFH/s1600/DSC_1336.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-kZ0aFaS0QG9Ul_XfB9w59epP_RzdNtxYAQVflvaokg5fXWBqDqbLnsLyx2gDh0HP-fJSyvzVrRIWfVMrPLDetkkP00AK4RRsDXLvlfQZxGa82UmKg08Q17Ub1GTGA2H5yhyphenhyphenwYv-y2jFH/s1600/DSC_1336.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Tebennay locals</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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Magnushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15258662256324051363noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-195261637295251390.post-18807867773093516452015-03-03T04:40:00.001+00:002015-06-22T14:53:54.017+01:00Shelter after floods in Pakistan. Part 1. Sabina's story<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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This is Sabina, who I met during one of about 30 field trips I made in Sindh, Pakistan during my time working there, chatting with Mustafa from the local NGO, HANDS<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDjoZ6fMlWsOIDgGIFm-pn5J4Pb3b0wJF3lpJKD9GKPTFXbxTA3wqq7xDTi8bGUdLkQDL6Jts7M7cC2tZeBe4pQq8VoEgwezi7Bk-ZBqq1w-H6alru2VTnq-jBRFZmS6GEavwzOG2HFrRw/s1600/DSC_0353.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; display: inline !important; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDjoZ6fMlWsOIDgGIFm-pn5J4Pb3b0wJF3lpJKD9GKPTFXbxTA3wqq7xDTi8bGUdLkQDL6Jts7M7cC2tZeBe4pQq8VoEgwezi7Bk-ZBqq1w-H6alru2VTnq-jBRFZmS6GEavwzOG2HFrRw/s1600/DSC_0353.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Mustafa and Sabina. I think they were talking abotu that solar light she's been using every night for over a year. And the price of vegetables on the market if I remember rightly. She said she can afford to buy veg only twice a month and grows none around her house. She could absolutely grow food in raised beds outside her window. That has to be (already is) the next addition to the way we work...</td></tr>
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<a href="http://hands.org.pk/2012/">HANDS</a> had found Sabina's family and community, displaced and in desperate need of help, after major flooding in September 2012. They brought it to the attention of DFID - the British agency for international development - for whom I was working as a humanitarian advisor.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8k2RBPfU2Q4y-FhhAJn23LsNzIq1e2Ez15nvjBTFu3HjRaY7Huq7zIS1dppfSjV7BypEabEQXOkOUW77-0OCBtnh7-L7YKcH7SGaqHvvpuibJ3pQ7ZGpcFWogyHmIdehi4JR4ZUclqgaC/s1600/20130328_123531.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8k2RBPfU2Q4y-FhhAJn23LsNzIq1e2Ez15nvjBTFu3HjRaY7Huq7zIS1dppfSjV7BypEabEQXOkOUW77-0OCBtnh7-L7YKcH7SGaqHvvpuibJ3pQ7ZGpcFWogyHmIdehi4JR4ZUclqgaC/s1600/20130328_123531.jpg" width="320" /></a><br />
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Getting access to these communities is just invaluable. It's so important, in fact vital to see if we’re supporting people with the right kind of thing. I always learn so much from people like Sabina, when we take the time to just chat about things, outside of the scope of the project. About life, like what kind of food they prepare – or rather how much food she can afford, which isn’t much; how life was like before the floods; what happens at night when there’s no power; the cost and distance from a functioning school or health clinic, stuff like that. These conversations form the basis for my “advice” to DFID and eventually the design of how we spend humanitarian funds – which is basically tax from people like Sabina over in the UK: taxpayers who struggle to make ends meet. </div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgf-jEJerYNlYAiYaV4lS5OgaDP6TV5ma9b0SvsMGRBAIl8wpRDht43QgzITRq579plfzLehfIuAQuMrH4rXCxbNobQIOOJqw7f6pOSJy8ZjKAFVCWYImg76sqIqeHlsMvos46oIK79DMO7/s1600/JGH_2012_2421_1200x798.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="424" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgf-jEJerYNlYAiYaV4lS5OgaDP6TV5ma9b0SvsMGRBAIl8wpRDht43QgzITRq579plfzLehfIuAQuMrH4rXCxbNobQIOOJqw7f6pOSJy8ZjKAFVCWYImg76sqIqeHlsMvos46oIK79DMO7/s1600/JGH_2012_2421_1200x798.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Taken by Joon, Norwegian Embassy (with the VIPs that managed to get a seat on the helicopter to view the extent of damage by air). Helps to understand how it was that almost 3m people lost their homes in this one flood, from 5 days rain in September 2012. </td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgamQjf4Hx-YWW4rU2-5l3Pl1nPvdjjniuv97_RctQFUXiUjwTpk5jOxGArNBNmEZLkZ3bFRfd0YFZpo-4-kndUzjWZ11fQgOj7pzvSeLZllkcpLyhwS9m9E7TBJDBKzOlnI1byd3eOzjGB/s1600/JGH_2012_2151_1200x798.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgamQjf4Hx-YWW4rU2-5l3Pl1nPvdjjniuv97_RctQFUXiUjwTpk5jOxGArNBNmEZLkZ3bFRfd0YFZpo-4-kndUzjWZ11fQgOj7pzvSeLZllkcpLyhwS9m9E7TBJDBKzOlnI1byd3eOzjGB/s1600/JGH_2012_2151_1200x798.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Another of Joon's shots: see how easily those houses dissolve<br />
underwater...</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNH__eVTjfE1OQMPfAlx5z78UqhrFyxbHORZouveQMGDluj-9JMtFZaXToD5PE1WIoxPXB81dVpQ3AZScd_UHFrP25zVWaFq2GBR_piI9TYtJsgs7vlsAJqPqHA1cmrPg2aSeMHpEoUcj0/s1600/P1100656.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="220" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNH__eVTjfE1OQMPfAlx5z78UqhrFyxbHORZouveQMGDluj-9JMtFZaXToD5PE1WIoxPXB81dVpQ3AZScd_UHFrP25zVWaFq2GBR_piI9TYtJsgs7vlsAJqPqHA1cmrPg2aSeMHpEoUcj0/s1600/P1100656.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">These had been rebuilt after the 2010 floods by another agency / donor <br />
(who will remain unamed!). Point is: by using bricks and cement these cost a lot of money<br />
and are not necessarily flood resistant, as we see right here. </td></tr>
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<span style="text-align: left;"> Like about three million others Sabina lost all her stuff, half her animals and her entire house when the monsoon-heavy sky literally opened up for five days in mid-September 2012. </span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoXWV_gX5BmlxRnvHRPdIS3d6z38RPcKn6YM3XrwX3TXE_M7dQ5IW83fdNgULtIg06LoKH7ncHiKg8QS95v3n-gpcIex_8NSdqtK7QkgUcgNp6fb50c08CD6-zpbbXXf4CT1DHUX91YpdD/s1600/JGH_2012_2344_1200x798.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoXWV_gX5BmlxRnvHRPdIS3d6z38RPcKn6YM3XrwX3TXE_M7dQ5IW83fdNgULtIg06LoKH7ncHiKg8QS95v3n-gpcIex_8NSdqtK7QkgUcgNp6fb50c08CD6-zpbbXXf4CT1DHUX91YpdD/s1600/JGH_2012_2344_1200x798.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8000001907349px; text-align: center;">Fired brick homes didn't necessarily stand up any better than<br />
adobe / mud. </td></tr>
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We might refer to these days as torrential rain that goes on and on (it seems to be like this in Scotland for weeks in Spring!). But this was different, it was referred to as an “extreme cloud outburst” by climatologists and sounds very much like an extreme weather event brought on by global warming, a symptom of climate change. I find it hard to imagine: rain that’s so intense it destroys your whole village, and thousands like it all around. For hundreds of miles: about 3 million people’s villages. <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2TFASUP5Cdc-vViW0aCaOnJ8YxtfjeZUvIPfzSEkoZeLsWD2f4-31qKYVe9bHMNNWD5b8trKva8ZRcpWdX0vA6-hoSODtB0tSByX-OwREZ7j8cTReeftOejs5vVwa-6we1GnzmwDfgrMN/s1600/floods+zones.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2TFASUP5Cdc-vViW0aCaOnJ8YxtfjeZUvIPfzSEkoZeLsWD2f4-31qKYVe9bHMNNWD5b8trKva8ZRcpWdX0vA6-hoSODtB0tSByX-OwREZ7j8cTReeftOejs5vVwa-6we1GnzmwDfgrMN/s1600/floods+zones.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8000001907349px; text-align: center;">Their whole village is down that road somewhere behind this guy.<br />
No insurance company will give these people cover.<br />
So all his savings... Gone. </td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8TA7o2m5H7h0t66mDIGGT1lkddhkihBM5XGLzJ0QXgazU5cnx3MRcgEyhkYj9a4T5YW71prTbUyUjqDBeSmuc4EVxx7rITLq9JEEcBJWhjSQyQCI_Tzpj_rGfKl71G9ayPp4_c5TUjLnP/s1600/20130328_122746+(1).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8TA7o2m5H7h0t66mDIGGT1lkddhkihBM5XGLzJ0QXgazU5cnx3MRcgEyhkYj9a4T5YW71prTbUyUjqDBeSmuc4EVxx7rITLq9JEEcBJWhjSQyQCI_Tzpj_rGfKl71G9ayPp4_c5TUjLnP/s1600/20130328_122746+(1).jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8000001907349px; text-align: center;">From Rajanpur, in Southern Punjab, which was also seriously affected in 2012.<br />
This was taken in March - six months after the floods! Very few families<br />
had the money to rebuild. Now living in tents or makeshift shelters.<br />
Much more vulnerable to future floods. And so the cycle goes.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwFPKCE-1jZGRmKDBxt-b7ZJdSWja0bjFkMoKSCL8Cvs5-VsguoDIeiqnQQm512izK4K3x1nJh-lOknLnUmzIOVZD6oLK9dB3YTCl0uanYndc3uGP7uPVfkGzJKCC1BgT4yqDinqCMeHjg/s1600/DSC_0361.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwFPKCE-1jZGRmKDBxt-b7ZJdSWja0bjFkMoKSCL8Cvs5-VsguoDIeiqnQQm512izK4K3x1nJh-lOknLnUmzIOVZD6oLK9dB3YTCl0uanYndc3uGP7uPVfkGzJKCC1BgT4yqDinqCMeHjg/s1600/DSC_0361.JPG" width="320" /></a>Sabina told me that when they saw their houses crumbling and the waters rising they packed what little they could carry and made their way to safer, higher ground. Sindh is pretty much a massive flat plain so there aren’t many raised areas, but there are quite a few rural roads, raised up to some degree. They took refuge there where they met some of HANDS’ teams when they were reaching out to people devastated by this flood – the third major flood is as many years. </div>
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The scale of these climate disasters is so massive that it’s impossible for NGOs, Government or UN agencies to reach everyone. HANDS had been working with DFID funds in response to the 2011 floods a year earlier so like a couple of our other partners they were able to respond quickly, and we (DFID) provided a “top up” of £2m to reach 26,000 families like Sabina’s with some basic emergency shelter and support. </div>
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Having been down the whole emergency response road quite a few times before (and having spoken to folks like Sabina who’d been washed out of their homes in the previous floods we had a fair idea of what would be useful to give out. If indeed you give anything out: there’s a big push globally to just go for cash: find some way to transfer a useful amount of cash, like $100, to the disaster affected and they’ll figure out the best thing to buy, be it food, medicines, a bus ticket for the whole family to go to the city? But I have spent years visiting hundreds of communities hit by floods in these areas and I always ask this question: would you prefer cash or the equivalent value of this cash in shelter materials and they almost always chose the latter (well, with a laugh they add that they’d really rather have both!).</div>
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Stuff it was to be then, £2m of shelter bits and some other items. That’s about £75 per family. Let’s look at exactly what’s included and what difference it makes. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEho039VZi62vptB9u0uN1kbgRCeiQZWTTlfQasjBrknseUke0ajDGA5SvHC5rSEHLIz4BYMMjPCr9yx0urfjnVQTq3qTehfdXkGBnvF6MAY5V6KH1VG5SVd9fcde1CaF3jOCmNGUEPz6__l/s1600/20130327_103318.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEho039VZi62vptB9u0uN1kbgRCeiQZWTTlfQasjBrknseUke0ajDGA5SvHC5rSEHLIz4BYMMjPCr9yx0urfjnVQTq3qTehfdXkGBnvF6MAY5V6KH1VG5SVd9fcde1CaF3jOCmNGUEPz6__l/s1600/20130327_103318.jpg" width="320" /></a>This very orange photo shows more or less what’s included in this kit: a steel girder, 20 really long bamboo poles, a couple of big pieces of plastic, a water filter and a solar light. This “roofing kit” as it came to be known was originally HANDS idea: give out an emergency kit that can be used upon return to build a reasonably permanent shelter as well. I have always liked this approach because it invests in lots of phases of return, it assumes that things can be re-used so demands good quality. And it’s just so much better value than a tent costing three times more but providing less than half the flexibility and longevity. </div>
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The solar lights are something I’ve been encouraging with all our partners for years because before working in Pakistan my family and I were re-building a ruin in a small village in Portugal and I spent a lot of time wandering around at night stubbing toes and falling over rocks when I lost my torch.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggpUwYNuBOzUYswZE3LtSwXvLMEY99djmzdMuSeO20N06Lrm-hYyGHsGk1HGLcIEKX5UtveXpSyX4pMGwztcTAxxmYIBbwMaRZd_LjCrkvaPFMzlpIPYU6L6NcdALMRs_H8VJpvDJSIZEF/s1600/Tandu+Allayar-+Solar+Lamps-++(14).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggpUwYNuBOzUYswZE3LtSwXvLMEY99djmzdMuSeO20N06Lrm-hYyGHsGk1HGLcIEKX5UtveXpSyX4pMGwztcTAxxmYIBbwMaRZd_LjCrkvaPFMzlpIPYU6L6NcdALMRs_H8VJpvDJSIZEF/s1600/Tandu+Allayar-+Solar+Lamps-++(14).jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">picture courtesy of IOM - our other long term partner<br />
in Pakistan, who have also done great work<br />
with lights, communities, shelter.</td></tr>
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I realised that most folk here had no light when they left their homes and were really vulnerable (not just to stubbed toes but to violence, intimidation, sexual abuse, the stuff of nightmares). So lights were a must (and we’ve distributed way over 100,000 already..). Also, people really value having light after sun-down and will spend between $3 and $10 a month on candles, kerosene or torches. These Mandarin lights I found from Illumination cost about $8 and last for years, so again, better economics. Other such solar lights that have been good and robust come from Toughstuff and D-Light, but both are just a little more expensive, so most partners have gone for the Mandarins.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEga5DUZbauJjB2yEf-pr3tRWI3qXQpc8aXzzGTWF4ZpQSK7puN5lMm4ZymPrcRjf1wkedM9WXniMlzWOzk_ayVqWFII-QXK0BiII6my5ILFUSKuiteBcAjEGJWAnGSFDJ6iyBtAaKht8z27/s1600/DSC_0332.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEga5DUZbauJjB2yEf-pr3tRWI3qXQpc8aXzzGTWF4ZpQSK7puN5lMm4ZymPrcRjf1wkedM9WXniMlzWOzk_ayVqWFII-QXK0BiII6my5ILFUSKuiteBcAjEGJWAnGSFDJ6iyBtAaKht8z27/s1600/DSC_0332.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The materials from the HANDS roofing kit, being used as<br />
a temporary shelter ( you could call it transitional). How much<br />
better is this than a tent!? And.. they will be used again for the fully<br />
reconstructed house. </td></tr>
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By the time I met Sabina she had already moved home and had used these shelter materials to construct a fairly solid roof over the basic walls made from local earth. This meant that she wouldn’t have to live in a tiny tent or an adapted cow shed, which is where most people live for years after these floods. In fact this is what happens in the absence of humanitarian aid: people just suffer – For Years! Living out in the virtual open air, with temperatures over 50 degrees in summer and below 5 degrees in winter. </div>
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By now we had received approval from London to initiate a post-emergency programme of recovery support for those people worst affected by the 2012 floods. This is how humanitarian aid often works: emergency assistance quickly for the first 1 to 6 months, then separate funding for longer term recovery efforts that help people rebuild their lives to at least what they had before. DFID / the UK responded amazingly to our pitch and agreed to support over 50,000 families to rebuild durable, flood-resistant homes. In addition to this, to reach a further 80,000 more families with agriculture and other livelihood inputs to help restart their incomes and overcome debt; support almost half a million people to rebuild broken water pumps and systems and to encourage them to build toilets and improve their hygiene and sanitation situation (long story, for another blog!). Overall we received approval for just over £21m for this whole recovery programme which carries on through April 2015.</div>
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For Sabina, this meant that HANDS could now start supporting her and others to build homes that would not collapse under the heavy rains. And so we enter the world of lime, clay and local materials. More on that in the next episode…<br />
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OK to finish, a few more photos because I can't not share these! </div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEic_3Vm5fUEjmuAMLs_PmAiqtU7ywwWUY6PwstS1oNjz8oyC-GkzgjepsvnAtn7v_NVlK9l0xFmN34-b3SmqSrF-9JykzLo4OliV9EF0-GcPCA9uJbQyKzckniBDSK4yryNRYPxmC5vCoho/s1600/DSC_0569.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="424" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEic_3Vm5fUEjmuAMLs_PmAiqtU7ywwWUY6PwstS1oNjz8oyC-GkzgjepsvnAtn7v_NVlK9l0xFmN34-b3SmqSrF-9JykzLo4OliV9EF0-GcPCA9uJbQyKzckniBDSK4yryNRYPxmC5vCoho/s1600/DSC_0569.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Too bright to forget. Despite the amazing levels of damage and poverty, I'm constantly amazed by how happy and bright and positive these people are. I think of urban poverty in Scotland... Don't think I see such happy and friendly people... Yet behind these wonderful eyes and smiles there's serious malnutrition (around 23% severe / acute to be precise) and about 10% female literacy. Go figure...</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVJPjdajXKLPxbun8exVIoqLoz2G726LvgNxoKYWHof08aQqlpyvBra8u4n_n1ub9tOXfgdcv53YP4aI2hmc4UBabTi5Gyfv3B6MANMQymDk2TnVUTm7ENw-L1ATjGw4tsnVjlxVgLx_40/s1600/DSC_0371.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="470" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVJPjdajXKLPxbun8exVIoqLoz2G726LvgNxoKYWHof08aQqlpyvBra8u4n_n1ub9tOXfgdcv53YP4aI2hmc4UBabTi5Gyfv3B6MANMQymDk2TnVUTm7ENw-L1ATjGw4tsnVjlxVgLx_40/s1600/DSC_0371.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sabina and family - with Waqar DFID driver and long time friend, colleague, philosopher and political commentator making a guest showing!</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This is from another village where IOM has completed this permanent shelter, on the left. I like this photo because you see the "before and after" - this shack on the left is basically how people live, for many years, if a shelter programme doesn't reach them. This is the impact of our work. </td></tr>
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Magnushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15258662256324051363noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-195261637295251390.post-44623205447940982762014-12-11T02:41:00.001+00:002014-12-11T02:41:39.300+00:00Arabian Nights - in the arms of Green School <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Two hours, they said.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Two hours of a high school play. Uh oh, this could be a long night…<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">But then it was beginning, gentle, exotic drumming floated
over the humid night as a line of robed actors walked through us, with a confidence
and grace that comes with knowing. “Asalam Alaikum” calls their leader, “Alaikum
Asalam” intone the others, in unison, in rhythm.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We were in, I was spellbound. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">Arabian Nights, the stories of the thousands and one nights,
stories within stories, mysteries and comedies, tragedies and philosophies;
acts within acts, all masterfully put together so we always knew where we were,
who was who. The passion was palpable; I could feel the hours of preparation in
the choreography as scenes and actors changed places or characters. Props? Who needs
them? At one point they created a journey across mountains, through rivers and
oceans, just by the movement of their bodies, the waving of the sea, the shape
of a boat (arms linked together, the shape of a leaf).</span><o:p><span style="font-family: Arial;"> </span></o:p></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">And how they unfolded each tale! I have rarely been so
engrossed, charmed, inspired, amused and thrilled at a group of people working together
on some scripted lines, some suggested scenes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">Enthralled, enraptured we sat, perhaps 80 of us, parents,
children, friends of friends, on cushions around the floor or along the
amphitheatre steps under the leaf-like umbrella that forms the roof of this
remarkable theatre and morning assembly hall (now transformed into the realm of
original mysteries).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">And how the school, this collection of incredible buildings,
each exquisite and unique, that are host to a throng of passionate people from
around the world, who we see in the day, busy in their comings and goings, in
the never-ending endeavour of teaching, of learning, is transformed at night,
the curved walls, the bamboo structures beautifully crafted together into a
whole, like a basket, surrounded by over-storey coconuts and living bamboo.
Dark green everywhere, the boisterous clouds overhead, the occasional howl of a
forest creature.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is quite a
place.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And this night belongs to Ibu
Sarita, our school’s drama teacher who has brought this performance to light and
created a kind of magic.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And these young
adults whose lives are surely enriched now, their memories of this time, this
night and one other they’ll perform, which they will keep for their forevers. </span><o:p><span style="font-family: Arial;"> </span></o:p></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">How great is this? To see that learning is more than memory,
that memories are made from creating something that is beyond the one, part of
a collaboration of efforts that weave light and sound and words. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">“And the nights of Baghdad shone bright like day” they
soared, in defiance and joy at once.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Joy
and tragedy together, as we all know too well the bitter history of yesteryear,
wrought by Western leaders who still live and breathe today. And so, from a
thousand-year-old enchantments we are dumped into the folly of today. With the
echoes of incredible wisdom in the original book that inspired this play – of love,
the meaning of prayer, of sunset, God, the words that define an empire, death and
infinite joy – the lights went down, the story done, the moment complete.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Like the outraged King at the beginning of
this tale who only wanted the stories to continue, I only wanted more. Until
dawn if need be, and beyond.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Magnushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15258662256324051363noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-195261637295251390.post-79811610610632344312014-09-11T02:51:00.000+01:002014-09-11T02:51:11.928+01:00To live in Bali... first impressions anyway <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbI8X80xUV93gEdpvrUSGvLDl6PXF4hyphenhyphenseJnaVm0Vj0txZaq_D39dmmS8YHVnawBLkQPKqXRLgHSA03u_ivqM7apHK4fboTr_QNXZgHcLwRp99AZU_hhpMESzV5_50dh2uetKL9XotItfY/s1600/DSC_0033.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbI8X80xUV93gEdpvrUSGvLDl6PXF4hyphenhyphenseJnaVm0Vj0txZaq_D39dmmS8YHVnawBLkQPKqXRLgHSA03u_ivqM7apHK4fboTr_QNXZgHcLwRp99AZU_hhpMESzV5_50dh2uetKL9XotItfY/s1600/DSC_0033.JPG" height="400" width="265" /></a>Immediately struck by light and sound, colour and smell, arriving in Bali, almost a month now.. Kira and I plus about four thousand other foreigners who happen to be in this particular slot of new arrivals. Mostly tourists you'd think. Who knows? Are we tourists? What are we doing here anyway? Well we are yet to figure that one out. For now we're here for school: <a href="http://www.greenschool.org/">the green school</a>, a unique arrangement of outstanding bamboo buildings in the middle of a forest, where an exciting new approach to education is underway. Right now we're not feeling very green haven flown half-way around the world and surrounded by concrete and car fumes at the airport.<br />
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Bali is, so far, a cacophony of different experiences. The ocean, open between here and Antarctica pulsates with waves every day, without fail, there's always something to ride. The beaches are totally diverse - some black, others brown, some white, some covered in shacks selling grilled corn and fresh coconuts, others empty and desolate, farmland stretching right up close to the shore. <br />
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August is windy. So it's kite season.. look up to see a few dozen bizarrely-shaped specs shimmering there, often static on some kind of fixed lines into the middle distance, like stepping stones into the sky. <br />
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We ride by motorbike, until Monica arrives. Two on a bike OK. The school is maybe 25 mins inland across paddy fields which shine in morning light, and on the right day the volcanoe mountain looms in the background, cocunut palm pasted into the frame. Idyllic, or classic tropical scene. Until the junction...<br />
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A hundred, a thousands speeding cars, trucks and bikes. all at once, in a continual flow like river of metal and fumes. Eeek. and we have to cross into that? We wait.. see a break, follow some other nutter who's making the leap, and we're in, like jumping into a river, nipping around the slower moving mighty wagons, or cars. How slow are cars in this chaos? Soon enough we're back to the side roads, and the air is fresh again.<br />
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Ubud is the cultural heart, where for decades a melting pot of creative types have been gathering. I stopped one day for a haircut. Turns out to be a centre for therapy and massage, run by an elderly gent who was taught some ancient arts of meditation and massage passed down for generations. Now it feels like the whole town is dedicated to this, with yoga and therapy retreats behind every garden wall. Where surf lodges fill on the coast, travellers here come to stretch and breathe. And eat... the vegan cafes seem to outnumber the conventional. organic everything, dairy free banoffee pie - imagine? I've had food here i've never experienced before - and i'm not talking Balinese spice, but vegan creativity with the very same veg and nuts and fruit you find everywhere. <br />
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Everywhere bamboo, little baskets make of leaves with flowers and offerings, a little stick of incense wafting. in front of every shop, on street corners. And children learning how to weave and cut and make it all. This I like.<br />
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Back to the sea - always the sea, warm and accessible, rock and sand. This is where everyone goes to play. At weekends filled with locals from the towns and cities equally thrilled with the setting sun, selfies from every rock. Weddings and ceremonies. Temples so near the beach, donging and haunting rhythms heard far out in the waves. <br />
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Magnushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15258662256324051363noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-195261637295251390.post-27547819728449808202014-07-04T13:51:00.000+01:002015-06-08T01:51:01.867+01:00For Paolo Mellet - visionary, teacher, friend. <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Paulo,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">First off, I just can’t believe your’re not with us right
now. I am so used to being in touch
pretty much all the time. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">With crushing reluctance I’ve come to accept that one of my
closest friends, mentors, ideas generator, building mate, fellow life
adventurer has left us, for higher realms. We found out last week, middle of
the night in our home in Islamabad, when our son Nikita called with the
news.</span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">We were all just stunned and
speechless. It hardly seems possible, for someone who was so completely infused
with boundless energy and ideas, as if they burst through his pores, his eyes …isn't just around the corner.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Completely gutted in every way.</span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Yet at the same time empowered by his life. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">And now by Ruth his
incredible wife and equally inspiring partner.</span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">
</span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Ruth somehow maintained </span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">clarity and a capacity to share Paulo’s
struggles to overcome a serious bout of malaria which kick-started a spiral of
organ and system failure across his exhausted body; at 17 Paulo survived leukaemia
but knew how his organs had taken a serious hammering, leaving him vulnerable,
yet somehow with this octane-fuelled clarity of vision and direction.</span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Every few days Ruth would facebook updates in
English and Portuguese (Brasileira, como ela), to muster us all into action to
send positive images of a healing Paulo.</span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">
</span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Hundreds of us would like and comment and share our love and hope and
support.</span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Paulo had a LOT of friends, had
reached a lot of people..</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">This is it.. Paulo has had a vision for this planet, a “design strategy” as he might say, to re-think the way humans live in the environment around them. To transform the energy we put into destroying our ecology to repairing it. A system of design that would increase people’s access to food through smarter use of their waste, cutting inefficiencies (that he saw everywhere, as if he had some eco-super-power to x-ray scan across communities and spot the numptified designs that have appeared around us).</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6Fh0_Wk9pGd9WaUdNX5ykIf-qleywrp3VdbQfd3XehZDJeQnV_WaAdzBuJwzKwYYSVRkNT9GduQQcJ5T5Gv4AAS-ZekpZdy3u1CeduM5rEPN4cMOlmJa3c0gTwtgWQXRKcxXYxdJhjxtE/s1600/IMG_3453.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6Fh0_Wk9pGd9WaUdNX5ykIf-qleywrp3VdbQfd3XehZDJeQnV_WaAdzBuJwzKwYYSVRkNT9GduQQcJ5T5Gv4AAS-ZekpZdy3u1CeduM5rEPN4cMOlmJa3c0gTwtgWQXRKcxXYxdJhjxtE/s1600/IMG_3453.JPG" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13.333333015441895px; text-align: center;">struggling together with this 400kg oak beam...</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">He’s the only person I’ve ever met that could see the common
thread between everything people do, from growing food, harnessing energy,
dealing with waste, building homes, teaching children. He had learned about permaculture way back, then he studied renewable energy,
sustainable building and large scale water retention and management
strategies. He knew so bloody much
stuff, and had this spider’s web of linkages going on constantly that connected
strategies and designs from one part way over to the other. For a while he became obsessed by mushrooms
and fungi (well he was obsessed about everything..) and would insist you sit
down for a two hour session watching some guy delivering a presentation on the
stuff, then sit and watch you and say “so, you get it now, right?” then he’d
explain how the waste coming off ethanol production could be excellent
feedstock for fungi which in turn would provide goodies for fish, which would
clean dirty water and provide irrigation for new plants for more ethanol, and
on and on. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<o:p><a href="http://www.slideshare.net/MagnusMurray/productive-ecological-sewage-water-treatment-systems-full-reduced-size-for-email-jan-2014" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">This is Paulo's last presentation</a><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> he sent me. We'd been in constant touch about ways to deal with the disaster that human waste has become, but why it needn't be so. </span></o:p></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggoPp3LKjYpK9AFeI-olR1ityuhlzKehw22bJPRk6_7eSBQEJ6xHT2p_aUmv2PvFxoCaZGuiNCLh-L0IAffPZdDasld19D7VwEVa5dg327V6KpKSytQfb5ge4ZeuR-mla52I3D6qbK7hZ8/s1600/IMG_3513.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggoPp3LKjYpK9AFeI-olR1ityuhlzKehw22bJPRk6_7eSBQEJ6xHT2p_aUmv2PvFxoCaZGuiNCLh-L0IAffPZdDasld19D7VwEVa5dg327V6KpKSytQfb5ge4ZeuR-mla52I3D6qbK7hZ8/s1600/IMG_3513.JPG" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">With Saffy, his sister Mary, and friends</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">We started chatting about all this in the green of Wales
back in 2006, when we met, soon after we moved into small plot of land in
Portugal completely covered in 30 years of brambles and spikey things, hiding
old terraces, ruins and a massive renovation project. Paolo liked this idea and offered to dive in
with us. And so he did. Over the next couple of years we grafted away
together tackling just about every concept and project that you can imagine,
all the while Paulo chattering away an almost non-stop narrative of
sustainability and compost, worms, gardens and water, mushrooms and underground
life forms we know-so-little-about,
smoothies and aaargh! I never
went on a permaculture design course (2 weeks) because I think back on this
time as a two year doctorate! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">We grew together. Our
children Nikita and Kira must have been 13 and 7. They absorbed too – and won’t forget. <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifovTIvMed7ELffKy_T6YLUKY4G6141Fu25INk3zbn3IEecmsZzonJerYxH8pYIJTJv_FNc-0GCbqvQbdFQgOdfttl4RK4M94inSFSeLy70NzSa-nQX7w-5Odi_ci16IVLW2b2zTzLM31m/s1600/plastering+%25288%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifovTIvMed7ELffKy_T6YLUKY4G6141Fu25INk3zbn3IEecmsZzonJerYxH8pYIJTJv_FNc-0GCbqvQbdFQgOdfttl4RK4M94inSFSeLy70NzSa-nQX7w-5Odi_ci16IVLW2b2zTzLM31m/s1600/plastering+%25288%2529.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Under Paulo's spell Kira dives in to the<br />
lime plastering too:)</td></tr>
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How many times Nikita, Paulo and I would be
the only ones around holding up some half-framed structure, Paolo rapidly
slipping into a mood that emerges from having to work with such turkeys who
take-so-long to get it. Well Nikita got
it pretty quick, I’m still in turkeysville but that’s another story).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGH55F8nlKttIsuZQM_YYK68qLYRWV4jVA-tohs0M_xFaJxr4l51Zg3Tk-nfaG6AYdND4zq2h55Q2dKy0Szs00-z1VzCx_3p-7ciXs_RszgA4xEPAXh2bfKi0T-opUdF_udJa_XnEse9oU/s1600/IMG_3546.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGH55F8nlKttIsuZQM_YYK68qLYRWV4jVA-tohs0M_xFaJxr4l51Zg3Tk-nfaG6AYdND4zq2h55Q2dKy0Szs00-z1VzCx_3p-7ciXs_RszgA4xEPAXh2bfKi0T-opUdF_udJa_XnEse9oU/s1600/IMG_3546.JPG" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">With Nikita, bringing up this massive pre-fabricated structure that was to become the terrace for the Alambique</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">He would disappear for weeks on various missions. To Croatia with Ruth to desing some mega
straw-bale warehouse for his new umbrella company LUSH. Or to obscure
communities of German inventors in Southern Portugal, come back bouncing with
excitement about their new creations that turned sun rays into ice (the hotter
it is outside the cooler the fridge). I’m
pretty much obsessed by anything low-tech and radical too, so we’d be there for
hours plotting how we’d incorporate these into the aid world, into communities
devoid of power and jobs, and how sun & ice could change the picture
completely. Especially if we included
biogas, rainwater collection, constructed wetlands, and so on. Integrated smart design. Yes… I’m working on that. This has become my
mission too. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKFXqPs4yAi4yVs8JvRYTgUg0xz0ODseMpSjOSck9X3hwoXvh1EP8ybdRppQyJOVoGCG_JewdPUjq2K9GxLkkpTB1kxI2KJRYcKrwZCKAZq6VPKKEuKLgFcf30kkAnKTY3lMLwmpG16Jme/s1600/october+%252857%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKFXqPs4yAi4yVs8JvRYTgUg0xz0ODseMpSjOSck9X3hwoXvh1EP8ybdRppQyJOVoGCG_JewdPUjq2K9GxLkkpTB1kxI2KJRYcKrwZCKAZq6VPKKEuKLgFcf30kkAnKTY3lMLwmpG16Jme/s1600/october+%252857%2529.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Paulo designed this entire straw bale section on the house, and led the construction with our family and friends.</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">We went crazy watching the local rivers change through the
seasons, and Paolo let slip that kayaking was another of his hobbies (how many
can a guy have!!??). A few months later
we had all the gear, and Nikita, Paulo and I would drive our van way up some secluded
river and charge down, waterfalls and all.
These were great moments, staring over at each other in a strange mix of
terror, exhilaration and what-the-hell let’s just do it screech, as we hurtled
towards some new waterfall we hadn't had time check out first. In the pouring
rain. (Argggh. where's the photos of these missions!??)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">When we moved to Pakistan Paulo and Ruth used England as a
pit-stop to the oasis that their Brazil was to become. It sounded amazing there. And I could read between the lines of
messages and many skypes how he was infecting yet more ordinary mortals with
his vision for a better world. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyVZNcFQxtkcB9VZWn30FqrDr5cYFzorJyrxar_Ku-UHoRWrsQwtM3t5tdyyCGnmSN9RLZhiDMUpKIboueX5VfFyD48oau_lU5F69_sD0nawWlwFM5Een5QFohRKIOdDMmOeZu7qQN-XTx/s1600/IMG_3489.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyVZNcFQxtkcB9VZWn30FqrDr5cYFzorJyrxar_Ku-UHoRWrsQwtM3t5tdyyCGnmSN9RLZhiDMUpKIboueX5VfFyD48oau_lU5F69_sD0nawWlwFM5Een5QFohRKIOdDMmOeZu7qQN-XTx/s1600/IMG_3489.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">With our multi-national team of beam-movers from Romania, England, Portugal, New Zealand, Scotland<br />
from left - Nikita, me, Nik, Paulo, Shrek (Carlos), Hewel, Petrus, Ilie and Manuel (Neo). </td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">In Pakistan I became humanitarian “advisor” to the UK Government’s
efforts to support post mega-flood recovery. Subsequent years brought equally
intense rain and destruction. Almost
four years on I’m still there, supporting one of the largest shelter
reconstruction projects ever – at over 120,000 homes and counting. <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigFm8IrOmjtCjHPlSVjWuHfpBWEPOJqew6hXxXXPgbIhbhzbkpHE1fkt-owT9jBKatiG7zgbzsEnxSiygS8HfCeFnum42ImIfZaGxEGfljAwJyeGE5_ilDkY1ae-YxsMXsy2Iev8ArbxQ_/s1600/DSC_0400.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigFm8IrOmjtCjHPlSVjWuHfpBWEPOJqew6hXxXXPgbIhbhzbkpHE1fkt-owT9jBKatiG7zgbzsEnxSiygS8HfCeFnum42ImIfZaGxEGfljAwJyeGE5_ilDkY1ae-YxsMXsy2Iev8ArbxQ_/s1600/DSC_0400.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">One of hundreds of amazing families i worked with in <br />
Pakistan, discussing building with lime, how I'd learned<br />
from Paulo and Hywel in Portugal. </td></tr>
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Almost
everything I learned from Paulo I imparted here: the value of lime, appropriate
shading and slaking of the stuff (this is a huge deal for the uninitiated – and
has enabled people to build fully flood resistant homes for less than £300
each, meaning we reached 70% more families or saved about £50m compared to the
conventional way of building houses). I
found myself stomping around lecturing anyone in hearing distance of the magic
like qualities of this ancient material, as if I had become an ambassador for
Paulo’s forest empire. Yes, Paulo, your
legacy is marching on, I carry it proudly every day and as the fates would have
it I found myself advising one of the largest and most progressive donors in
the world, who are really supportive of our work – and enabled your vision to
go really far.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">We return to Portugal tomorrow, where you appear in just
about every picture, in every part of the building and gardening process. You are as much part of our land there as we
are and as you planted half the trees you will grow on with us there. Quite fitting really, as Paulo was many parts
elfen creature and part-man. He seemed
more at home in a mossy corner between rocks or high in the canopy of some
tree. A quiver full of carved arrows
over his back and slightly pointed ears would have raised no alarm. I’d find him stuffing fresh cut grass into
his blender, together with powder of some coco bean, sun-filtered water and
some fruits. I asked him if he had become part-goat; he looked at me from under
his eyebrows, frowning, to say “grass and weeds are just phenomenal mineral
accumulators, how do you think sheep survive?”.
I’d settle down with my all-too-human scrambled egg and bread, feeling
more like an ork beside this ethereal being sipping his plant juice.
(Annoyingly, he would then carry a jug of this stuff around for the next half
hour, like an IV, sipping, glowing). </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">I’m going to feel a bit lost for a while – any time I had a
problem or an idea I’d take it to you and you’d send me a drop-box full of vids
and docs and links and names and case studies.
I have Gigabytes of the stuff now, guess I’ll have to start reading
it… God-damn that malarial piece of shit
bug…</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Ruth, I can’t imagine how you’re coping. You are SO many
times stronger than me to have held it together so long. Please come and see us whenever you can – we
are here with you as your extended family.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Go well Paolo, my friend, it’s been a great privilege to fly
together a while. </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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Magnushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15258662256324051363noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-195261637295251390.post-57825000204854166352013-08-08T20:10:00.001+01:002013-08-14T01:24:42.614+01:00Ground-breaking solar energy system (?)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">What do we know about solar energy? What do you think of? </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">PV (photovoltaic) panels that produce electricity come to mind, or solar thermal systems that give bath-loads of hot water for anyone who has installed them.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Then there's concentrated solar power, of which there's a nice photo and description from wikipedia <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concentrated_solar_power">here</a>. Basically these are huge rows of curved (parabolic) mirrors that reflect sunlight to a static tank of water or oil throughout the day. The heat generated creates steam to drive a turbine to make electricity. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I thought that was as far as we had gone with solar systems, until I came across this radically different concept they call the Sun-Pulse. Invented by the German physicist and inventor, Jurgen Kleinwachter, it has been built and tested in Tamera since 2008. So, here's how it works: </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">- solar energy in the form of sunlight is collected in pipes erected on a structure (in their case a greenhouse but it could be flat panels on a roof, or a series of parabolic mirrors beaming the light at a centralised tank, just like in the concentrated solar power system);</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">- vegetable oil is the selected medium to be heated because it has a boiling point far higher than water, so it can be heated to over 150 degrees C or higher (can't remember exactly, doesn't matter right now). </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">- the veg oil is allowed to circulate around a Stirling Engine. OK this in itself is a wonderful invention and concept all by itself - invented in 1813 by a Scotsman! Basically it's an engine that runs on the temperature difference between two points. There are two pistons that are driven up and down as gas</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> is expanded when heat is applied to the "hot end" of the engine. Cold water is pumped to the cold end to maintain the temperature difference. The pistons move and drive a flywheel, which can be connected to a generator to make electricity, or a pump to move water, or a tank to hold compressed air, and so on. Again wikipedia has the basics <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stirling_engine#cite_note-10">here</a>. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Now, the beauty of this system we visited in <a href="http://www.tamera.org/index.php?id=51&L=0">Tamera </a>was its simplicity despite the complex design and mechanics. We were shown around by Douglas Baillie and Janos Valder, both seriously competent scientist-technicians in their own right. Douglas comes with a PHD in physics from Heriot Watt University in Scotland, which speaks for itself. </span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Douglas beside the stirling engine. The insulated pipes carry the hot oil to and from the stirling engine. The<br />
circular fly wheel on the right is rotated as the engine runs. </td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Douglas explained that all this was built on a fairly low budget, using recycled metal and basic membranes. </span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Nikita, right, researching for his essay...</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Inside the greenhouse Douglas explains how the "Fresnel" mirrors direct sunlight to the copper<br />
pipes that carry the oil. </td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The stirling engine here powers a 2.5KW electrical generator, but the system can do so much more, including: </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">- circulation of hot oil to a kitchen area to cook food</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">- compress air for running tools</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">- mechanical energy to run rotational tools or for milling, etc. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Here's a video that explains the whole set up in 9 minutes</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Later I was in touch with Jurgen (the inventor) who has started to work with a company in Germany to produce smaller, more efficient system. Jurgen explained that they have started to use the pumping capacity to capture air, remove the nitrogen to create oxygen in tanks which can then be used for welding. He is also confident that the heat can be used to run heat pumps that could run fridges. Imagine the possibilities: the capacity to create cooling in hot climates. Ice for cold stores, vaccination programmes, storing food and so on. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Solar water pumping, Stirling-style</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Next we were introduced to the Sun-Pulse Water. This is based on a similar principle: solar heat is collected in a basic dish (see photo) which runs a stirling engine, itself connected directly to a water pump. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The team say the calculated pumping capacity for this puppy is a whopping 400,000 litres per day at negligible head, up to 80,000 litres / day from 10m depth and 15,000 l/day from 50m - in a site that has around 2,000 sunshine hours per year (in other words, forget most of the UK).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This is serious stuff. In Pakistan last year there were lakes of standing water for 7 months after a flood, inundating a massive area, as far as my eye could see in some places. Diesel driven dewatering pumps were used but local authorities quickly ran out of money for fuel so the impact was limited. Could this thing really move that much water in a day? (4m litres in ten days of sunshine). If so, bring-it-on...</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Janos, standing beside the Sun-Pulse Water engine / pump - built with a few spare parts<br />
bits of motorbike, some old metal and sticky back reflective foil. </td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Economic analysis and comparison</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The question now is to compare the costs of construction and operation against other solar or renewable energy systems. Take your average rural village in Pakistan where the electricity supply is utterly unreliable: on average, people receive only around 4 to 6 hours per day - for which they pay around $7 per month per family. In a village of 100 households that's around $40,000 spent over five years. With rampant inflation that's likely to be closer to $60,000 in five years. And remember, that's for just a few hours of power per day. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In most villages people use this power for a bit of light, charging mobile phones and fans for the extreme heat (well over 45 degrees C for about half the year). </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So, let's assume that the community decides to apply for a micro-finance loan to erect an alternative power supply. Their options are limited to solar PV, which would be quite expensive, and would be limited to the provision of electricity (12v or 240v if an expensive and energy-hungry inverter were bought). </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">If a sun-pulse were installed, it could, potentially, provide adequate electrical power but also mechanical energy for pumping water, driving machines to allow for a vast range of micro livelihoods and, as discussed, cooling for food processing, storage etc.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">That's in theory. Now we need to put it into practice. Our plan is to write a research proposal whereby Jurgen, Tamera and a local NGO in Pakistan would team up with a local university and a local community to build a test system. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Funding is going to be needed to kick-start this whole process. Training in system construction and design could take place in Tamera and later in-country, technical support and guidance from Jurgen and his colleagues in Germany and implementation, testing and research carried out in the community in Pakistan. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The question of capital investment is really critical for this or any other energy project. I've been inspired by the work of the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh which pioneered a system of providing loans to landless poor in that country. Then they stared <a href="http://www.gshakti.org/">Grameen Shakti</a>, which is promoting solar PV energy systems to rural poor on a credit basis, with massive ambition to reach 15 million people by 2015. Surely something like this could work in Pakistan and other countries to allow poor communities to access the money they are going to pay anyway over the coming years for electricity and other energy services. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So that's the idea. Now we have to see if it's feasible - and to find out if the Sun-Pulse offers better economics that solar photovoltaic power for people out there struggling with serious energy insecurity. </span></div>
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Magnushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15258662256324051363noreply@blogger.com27tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-195261637295251390.post-87527048842662045242013-07-23T21:09:00.002+01:002015-06-06T11:31:35.374+01:00How to reverse desertification <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Last month Nikita and I visited Tamera in the far South of Portugal - a parched landscape of rolling hills, rolling fields once dedicated to intensive wheat production, then intensive grazing, now exhausted and denuded. In their wisdom the Government with EU funding has introduced mono-culture eucylptus and pine plantations, which will exacerbate the water crisis in this area, increasing fire risk and bring virtually no sustainable economic opportunities to local communities. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We came to see an alternative land-use option. To learn how you can turn this into an area of perpetual productivity and an oasis for biodiversity.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTbhdtXbelQwvQPWbFzHA7uTHk9HhtianY96aLZEIUzkoOUFBO4gsmntma7ovGEtJqBkljmgE_QJY9hn0ZAK0O8ZVHl6r4tOzSzjOmgKQcRnzwoOMk3x0OjnopSMZPdqyZkZZK5swHE6mN/s1600/20130625_084239.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="219" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTbhdtXbelQwvQPWbFzHA7uTHk9HhtianY96aLZEIUzkoOUFBO4gsmntma7ovGEtJqBkljmgE_QJY9hn0ZAK0O8ZVHl6r4tOzSzjOmgKQcRnzwoOMk3x0OjnopSMZPdqyZkZZK5swHE6mN/s640/20130625_084239.jpg" width="640" /></a>It looks like this - for mile upon mile (this photo taken on the adjacent watershed / valley to Tamera, so it shows how it would have looked like before the project began.</div>
Annual rainfall here: about 600mm - about half the amount of Northern Portugal or the UK<br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We arrive mid-afternoon and are immediately shown around by Cristophe a graduate of forestry from Germany; he is passionate about their project and completely familiar with each aspect of its design and implementation which makes for a brilliant walk-through and presentation. And the best thing was learning about it all as we walked the land and learned physically what we were hearing. Being there makes such a difference.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So their plan is simple: establish dams across the valley in as many places as you can. This means getting diggers down there and increasing the depth of the valley a bit and using all this material to form the dam. This one shown above is their newest lake - only a year old - filled by just the winter and spring rains. In the foreground you can see a solar pump that moves some of this water uphill further for vegetable production.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Move a few meters to the left and this is what you see. The road sits on the top of the damn. The water on the left of the picture is part of the next dam further down. Cristophe explained that the dams hold the water, plenty of it infiltrates into the ground, but once it is saturated it slowly spreads to the surrounding land. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Without these dams all this water would have run through the valley and away to the sea. The parched earth would remain dry.</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0CtP0LvRnPvhvCK4U9L0u3oPygIgK6CE3SmzwC3TcAjotUTGctQkAX2UT1o5iVcTy-O1NFTiSozmZfuYMje9-D-_p3JjmWLIuFkYy7cgg7rK2z6dga8qZfT9if7hgpi8Ot2e4wGTuLZ1Z/s1600/20130624_173742.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0CtP0LvRnPvhvCK4U9L0u3oPygIgK6CE3SmzwC3TcAjotUTGctQkAX2UT1o5iVcTy-O1NFTiSozmZfuYMje9-D-_p3JjmWLIuFkYy7cgg7rK2z6dga8qZfT9if7hgpi8Ot2e4wGTuLZ1Z/s640/20130624_173742.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Cristophe explaining the design of one of their older lakes, this one five years old I think..</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Incredibly detailed planning went into the underwater design as well - shallow areas for reeds for fish breeding and other wildlife, a deep section in the middle to increase overall volume and to maintain some cold water sections, some "shelves" or terraces for various other biodiversity benefits. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">At ground level they have planted thousands of trees. At first there are fruit, nut and other deciduous species, close to the water, followed by a terrace about 3 or 4 meters wide, then another band of trees, then another area of veg production. </span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSINU9Vb6Sx9EEB7u3KBZ6u9GswrlrOm-TMSSO-RmEprOOYIolJqBmhUTlvLk0-Fo7nPYwsQYVeAQrh5zm1bNFdLUxgrB0nOvulrdXDtF4ooTIhdn0d5eyI7Jp7BV-rNSwMj1hnwCl_xi1/s1600/20130625_081659.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="302" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSINU9Vb6Sx9EEB7u3KBZ6u9GswrlrOm-TMSSO-RmEprOOYIolJqBmhUTlvLk0-Fo7nPYwsQYVeAQrh5zm1bNFdLUxgrB0nOvulrdXDtF4ooTIhdn0d5eyI7Jp7BV-rNSwMj1hnwCl_xi1/s640/20130625_081659.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This photo shows the stages of tree plantations, only five years on. There's a new veg bed on the terrace between them which does need some irrigation during the long dry months, but the trees benefit from the increased water available in the water table. </td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Think back to the first picture - arid, brown, dry and denuded landscape. THis looks (and feels) more like France or Southern England. It is much cooler with all the shade and water around, and they say that the lakes create increased breeze down the valley as well. </span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Nice to see that some beds were dedicated to seed production only. <br />
I haven't seen this kind of thing before - vegetables all allowed to go to seed<br />
and get on with securing their reproduction</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">7 years on, trees now well established creating their own micro-climate, <br />
all possible because of the water that is now retained for longer time by the dams. </td></tr>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6p1S0KNTRlVmiSt1TXNuO_awNaK2WxTQ1-44_NvXLw54gGt3ipNVPLLmBDlIguFh8G64x8cqfQNGGVuzCxioIu_Y4r2V2v1wdjYbQvsMCaNv2VYP5vza5eQn9KHx1hRNBMN-ACztZDUSx/s1600/20130625_084401.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="292" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6p1S0KNTRlVmiSt1TXNuO_awNaK2WxTQ1-44_NvXLw54gGt3ipNVPLLmBDlIguFh8G64x8cqfQNGGVuzCxioIu_Y4r2V2v1wdjYbQvsMCaNv2VYP5vza5eQn9KHx1hRNBMN-ACztZDUSx/s640/20130625_084401.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Finally - a reminder of how this land looked before they started here. I walked up here the day after our tour and couldn't help seeing all the little valleys and creeks that could be dammed up to create zones of regeneration and biodiversity. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">And then imagine what it could transform in some really arid countries where people suffer constant food insecurity, droughts, floods. Here is a design alternative that could solve all those problems. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Tamera is about much more than this. For more info see their website <a href="http://www.tamera.org/index.php?id=1&L=0">here</a></span></div>
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Magnushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15258662256324051363noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-195261637295251390.post-34207308209558239332013-03-02T14:00:00.001+00:002014-12-10T14:32:32.013+00:0028 months after<div><p dir=ltr>This is how thousands of people are still living months after the floods of September 2011. </p>
<br/><img src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHKrvExRDmkTSg7ysau2quzvC2PuEXxNUSAY6ILEKXyZNudRH4IGm7NZCbq2dkBdomacJYGdm7cPUOtDT_HVs5rNQnI6M0TYqNg_fimWhxRnkh_oi2ls4Ugrq2GnL9XiXu7TTnXcbkfDs3/' /></div>Magnushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15258662256324051363noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-195261637295251390.post-32263646595744984902012-11-15T11:55:00.001+00:002012-11-15T11:55:19.904+00:00Photo from field trip<div><p>Does the photo even appear?</p>
<p>This from today's trip in Shikarpur in Sindh</p>
<br/><img src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYFf83dFXoMlOLdrcfZOs87VJshN9d0e2geGX9mhuNUajaBL3a97ntfzlKV7WkyCX4mNDILc98shXD4hhomcssb1BzdCEOf4R-JW6184dgRHeHqDzHGX9SdDZj5vOLQ1naOzDHs-l_0Ot7/' /></div>Magnushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15258662256324051363noreply@blogger.com22tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-195261637295251390.post-16144501258783669682012-07-15T00:16:00.000+01:002012-07-15T00:18:17.078+01:00OMG the house is finished?? Hello life!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The house is finally finished, well more or less. Liveable at least. The vital signs are there: hot water and showers that work (a solar hot water + wood fired kitchen range combination which works just amazing), toilets that flush into the biogas septic tank that needs some, er, fine tuning, lights that turn on (wow), plugs that work, and so on..<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Before we head off for a whole new family chapter in Pakistan (long story, perhaps another time) here’s a few photies of the place these days… </span></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3l50yixJfuDX3akdgn3BNuvR7uKIiwkRyxRkGKNWffXCkqPwxfowk_8hIfNYcKreYbE7MepwTdT_THHivZJUfSgOR1EBdMYdHTrMN4txe_umQ1UKnqCp5nlo_Uu4FsohxKTrkUaM_Ipef/s1600/P1090582.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="475" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3l50yixJfuDX3akdgn3BNuvR7uKIiwkRyxRkGKNWffXCkqPwxfowk_8hIfNYcKreYbE7MepwTdT_THHivZJUfSgOR1EBdMYdHTrMN4txe_umQ1UKnqCp5nlo_Uu4FsohxKTrkUaM_Ipef/s640/P1090582.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Morning sun over Eastern wing... Wee bit of that pomegranate poking its head into view there on the left:)</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGdDj4oij8rUqrIScue3EJhM19HgNsHE_Zx2jsnMa2ug3BuN5Oj47vihBhxQHHRSt8orhaNJ64bRrntNcJ_pTjil3dyzFotHIU5ot4TrdcUex9UFK3l2mVqzq1Zv8LnpTn5dDtH0gYBtUJ/s1600/P1090530.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="238" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGdDj4oij8rUqrIScue3EJhM19HgNsHE_Zx2jsnMa2ug3BuN5Oj47vihBhxQHHRSt8orhaNJ64bRrntNcJ_pTjil3dyzFotHIU5ot4TrdcUex9UFK3l2mVqzq1Zv8LnpTn5dDtH0gYBtUJ/s320/P1090530.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Kitchen at night. All LED lights we went for... </td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAjigqClfe4i7K7CsklAPoXa5v9XAEpUWDU1Z9hUjH0AjUBq8xjjOmqxT2new_XXYd82Wmmup6w_rhK12kaph8pWGkbCGYnDEWSrVlB4XR2lRrmLLRQKvZbzcUgsg2F0on2D5XS45qcsvc/s1600/P1090590.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="238" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAjigqClfe4i7K7CsklAPoXa5v9XAEpUWDU1Z9hUjH0AjUBq8xjjOmqxT2new_XXYd82Wmmup6w_rhK12kaph8pWGkbCGYnDEWSrVlB4XR2lRrmLLRQKvZbzcUgsg2F0on2D5XS45qcsvc/s320/P1090590.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">That kitchen range. A Rizolli (Italiano), 20KW capacity at<br />
full blast. This is the heart of the heating system in winter<br />
when the sun shineth less. Nikita-built hood there, using part<br />
of one of the old floor beams..</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3HssFtP4GdKhXitMqt_lV7F5RB6b3kjwkpiIQ2a82j8_NgBMGveTq-hpjr_LDleqbDQ0AnHKtIlAemTJeQioi5UjOeMg3hhvpeOyoG4p5n8q2gdKonnqfkx1DxgKEFyiM05I4P7GlUCL2/s1600/P1090587.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="297" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3HssFtP4GdKhXitMqt_lV7F5RB6b3kjwkpiIQ2a82j8_NgBMGveTq-hpjr_LDleqbDQ0AnHKtIlAemTJeQioi5UjOeMg3hhvpeOyoG4p5n8q2gdKonnqfkx1DxgKEFyiM05I4P7GlUCL2/s400/P1090587.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ahhh. The techy part behind it all! So... here's how it works:<br />
The white cylinder on the right is heated by the kitchen range, it's 300 litres<br />
in size. It will heat the underfloor heating downstairs and a few radiators<br />
upstairs. The grey one on the left feeds the showers, taps, etc. and<br />
is heated by the solar hot water panels<br />
on the roof, when it's sunny, but for those cold 'n' cloudy winter days the<br />
white one (kitchen range remember) will heat it up. Plumbers reckon it's more<br />
efficient this way (rather than having a massive 600 litre tank). </td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBGluhe0zElYiHh27v8JOeRSa8tObRu1zWOJ_WOPRnkZeyW3akLH4FkTSVgiB5H56QV3GH5cyFMEP8_wQPC99tJTEvtv-9U-j-VS_ZbpqFSifSjScv3D7mAxB5sV4ey3YoVvpFs8Zjnmdb/s1600/P1090589.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBGluhe0zElYiHh27v8JOeRSa8tObRu1zWOJ_WOPRnkZeyW3akLH4FkTSVgiB5H56QV3GH5cyFMEP8_wQPC99tJTEvtv-9U-j-VS_ZbpqFSifSjScv3D7mAxB5sV4ey3YoVvpFs8Zjnmdb/s320/P1090589.JPG" width="238" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The passive fridge / larder. This has an air inlet<br />
from a pipe that runs underground from way<br />
outside, and a chimney at the top to allow<br />
warm air to get out.. But as the ground<br />
temperature is only about 17 degrees constant<br />
it never really gets that cold inside...<br />
Might need to figure a way to pump<br />
in some cold air there (solar heating to<br />
cooling set up?)... </td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipkp_ZfzzdpcwoVg6DG-PPA_uyjMv9T14rDw6cyul0Doq5wt98ns3EMM2Y8WPlcaBEiempE2CaNq3MGSQHUkLanbA3w81XrokxfJmpyZvciQwycG3TYGl89Pc_wNOKdGGFBgBC5f3CFPG_/s1600/P1090612.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="236" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipkp_ZfzzdpcwoVg6DG-PPA_uyjMv9T14rDw6cyul0Doq5wt98ns3EMM2Y8WPlcaBEiempE2CaNq3MGSQHUkLanbA3w81XrokxfJmpyZvciQwycG3TYGl89Pc_wNOKdGGFBgBC5f3CFPG_/s320/P1090612.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">the utility room / casa das machinas.. </td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From kitchen into the hallway, multitudes of wood going on here.. Local oak post, pine floors, ash and chestnut<br />
rafters (holding up the mezzanine), Romanian oak for other floor in kitchen and hall (and windows n doors).</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdvvVRoAGH-TqiPj5W7HrqEOQyQI9ZTBBUdK1H2hm1Eh_jMZrgRl1PRA2CAskwLo5DlcqFxKfkj260yaC_smlQ01FggNzL0VX3YIRF9vSBPevJTzEGfz2yNmv-m124n0QbGaRYHqZFgzik/s1600/P1090534.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="238" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdvvVRoAGH-TqiPj5W7HrqEOQyQI9ZTBBUdK1H2hm1Eh_jMZrgRl1PRA2CAskwLo5DlcqFxKfkj260yaC_smlQ01FggNzL0VX3YIRF9vSBPevJTzEGfz2yNmv-m124n0QbGaRYHqZFgzik/s320/P1090534.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Liberian whale and Senagalese cloth making a show.. </td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Kira showing off hallway to kiddy bedrooms, and their<br />
bathroom at the end.. (ash posts here on left) on that<br />
funny raised "gallery" we haven't quite figured<br />
out what we're going to use it for. Pictures I guess.<br />
It's covering a bunch of rock that was jutting out<br />
from side of the hill we just couldn't face cutting down any<br />
more.. </td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Gallery in daytime</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Standing in that exact same spot where that gallery now is<br />
3 years ago, before we cut down the rock, took down these old roofs, rebuilt the walls, the roofs, <br />
and a million other things I'd rather not relive any more (ever again!). The point is, we raised this<br />
roof on the left to meet the main roof at the same level, creating that new floor<br />
+ the mez floor (which was kind of an unexpected bonus now I think of it).<br />
Check Paulo on the roof there fixing something as usual:)</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVPCTRmJXR9x0HSGwjzQ9fBgP4DCZNjeQZYo5FWytdhIs6rUE_xcEEZon2nkCtu0uPsGMxzKnrR5cyzc8zRZQFsyf9lj6cHyfLiVtCzSzkJjip8BzXGShFCI-aDEQlikXPROsJ4xCiwpn9/s1600/P1090541.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVPCTRmJXR9x0HSGwjzQ9fBgP4DCZNjeQZYo5FWytdhIs6rUE_xcEEZon2nkCtu0uPsGMxzKnrR5cyzc8zRZQFsyf9lj6cHyfLiVtCzSzkJjip8BzXGShFCI-aDEQlikXPROsJ4xCiwpn9/s320/P1090541.JPG" width="238" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The pad Nikita built, and now slobs in<br />
happily (facebook junkie that he is)</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4K2vLo4aNlVG4JB1jyfPWiVd4u5bgTB5y2AeL6vj9VQZJmoFuuK2aD2_5jp0NR-qXqxFjRJyJvoeoqqf0DxvT6TB8f_xbvGR8ue8un-vdJdig8jTisXxb-8XVSjoxTCoOE4J5rGJE2mbz/s1600/P1090604.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4K2vLo4aNlVG4JB1jyfPWiVd4u5bgTB5y2AeL6vj9VQZJmoFuuK2aD2_5jp0NR-qXqxFjRJyJvoeoqqf0DxvT6TB8f_xbvGR8ue8un-vdJdig8jTisXxb-8XVSjoxTCoOE4J5rGJE2mbz/s320/P1090604.JPG" width="238" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Kira's side of the Mez.. equipped with<br />
rapid descent system for those<br />
emergency response moments</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The writer's room... </td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiMBE-9Y_69DioaaZOyLRuxly4Uyf7IuEikzvRfNi1yhjT-YF3S6UWwr2ssC_gNqDGTFtdq4rEwSPVc1-iBh9mS33XcoUaLk5QR-XNMY5WZ1jAvA1-asSfHYXc2BxSKJqhj_6PUcbz8575/s1600/P1090607.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="238" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiMBE-9Y_69DioaaZOyLRuxly4Uyf7IuEikzvRfNi1yhjT-YF3S6UWwr2ssC_gNqDGTFtdq4rEwSPVc1-iBh9mS33XcoUaLk5QR-XNMY5WZ1jAvA1-asSfHYXc2BxSKJqhj_6PUcbz8575/s320/P1090607.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Kira's upper deck, leading to Monica's room of requirement<br />
(I mean creativity). Dash of colour from Afghanistan here thanks<br />
to Yaquub's Turkmen carpet emporium in Islamabad!</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Descenting downstairs now, Meruch's steps, fair<br />
few bits to finish off down here. Argh.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqB_KJsdmzZQkg0B9xE2Ss0eRHwFbT6gOqOLhgU9aAsy_oclNud0AYepiHf8eQHw0A0XrhVzjR90yRS4xwxBrIq5CujCOWZP2UfF0rKhoDtyBU6SwnwlwkcqsiUrl4nh0CQ9OMUvuvg3sV/s1600/P1090594.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="235" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqB_KJsdmzZQkg0B9xE2Ss0eRHwFbT6gOqOLhgU9aAsy_oclNud0AYepiHf8eQHw0A0XrhVzjR90yRS4xwxBrIq5CujCOWZP2UfF0rKhoDtyBU6SwnwlwkcqsiUrl4nh0CQ9OMUvuvg3sV/s320/P1090594.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">so all down here already underfloor heat prepared..</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Supposed to be the sitting room / movie zone. But Nikita's turned it<br />
into a carpentry workshop! (Kids these days...). </td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Monica's mosaiced shower friend, Haku the river dragon<br />
in the downstairs toilet zone...</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From our one room shelter looking down to the slightly larger main house.<br />
So this bothy in foreground took up most of year 2, the monster in the back<br />
year 3 and 4.. Or did I loose count? Anyway, lots of covered space!</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0oukAlDK4ysiS9XL6_0HNW06Zd2B6dk581dVQTpeqtaXqKiCz8qOizhuApDLlNkQwHTjJdzvXyQbgXTI18hAc3-Iq_Gm4esHSq2ruxmwsjZS42Sx5YtqBEo5LQ-0zcdI6wilVBvEgirYt/s1600/P1090616.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="296" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0oukAlDK4ysiS9XL6_0HNW06Zd2B6dk581dVQTpeqtaXqKiCz8qOizhuApDLlNkQwHTjJdzvXyQbgXTI18hAc3-Iq_Gm4esHSq2ruxmwsjZS42Sx5YtqBEo5LQ-0zcdI6wilVBvEgirYt/s400/P1090616.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">And this was all year 1 pretty much. The house that Paulo built in the background there<br />
and then lived in for the next year or so. Ah... those were the days. This was the<br />
only functional space on the whole site for SO long. Toilet and shower just behind, kitchen covered<br />
there for the winter winds. Solar power for light and stuff. </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZL2A1qEMtS9nyS2NX15NYhlrdc9J5t-WqN4pHXVlBMy_0BgBML-moE9i7a_fO8BVSWxP6G5csBeciYYK0GjOhf18Kr2Y0u79n5llOD3Oco3QA13QpwOB2Di2mnHGduhUH3c1eBk0bqwAl/s1600/P1090617.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="238" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZL2A1qEMtS9nyS2NX15NYhlrdc9J5t-WqN4pHXVlBMy_0BgBML-moE9i7a_fO8BVSWxP6G5csBeciYYK0GjOhf18Kr2Y0u79n5llOD3Oco3QA13QpwOB2Di2mnHGduhUH3c1eBk0bqwAl/s320/P1090617.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The much used labour party table. Yet to be covered<br />
in those kiwis and passion fruit that grow slower than<br />
planned.. </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8h5rX3tfcazNY1n_lPpbP0aol7XDspsO_qR8cMStYDZUHXO1NQyBWLi5S0vqYrhNFv2L-mn7CiNSMCc7Y6VOwBxWuq0oPsgHh8QzsSpDxg_ZO3MrZUprlauevML9K2_2XhEXTcjTHx3fV/s1600/P1090620.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8h5rX3tfcazNY1n_lPpbP0aol7XDspsO_qR8cMStYDZUHXO1NQyBWLi5S0vqYrhNFv2L-mn7CiNSMCc7Y6VOwBxWuq0oPsgHh8QzsSpDxg_ZO3MrZUprlauevML9K2_2XhEXTcjTHx3fV/s320/P1090620.JPG" width="235" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">One of our many avocado<br />
experiements.. This one doing<br />
not too bad. Seemed to appreciate<br />
the old port barrel (who wouldn't<br />
at this point?)</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4Tivi758lIYgTQ53w4bU1I1EE2A55RyV6jiSNCM2z010dKSurtcSdgoZmEP0GtNrDC2nS9aPAXL0pAW0ERw-Pe0S4JSkDNnGOX2XmjTKWwGJrGMtkqPHSlkIEvMNHAF83YftDbK_cta8W/s1600/P1090615.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4Tivi758lIYgTQ53w4bU1I1EE2A55RyV6jiSNCM2z010dKSurtcSdgoZmEP0GtNrDC2nS9aPAXL0pAW0ERw-Pe0S4JSkDNnGOX2XmjTKWwGJrGMtkqPHSlkIEvMNHAF83YftDbK_cta8W/s320/P1090615.JPG" width="236" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The compost toilet<br />
still going strong after 3 or 4 years. Another<br />
class Paulo design n build.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvdRlGGgvFpyrEjICAHfgJYGLVuLnt9d5sRngGx_qs-UNtOdXiXuZoAiyiGPXA5yrKUz3f7du7z3omwemVf26x9_ZkFuFm2mgFdx9ICygL6cb8ynKckv4-1AraMHPe8eSWIBp13aRVoofo/s1600/P1090585.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvdRlGGgvFpyrEjICAHfgJYGLVuLnt9d5sRngGx_qs-UNtOdXiXuZoAiyiGPXA5yrKUz3f7du7z3omwemVf26x9_ZkFuFm2mgFdx9ICygL6cb8ynKckv4-1AraMHPe8eSWIBp13aRVoofo/s400/P1090585.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">bit of detail on the joy-of-lime.. Use both for the render (external plaster)<br />
here as well as the pointing. Mix pretty much 2:1 fine sand and lime putty.<br />
Plenty shade used for at least 2 weeks after application mind you...<br />
This whole wall made of straw bales, using a post&beam timber structure<br />
to hold up the roof (local eucalyptus wood - don't let anyone tell you that<br />
it's no good for building! The whole roof is made from it too).<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgR3V83JosVOf5cNEFNh5tyK2LTaudj2AGTtaqpWLh5fEBOOdHyt_2iH7g1VB6Kfhr0X5bI2QWqPJFBTYitVbJpnSB0PyqA7DDhpS0RWuh8AkRNMOe1TYoXTecJjYolXQ0c-5YVLkUNUtGC/s1600/P1090527.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="238" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgR3V83JosVOf5cNEFNh5tyK2LTaudj2AGTtaqpWLh5fEBOOdHyt_2iH7g1VB6Kfhr0X5bI2QWqPJFBTYitVbJpnSB0PyqA7DDhpS0RWuh8AkRNMOe1TYoXTecJjYolXQ0c-5YVLkUNUtGC/s320/P1090527.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Beatrix from Galicia, helped design our grey water filtration<br />
system - for kitchen / washing machine waste water..<br />
Goes through a grease trap into this gravel pit - that we should<br />
have filled with plants by now (our bad), then onto a pond<br />
where water plants further treat the water, then onto<br />
watering the garden. Loads to learn and and experiment with<br />
further here. Oh that red pipe is the air intake for that passive<br />
fridge discussed earlier... </td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhf82-VOlJ2E_rp7NhvJ4bZoxg8h9GOMeR7TAC0Essc2vOyviLgJMixNOXisdIsVE-TGT5h48SkabJDhSwp5mBI4Z7eYy0B8jaTkGnBDOdWgFp0PjPiKtZ40b9PHgpQlGdXX3zAVQoG1t3b/s1600/Picture+003.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="296" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhf82-VOlJ2E_rp7NhvJ4bZoxg8h9GOMeR7TAC0Essc2vOyviLgJMixNOXisdIsVE-TGT5h48SkabJDhSwp5mBI4Z7eYy0B8jaTkGnBDOdWgFp0PjPiKtZ40b9PHgpQlGdXX3zAVQoG1t3b/s400/Picture+003.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Blast from the past. 2010 I think, Joao et co, getting the structure in place<br />
for the main stairs and east facing downstairs door way (see first picture).<br />
Woah, top right of photo is now the kitchen.. Phew...</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjIhssQqof4HZCSVZfBpVOUBCpeT2bIsrlOEuXbtSRRytlHNHP-taGd_18DCRoZ1S_E5YjYd3HOKS_0DioYNDMarHFK-KlSIRhWpnLGMomfAYeo1LSx_cTDxtCmrr3S8_guQqe3x7hSNYW/s1600/P1090573.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="238" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjIhssQqof4HZCSVZfBpVOUBCpeT2bIsrlOEuXbtSRRytlHNHP-taGd_18DCRoZ1S_E5YjYd3HOKS_0DioYNDMarHFK-KlSIRhWpnLGMomfAYeo1LSx_cTDxtCmrr3S8_guQqe3x7hSNYW/s320/P1090573.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The three musketeers that will carry on for the next adventure, while Nikita goes back to school (finally!)</td></tr>
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<br /></div>Magnushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15258662256324051363noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-195261637295251390.post-29049772725074145372012-05-14T01:10:00.002+01:002012-05-14T01:12:26.588+01:00final plaster (rendering) with our lime putty<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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So, this weekend we embarked on the final external plaster of the straw bale bit of the house. We put a base coat on a year or so ago, made up of lime putty, sand and chopped straw, so it was water-tight. But we needed the final coat on so we could be done with the scaffolding and wrap up things outdoors before our building liscence (planning permission) expires in a couple of weeks..<br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkr4Mz6Wq_ZgMIfGp9bDjveDYv606I_BjpD09MMD8xgZLc7uD1n95QfrYfBJAmSYKLWOKpXpPSN9DfPvKpEUX9chmMxnHzIwdmWWeGYaD_urxaGKIDO20vKL8ATZkkVv99PIgFpIrecOdo/s1600/P1080659.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkr4Mz6Wq_ZgMIfGp9bDjveDYv606I_BjpD09MMD8xgZLc7uD1n95QfrYfBJAmSYKLWOKpXpPSN9DfPvKpEUX9chmMxnHzIwdmWWeGYaD_urxaGKIDO20vKL8ATZkkVv99PIgFpIrecOdo/s320/P1080659.JPG" width="238" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Paulo getting into those window edges..</td></tr>
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So the maestro of the day is Paulo, a local builder and his wife Armanda. They work weekends only on jobs like this. But had never seen nor heard of a lime plaster. Everyone here uses a cement-based plaster, which is a lot easier to prepare, etc. but doesn't breath at all. It's kind of like wearing a really heavy plastic jacket on a warm day. You'd get wet from the inside right? (cos your sweatiness couldn't get out). Well buildings are the same - they breathe; we breath in them, vapours abound in houses, from people, kitchens, showers and so on. Without breathing walls we need mechanical ventilation and there are few of these that actually work properly. So it just seems nuts that people don't use lime more. Lime breathes, yet is waterproof. The equivalent of a gortex jacket... </div>
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Anyway, here's some photies</div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheluze7oms7BAwOBB1yfhQQgavOnk4EuDdhh8hjz-uOo03gQaRtIBiVf6EFjkVwoVHzYvG1arUJmcHMWfVByGC2JYdphsHxET5bNiqmPmCz3jk5CtOdrlIDdAaudeJC6NhOmSpTauC9XK2/s1600/P1080641.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="297" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheluze7oms7BAwOBB1yfhQQgavOnk4EuDdhh8hjz-uOo03gQaRtIBiVf6EFjkVwoVHzYvG1arUJmcHMWfVByGC2JYdphsHxET5bNiqmPmCz3jk5CtOdrlIDdAaudeJC6NhOmSpTauC9XK2/s400/P1080641.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A quarter in on the south wall.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXH6vXsm6F8gm0QqFiGdJgnorrmpjlGvVaOb9wpUOLHn78yG7SRraUg0iHgpEBUeHi8nFa0K7jTc2DPMpul5l8pofV8C5e2_AgAsl8tavyefSevO9aOU-bJ9YGlzNDsg6iuKnGQTiLKCJB/s1600/P1080664.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXH6vXsm6F8gm0QqFiGdJgnorrmpjlGvVaOb9wpUOLHn78yG7SRraUg0iHgpEBUeHi8nFa0K7jTc2DPMpul5l8pofV8C5e2_AgAsl8tavyefSevO9aOU-bJ9YGlzNDsg6iuKnGQTiLKCJB/s320/P1080664.JPG" width="238" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Armanda - a fair hand at plastering herself!<br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeU5tzUdgcVDlqBcFKqKg4U0YTzn81gl08ejxJMyFb2BfdVvSiAAh2c8LD1-MMJWEqPBLiVEzeCmIrzGCOhBFdWhZRT3A0fatiVjG4bmR1Ov5jYUmxkYjWSzRQIm5aOzefHUZN8dq-Lpun/s1600/window.jpg.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeU5tzUdgcVDlqBcFKqKg4U0YTzn81gl08ejxJMyFb2BfdVvSiAAh2c8LD1-MMJWEqPBLiVEzeCmIrzGCOhBFdWhZRT3A0fatiVjG4bmR1Ov5jYUmxkYjWSzRQIm5aOzefHUZN8dq-Lpun/s320/window.jpg.JPG" width="238" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Where the plaster meets the wood we<br />
stapled and nailed on these plastic meshes. We tried to use bamboo strips last time, but they were kinda bouncy.<br />
This stuff seems to work well.. So far...</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQm14v0TYPpGXabTudv-UusogVdzPfw9leOeaGUQq6UqoIxrEPHsKw2JRZV5_ZzH1k-McYOCyURT2Bqqa4RWwgaqw-BnCJUX39b9bkTGBTVClGlkUVRbjA2My7ZnKZtawsY5R8gwhx5wN7/s1600/P1080666.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="296" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQm14v0TYPpGXabTudv-UusogVdzPfw9leOeaGUQq6UqoIxrEPHsKw2JRZV5_ZzH1k-McYOCyURT2Bqqa4RWwgaqw-BnCJUX39b9bkTGBTVClGlkUVRbjA2My7ZnKZtawsY5R8gwhx5wN7/s400/P1080666.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Hession as shade to prevent the lime plaster going off too fast. It's supposed to carbonate, absorbing CO2 from the atmosphere. Not dry like cement, so you have to keep it shaded and moist, for about two weeks<br />after it's been applied. </td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhz3XIsJtkmyND5Z8KvAiwiwgx6FZkIMh5eVG8OeSCNAcS7Gc7VNf51K3nUer9WxKPz4Pyq251ZZ-mM5i3kO5ug9MYkRfMQ-UioUtzBCMDvc7SBOIMTNTJajV3aDtTiBySPsjUhcfzyoneg/s1600/P1080668.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhz3XIsJtkmyND5Z8KvAiwiwgx6FZkIMh5eVG8OeSCNAcS7Gc7VNf51K3nUer9WxKPz4Pyq251ZZ-mM5i3kO5ug9MYkRfMQ-UioUtzBCMDvc7SBOIMTNTJajV3aDtTiBySPsjUhcfzyoneg/s320/P1080668.JPG" width="238" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Paulo doing his magic around the corners of windows</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhviwf0A5vzyntPcZRPU7eFOGrIQ5BGlaldDYja6TDNd89634LBtKYkTc4yfG2iLDC2RJM70j28F7x5s9Dk3gCKlVrGP1j4KakSUcam39Gq-P-o-DsZwpJpHgqOqkU7jYQfC2UMJoEl1DQ3/s1600/P1080692.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="475" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhviwf0A5vzyntPcZRPU7eFOGrIQ5BGlaldDYja6TDNd89634LBtKYkTc4yfG2iLDC2RJM70j28F7x5s9Dk3gCKlVrGP1j4KakSUcam39Gq-P-o-DsZwpJpHgqOqkU7jYQfC2UMJoEl1DQ3/s640/P1080692.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Getting there. With shade up and moistened down with regular water spraying was nice and cool in there..</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhE057Dfm329SDJK4RnpdJxurXlcrYNHM7H2X_JNuvfJmeJDLnxtF0wbw4ECPudBTNY4Ak-5311woNzIT0iPScW0gGMDCLmbCWjiA1o3aYtEpqz9kghki17yoTRrccytt11rMAmxoycETGI/s1600/P1080683.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="297" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhE057Dfm329SDJK4RnpdJxurXlcrYNHM7H2X_JNuvfJmeJDLnxtF0wbw4ECPudBTNY4Ak-5311woNzIT0iPScW0gGMDCLmbCWjiA1o3aYtEpqz9kghki17yoTRrccytt11rMAmxoycETGI/s400/P1080683.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This taken from the other side of the house - not for rendering. Just finished the pointing - again with lime mortar</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgM4ZQ7prRKblD2HqIUcZupRGKu7355Jj6ogjOL_eSdEX_wRX1wsjlUd3z79MV8Lbs6UZsBQDIgk-4DCKSag0LkXcZDCyZp9lr4RArXN_wI3dqzof82bMZzmK6v39L4jxKWci1MGvYAZ9_Z/s1600/P1080690.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgM4ZQ7prRKblD2HqIUcZupRGKu7355Jj6ogjOL_eSdEX_wRX1wsjlUd3z79MV8Lbs6UZsBQDIgk-4DCKSag0LkXcZDCyZp9lr4RArXN_wI3dqzof82bMZzmK6v39L4jxKWci1MGvYAZ9_Z/s400/P1080690.JPG" width="297" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Nikita's applying a bit of hydraulic lime to the exposed stone bit<br />
we also plastered, to help the final coat adhear better. And not have<br />
all its water sucked in by the stone.. I guess we'll find out soon if it worked..</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgyxc82vfpIO987okDChsu8ZSWcZ3AKb4NLkCS5NJJuTS8tpJFtcuffIC3Q8ADN71-hqNoolrF_dpcgUrJF2a40b3xPV3OWZlmaQZ5k2dcf6GiThJmK6p9BaaMyIZtoApgEiX_9hofDdGv/s1600/cheeta.jpg.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="297" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgyxc82vfpIO987okDChsu8ZSWcZ3AKb4NLkCS5NJJuTS8tpJFtcuffIC3Q8ADN71-hqNoolrF_dpcgUrJF2a40b3xPV3OWZlmaQZ5k2dcf6GiThJmK6p9BaaMyIZtoApgEiX_9hofDdGv/s400/cheeta.jpg.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Cheeta chilling for a mo</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTjfVPDKMXUtKVLuwrgvea4j46sIeGM01n4aZifLgWSV7bV88M2YO7BoS-PWpHwrawBNE3kpgvNubHtnacvwMG9BXwLgVq7IFukroWb5MJDMGbzmkLi-_xHJL0iOFkiGZzaXw1WjTJ_Q4a/s1600/P1070504.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="474" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTjfVPDKMXUtKVLuwrgvea4j46sIeGM01n4aZifLgWSV7bV88M2YO7BoS-PWpHwrawBNE3kpgvNubHtnacvwMG9BXwLgVq7IFukroWb5MJDMGbzmkLi-_xHJL0iOFkiGZzaXw1WjTJ_Q4a/s640/P1070504.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">So here's where we slaked the lime (quicklime / cal viva). This taken in Feb, when we cleared out the last lot and put in an extra 1200 kgs, added a further 3,000 kgs or so of water, and let it sit for at least three months, so it's properly hydrated and can be used for plastering, pointing and painting. <br />
<br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div>
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</div>Magnushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15258662256324051363noreply@blogger.com26tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-195261637295251390.post-7883648064083231892012-04-01T11:19:00.000+01:002012-04-01T11:19:58.571+01:00advanced use of solar energy<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
This has to be one of the most exciting developments in low cost, community based renewable energy systems around - and comes from decades of research and experimentation by German physicists, inventors, engineers and enthusiasts. And - it's all been done on really low budgets, so it might just work to address the multiple energy, food, water troubles faced by people all over the developing world. Need to do the economics and some test models... Let's see.<br />
<br />
Also, it would make sense combined with a biogas system and planting of as many trees as possible to deal with heat, food security, watertable management and soil regeneration.<br />
<br />
Hmmm, need to build up a series of these relevant technologies. new site?<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.blogger.com/%3Ciframe%20width=%22560%22%20height=%22315%22%20src=%22http://www.youtube.com/embed/duuk_r--lqU?rel=0%22%20frameborder=%220%22%20allowfullscreen%3E%3C/iframe%3E"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/duuk_r--lqU?rel=0" width="560"></iframe></a></div>Magnushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15258662256324051363noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-195261637295251390.post-42812555425040355832012-03-13T03:16:00.000+00:002012-03-13T03:16:00.556+00:00<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEja2grPHjpwZTMaWQwYYDULRNOkHur_grVYZPEYKQOiplwdK3g_dez3D5DzHBWAFg-gPSqj2gasTTAan1gmKAKk6Imv4R03H6QrEymCK7z6BY11_8tlBYIy_nlhmcYSYHVnSR4KLR43OpOs/s1600/Tandu+Allayar-+Solar+Lamps-++(24).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEja2grPHjpwZTMaWQwYYDULRNOkHur_grVYZPEYKQOiplwdK3g_dez3D5DzHBWAFg-gPSqj2gasTTAan1gmKAKk6Imv4R03H6QrEymCK7z6BY11_8tlBYIy_nlhmcYSYHVnSR4KLR43OpOs/s400/Tandu+Allayar-+Solar+Lamps-++(24).jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Solar lights - saving money, increasing safety.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
In an earlier post I talked about the rationale of including cheap solar lights in future emergency relief kits distribution: it just makes so much sense. We (DFID) supported 12,000 of these last year through CONCERN and their local partners in Sindh. I went to visit these some of these communities a year later and the lights, made by <a href="http://www.toughstuffonline.com/">Toughstuff</a> were still doing well and people said they appreciated them so much. Many folk were using them to charge mobiles too. This was part of our 2010 response.<br />
<br />
Following intense rains in 2011 another few hundred thousands families lost their homes and livelihoods, so we launched more support and response. (Again DFID being in the top 5 donors, yeh!). This time we're supporting the reconstruction of more than 30,000 houses, but also distributing around 28,000 lights. This time using <a href="http://illuminationhq.com/">illumination</a> products. These cost around $7 per unit (at this scale), so about half the price of the Toughstuff ones. The difference is that they can't charge mobile phones, but we decided that it was more important to reach as many families as possible with the limited funds we could put forward. <br />
<br />
Here's a video IOM put together about their response:<br />
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/TBgmWoS9pcQ?rel=0" width="560"></iframe><br />
<br />
It's not our role to tell our partners where they should buy their products, I just made it clear that they should include these in the kits, or give us a good reason why they shouldn't be included. Here's the deal: after disasters NGOs and UN agencies provide shelter and non-food items (NFIs), among loads of other sectors of support (health, food, etc.). Shelter is a huge issue and there are many different options, which are we'll have to talk about another another day. But NFIs are also the subject of huge debate, in fact there's been over a decade of efforts to standardise these kits. Obviously they depend on the climate, but they usually include blankets, sleeping mats, jerry cans (for storing water), cooking sets, mosquito nets, soap, hygiene kits, and so on. These can cost a lot of money, and when there are millions of people to help, it can quickly diminish a few million pounds. So, what are the critical items? How do we decide? Should we accept what the NGOs propose or should we request justification for every item so that more families benefit from something? These are hard decisions, but I think it's good that we have these discussions. <br />
<br />
So when it came to this 2011 response, our first main partner was the <a href="http://www.iom.int/jahia/Jahia/pakistan">International Organisaiton for Migration</a>, a really professional outfit that has enormous experience in Pakistan, a really committed, mostly national team, supported by a few solid internationals. They come with really quite reasonable overhead costs, which is increasing important to us (very few international staff costs, flights, and all that admin horror of daily mail doom). They did a sterling job running the <a href="http://sites.google.com/site/shelterpak2010/">shelter cluster</a> after the 2010 floods, and are doing that same job this year, again really well. <br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5E4Glhh8E8pBZhJCLCjGMf5E4K_VhmmyGW1k648WL5MNAbdRCaeNFC7lSDhL3SWWabAaeOf6ywQ3emN9WKteDpYkRzsNG8M_1rTcallAMstFg5ARTtF7bjAq1f1GGbfVaaQ881C6aD-Ip/s1600/Tandu+Allayar-+Solar+Lamps-++(57).JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5E4Glhh8E8pBZhJCLCjGMf5E4K_VhmmyGW1k648WL5MNAbdRCaeNFC7lSDhL3SWWabAaeOf6ywQ3emN9WKteDpYkRzsNG8M_1rTcallAMstFg5ARTtF7bjAq1f1GGbfVaaQ881C6aD-Ip/s400/Tandu+Allayar-+Solar+Lamps-++(57).JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">One light and such a difference!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
IOM's procurement unit did a market survey on different solar light units and initially proposed a chunky unit costing around 15 pounds. After a fair bit of technical review we agreed to go for the illumination unit which gives pretty good light for at least 6 hours a night, at one third the cost! For the 18,000 families we intended to reach this meant a saving of almost half a million pounds:) We also slashed cooking sets (as most people had recovered a few cook pots). This saved another 360 grand (pounds sterling). Together, these savings meant another 2,500 families could be reached. When you meet one of these families you know why every one counts.<br />
<br />
<br />
I just wanted to bring this up to show how we're dealing with this value-for-money issue (a new DFID-buzzword). But really relevant in these times of economic woe, and particularly when DFID is defending its position in the light of budget cuts in other areas of life in UK. So it's fair enough that we make sure every pound spent makes sense, and where savings can be made they are made. And where possible we do more for less, reach more people for the same money. I suppose we're custodians of people's money in this way, we have to make the right call. I hope this programme is an example of this in action, but I'll leave you to decide if that's the case or not.<br />
<br />
<br />
More photos of these units in use were taken by IOM's team on the ground recently and are here: https://www2.dropbox.com/home/solar%20lights%20pakistan<br />
<br /></div>Magnushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15258662256324051363noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-195261637295251390.post-47983092326700395212012-03-02T12:08:00.001+00:002012-03-02T12:08:29.939+00:00The real story of unlimited growth<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/VOMWzjrRiBg?rel=0" width="560"></iframe><br />
<br />
This has to be the best short film - animation - about the state of the world today; it summarises decades of study and observation of the state of our world's reliance on fossil fuels with incredibly dense 30 minutes of information about everything we all should know about our reliance on oil, gas and many other non-renewable resources. It takes on the problem of our current economic model and the debunks whole idea that economic "growth" based on debt, increased energy use and industrialisation is sustainable or is the solution to poverty anywhere.<br />
<br />
It also takes on the extremely relevant issue of energy return on energy invested (EROEI) which can't be ignored (early oil fields delivered 100 units of energy for every one invested, today we're closer to 1 to 10. Tar sands in Canada offer far less, ethanol from corn closer to 1 to 1, or less. And so on). In Pakistan (which is facing a massive energy crisis at the moment) they're talking about a new massive coal field in the Tharr desert (SE Sindh) which could power the nation, but would require the construction of a massive canal to divert Indus river water to "clean" the coal. Even without the environmental issues of using this coal, folk have to look at the EROEI of this scheme, which just couldn't make sense.<br />
<br />
Another terrifying issue is that of food - how many people know that the vast majority of food is grown with oil and gas inputs? That lands now denuded would be unproductive for years without these "magic" substances? How vulnerable have we made ourselves? How sustainable is this? And, critically, what are we going to do about it? How much more proof do we need to urge us into some radical preventative action? How much of our aid and international development efforts reinforce existing, destructive and unsustainable conventional agriculture?<br />
<br />
Anyone working on building community resilience needs to watch this film and think about how their project builds people's resilience to these very real threats.<br />
<br />
In fact everyone needs to take 30 minutes out to watch this film.<br />
<br />
But I'd also like to hear from anyone who disputes the thesis put forward by this film. I would like to see or hear evidence that disputes these points.<br />
<br />
Thanks to <a href="http://mandymeikle.wordpress.com/author/mandymeeks/">Mandy Meikle</a> in Scotland for sending this round! </div>Magnushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15258662256324051363noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-195261637295251390.post-83843494024736906222012-02-19T21:23:00.000+00:002012-02-19T21:25:02.863+00:00Progress on our house this week - Feb 2012<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Another busy week. Loads happened. Updates one at a time then folks.<br />
<br />
So, João our stonemason, finishes fixing up the outside walls, a week or so after tearing half of them down so we could get drain pipes out, that one day will be linked to our guttering. As the ground around the house was filled with holes anyway we just dug them all a bit deeper. It became a bomb site in a few hours. An old fig tree that had grown into the very wall and never actually produced edible figs had to go, and with it went a few meters of wall. Its roots were huge and extended right down to the road. Reminded strangely of the kind of hole that tank shells made in fine old walls in Sarajevo, we decided to exploit this opportunity and lay all the pipes and cables that were ever needed to go underground. Oh, and we dug a massive 3m pit for a grey-water soak away pit (for bath and shower water only). Few pics as we went along:<br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigHpEXOnbzIBO1WJXbcGZjtfz2wOyWhgEBqbS1P4a4Uld7eDjxxcZlyzfZVrmiH9Dk7BlWnP4c8b6__Z6K0V4-Otkng1Xq7v3om0HZE3ZdSPtQzpEHdtP0PebRQ2kzEeWPD4QsxKMxzA-6/s1600/IMG01477-20120130-1554.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="238" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigHpEXOnbzIBO1WJXbcGZjtfz2wOyWhgEBqbS1P4a4Uld7eDjxxcZlyzfZVrmiH9Dk7BlWnP4c8b6__Z6K0V4-Otkng1Xq7v3om0HZE3ZdSPtQzpEHdtP0PebRQ2kzEeWPD4QsxKMxzA-6/s320/IMG01477-20120130-1554.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Step one: remove that fig.. watch out for that biogas tube ...</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIKpgI-gIyFfEHObvxPdku8pUAYNYSvuoY1phQaTvlXoLsgiWaJVngcQcfvj-NVaL4yD-YFuhZOcm05kegL5fhS_0GQR_Ra-roAoMr8a7CFDdoyjJzr_sF8yl02UVMfKIbIS_mMw8wTsfz/s1600/IMG01487-20120131-1225.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="238" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIKpgI-gIyFfEHObvxPdku8pUAYNYSvuoY1phQaTvlXoLsgiWaJVngcQcfvj-NVaL4yD-YFuhZOcm05kegL5fhS_0GQR_Ra-roAoMr8a7CFDdoyjJzr_sF8yl02UVMfKIbIS_mMw8wTsfz/s320/IMG01487-20120131-1225.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">pipe chaos</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-6-UEJmPkThOVucV8teoC7SEu7rU7z1XaFeEsZgUloIgX5tp3dFFf_hqpWU8Wgr4x8S-ihT-gelAV1XwvpzReUlSTYyJ4J2MF_MH2bBD4IlV1bzGmGykfpAaQXXY_qvpjNiJJ6RDNXOPd/s1600/P1070388.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="234" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-6-UEJmPkThOVucV8teoC7SEu7rU7z1XaFeEsZgUloIgX5tp3dFFf_hqpWU8Wgr4x8S-ihT-gelAV1XwvpzReUlSTYyJ4J2MF_MH2bBD4IlV1bzGmGykfpAaQXXY_qvpjNiJJ6RDNXOPd/s320/P1070388.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">before and after, kind of. Bit to the left remains to be done, when we save up enough pennies..</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbpGRznGlzVSXKQZp0SxLpzzHJxyUd0o1rIh-zgWo5StrggUySMmE5UBCxmNf8IJ-fp6ZhTRXrjmVS71PnmnkhOXJkPa1J2kCjpTcmuZpsEFcd80xFoWAsgdX1vJnc5zJznddTSa5NHBJx/s1600/P1070279.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbpGRznGlzVSXKQZp0SxLpzzHJxyUd0o1rIh-zgWo5StrggUySMmE5UBCxmNf8IJ-fp6ZhTRXrjmVS71PnmnkhOXJkPa1J2kCjpTcmuZpsEFcd80xFoWAsgdX1vJnc5zJznddTSa5NHBJx/s320/P1070279.JPG" width="236" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">In the old days by hand and a huge amount of people and time. Now.. mighty claws save all that</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0cVzJa7uXVejXwFIivPtpP5wMijemV0reDhjgCOxX1XRAE97dl0AnO_jMStN_z52iFC-1kV-fxDaUmJmRO5UjMFWUA8rhhmC2NhLLXGJh0IIYBuJk6fFVT5klbAbIIcKQI-yRI5-NxdRD/s1600/IMG01486-20120131-1151.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0cVzJa7uXVejXwFIivPtpP5wMijemV0reDhjgCOxX1XRAE97dl0AnO_jMStN_z52iFC-1kV-fxDaUmJmRO5UjMFWUA8rhhmC2NhLLXGJh0IIYBuJk6fFVT5klbAbIIcKQI-yRI5-NxdRD/s320/IMG01486-20120131-1151.jpg" width="236" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">lower pipe potential outlet to future village sewerage (maybe for grey water, presuming septic biogas works well, we wouldn't want to send any of that out. I mean WHY?</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Joao playing with another way of pointing. It was voted out in the end.. </td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Pointing is, in a way, the hardest part (João says). We use hydraulic lime with medium sand and a bit of local earth for colour. It take hours to wash the edges of each stone post-pointing. </td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Finishing touches...</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Another 50m or so of bearing wall to go:( <br />
Loads of it leaning outwards like this. Bit dodgy, needs to be done, one day.</td></tr>
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<br /></div>Magnushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15258662256324051363noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-195261637295251390.post-42098701132473911382012-01-15T23:29:00.001+00:002012-01-15T23:29:48.554+00:00Peak Oil happened in 2006?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
People have been predicting peak oil for years and it's been denied for as many years by the oil industry and most Governments. This <a href="http://www.filmsforaction.org/Articles/International_Energy_Agency_Reports_Peak_Oil_Happened_in_2006/">link </a>shows that the International Energy Agency has finally taken a position and stated that it has already happened - in 2006! Bizarre, I mean why aren't we already feeling rising fuel prices on a monthly basis already?<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOEFjb3LrcoFsi29N28FWsaceq0u_mbJIWhW2yNadisMLTTY9NSisjrx9scWzSW2oio7wHkSX5HG_3Kwexnv6RmIaT-y1qk_nKv1ggx9YgBZ5LRyAp8Od03aKzPOGyFF53G7NXbjcsic_Y/s1600/iea_peakoil_2010graph.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="247" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOEFjb3LrcoFsi29N28FWsaceq0u_mbJIWhW2yNadisMLTTY9NSisjrx9scWzSW2oio7wHkSX5HG_3Kwexnv6RmIaT-y1qk_nKv1ggx9YgBZ5LRyAp8Od03aKzPOGyFF53G7NXbjcsic_Y/s400/iea_peakoil_2010graph.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
Anyway, this is a good introduction piece to the whole peak oil issue for anyone new to the theory.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.filmsforaction.org/Articles/International_Energy_Agency_Reports_Peak_Oil_Happened_in_2006/">http://www.filmsforaction.org/Articles/International_Energy_Agency_Reports_Peak_Oil_Happened_in_2006/</a>
</div>Magnushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15258662256324051363noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-195261637295251390.post-69663564073404983812012-01-14T20:05:00.000+00:002012-01-15T18:01:34.788+00:00A biogas digester septic tank for our home<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Our biogas digester coming along...<br />
For more photos click <a class="BLOGGER-object-element tr_noresize tr_placeholder" data-original-id=""__sse11044076"" href="http://www.blogger.com/%3Cdiv%20style=%22width:425px%22%20id=%22__ss_11044076%22%3E%3Cstrong%20style=%22display:block;margin:12px%200%204px%22%3E%3Ca%20href=%22http://www.slideshare.net/MagnusMurray/our-biogas-plant-jan-2012%22%20title=%22Our%20biogas%20plant%20%20%20jan%202012%22%3EOur%20biogas%20plant%20%20%20jan%202012%3C/a%3E%3C/strong%3E%3Cimg%20src=" http:="" id=""__sse11044076"" img2.blogblog.com="" img="" style="background-color: #b2b2b2; height: "355"px; width: "425"px;" video_object.png"=""></a><br />
<div 0="" 12px"="" style="padding: 5px;">
<a href="http://www.slideshare.net/MagnusMurray/our-biogas-plant-jan-2012">this</a></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial;">The time has come to install our septic tank. We’ve lived the past 6 months with an outdoor
compost toilet and a drain from the shower that goes into the gardens
somewhere, but a proper house with flushing loos needs a tank to deal with all
that waste. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial;">What happens to our waste? Sewage – it’s so out of sight as to be out of
mind. It’s only when you are building a
house, or working with people displaced by war or disaster that you have to
deal with it. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial;">How
this post is going to work (it’s way longer than planned, but hey)<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial;">First off I’m going to describe the standard sewerage disposal and
treatment systems that we would be expected to use around here, then explain
what we are doing and why. So bear with
me. I want to take you on a short journey,
the story of poo. I think it’s worth
talking about because we all have to deal with it, wherever people live, and
it’s the cause of countless deaths in poorer countries, billions are invested
to deal with it in richer nations, it pollutes our rivers and causes so many
problems – and despite all this it can be an incredible resource – for energy
production, soil enhancement and reforestation. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial;">Then I’m going to talk about biogas and show a few examples. Then talk about the plan and biogas septic tank
we’re building outside our house in Portugal.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial;">If you can’t face all this text and reading you can just skip to the
slideshow which is <a class="BLOGGER-object-element tr_noresize tr_placeholder" data-original-id=""__sse11044076"" href="http://www.blogger.com/%3Cdiv%20style=%22width:425px%22%20id=%22__ss_11044076%22%3E%3Cstrong%20style=%22display:block;margin:12px%200%204px%22%3E%3Ca%20href=%22http://www.slideshare.net/MagnusMurray/our-biogas-plant-jan-2012%22%20title=%22Our%20biogas%20plant%20%20%20jan%202012%22%3EOur%20biogas%20plant%20%20%20jan%202012%3C/a%3E%3C/strong%3E%3Cimg%20src=" http:="" id=""__sse11044076"" img2.blogblog.com="" img="" style="background-color: #b2b2b2; height: "355"px; width: "425"px;" video_object.png"=""></a></span></div>
<div 0="" 12px"="" style="padding: 5px;">
<a href="http://www.slideshare.net/MagnusMurray/our-biogas-plant-jan-2012">here</a> (all photos and few words<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Wingdings;">J</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial;">).</span></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14pt;">Conventional
sewerage treatment<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial;">The world over, we treat sewage as a public health hazard, and go to
enormous lengths to get rid of it. In richer countries massive sewerage
networks are laid, linking each house to a treatment centre, that then deposits
“treated” remains into the sea, or rivers.
This systems works, but it costs fortunes to install and assumes a
fairly well organised and properly funded agency to maintain it all. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial;">This is not the case in most of the world, where people have to deal
with it in other ways, which usually means open sewers, or houses depositing
their waste into their backyard, or into open drains running through the
community. Pretty gross and a
undoubtedly a source of water-borne diseases.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial;">We live in a village of about 400 houses where there is no sewerage
system, so each house has their own septic tank. These usually consists of a
hole in the ground about 3 to 4m deep into which a column of concrete rings are
set, with a little gap between each one. When the sewage enters the solids sit
at the bottom and the fluids seep away through the gaps between these pipes
(which are usually around 1m diameter by the way). So basically these are soak away pits,
probably polluting the local ground-water with faecal chloroforms (something
you really want to avoid unless you fancy a bit of dysentery or cholera). It’s not an issue here in Portugal as people
don’t drink groundwater – it mostly comes from piped networks, is treated with
chlorine which kills these bugs and anyway, the earth and rock probably filter
out most of these bad guys before they get to the water table. Probably… The
problem is in places with a shallow water table, but that’s another story. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial;">Most septic tanks have two chambers divided by a wall; as the solids
break down (micro-bacteria work their magic on the “solids”) they loose mass
and rise to the surface (think of the scum and dirty floaties you see in
minging beaches when you’re trying to catch a wave). Anyway, these bits float to the second tank
where an overflow takes away supposedly “clean” water. It’s not really clean, but
it’s cleaner than when it went it. This
waste or overflow water can be directed through a reed bed or an area filled
with plants to absorb the water and the nutrients that remain in it. Yes – there ARE nutrients. Something we generally tend to ignore. But most systems just redirect this waste
water back into a passing river or whatever.
When the solids build up too much (after a few years) a tractor come to
“de-sludge” the tank, which it then deposits on nearby fields to fertilise the
place. Gross? Not really, there’s mighty
nutrients in there, just like putting cow manure on the fields, but we’re
getting to that… <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 16pt;">The problem
of methane production <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial;">As you probably know, sewage stinks, but that’s mostly the acids from
urine making the smell – not the methane, which is an odourless gas. All animal dung, including ours, produce
methane as it breaks down – which happens when billions of bacteria feed on the
stuff and it is they that produce the methane, not our poo. All living things give off gas: plants give
out oxygen, humans breath out carbon dioxide. These mega-bugs give off methane
(and a bit of carbon dioxide too). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial;">Every septic tank leaks methane: it’s lighter than air and seeps out
through soil nice and easy. We don’t know it’s happening because it <i><u>has no smell</u></i>. I guess if you were to look at a community
through a gas-sensitive lens (like thermal imaging but for methane) you would
see plumes of the stuff heading sky-wards, from every backyard, or sewage
treatment plants – at least from those that don’t burn the stuff to cook or to
make electricity.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial;">But you’ve probably heard that methane is a fairly potent green-house
gas; apparently it’s 23 times more powerful than carbon dioxide. Climate scientists are worried about melting
permafrost releasing billions of tonnes of methane which will further
accelerate global warming. Well, now
there’s 7 billion of us folk on-planet now, how much do we contribute every day
or year through our septic tanks? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial;">I looked into this and read a <a href="http://www.ndwrcdp.org/documents/DEC1R09/DEC1R09.pdf">recent study</a> that</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial;"> found that septic tanks
provide around 100 kgs of CO<sub>2</sub> equivalent to the atmosphere per
person, per year. Arguably this is
negligible, but given there’s so many of us it adds up: let’s take a population
of 10m people (that of Portugal, or about 5% of Pakistan). Using this study we can estimate that this
many people produce around 1m tonnes of CO<sub>2</sub> (equivalent) per year,
equal to about <a href="http://openthefuture.com/cheeseburger_CF.html">100,000</a> Hummers (fuel-hungry American SUVs). </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial;">Checking against a list of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_carbon_dioxide_emissions">countries’ emissions </a>it’s fairly shocking to
learn that this is equivalent to the annual emissions of the Maldives, or
Swaziland (or twice that of Liberia).
And that’s only from the methane emissions of 10m people’s poo. Take a
population of 1bn (India’s way past this point already) emissions from septic
tanks rise to 100m tonnes of </span><span style="font-family: Arial;">CO</span><sub style="font-family: Arial;">2 </sub><span style="font-family: Arial;">equivalent per year, roughly equal to the
annual emissions of Belgium or Iraq.</span><span style="font-family: Arial;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial;">Does this mean that all our sewage waste is a major greenhouse gas? It
looks like it, but I’d need to do more research to pin down these numbers. Has anyone else looked into this? If these
numbers are right surely people would be applying for carbon credits (i.e.
cash) to not emit this methane. (I
wonder if we could use these figures to raise carbon financing to build biogas
systems in Pakistan, where I work half of the time helping rebuild after
floods). Anyway, back to the case at
hand – biogas and our place. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 16pt;">Biogas – a
really cool and viable alternative? <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial;">Studying at the <a href="http://gse.cat.org.uk/">CAT</a> a few years ago I came across biogas production, a
fairly straightforward system whereby the sewage tank (or septic tank) is airtight
(so no liquids or gas escape). A small
pipe is embedded into the top of the tank, which is round and dome shaped, so
there are no corners where pressure can cause ruptures. The gas in this case is a methane – carbon
dioxide blend and is flammable: it burns! In smaller systems it’s used for
cooking, in large, city-size plants there’s so much more gas it’s used to
generate electricity via a gas turbine.
I’ve heard that you can even connect this gas to the intake of a petrol
generator to make it run, or compress it and make transport gas. Or generate hot water for heating, showers or
whatever. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial;">My friend Sarah Kent did loads of research (and her thesis!) on biogas
and told me about places in Nepal where for generations people had cut trees
for firewood till the place was completely denuded. Unable to survive there any
more people were starting to migrate to urban slums. So they introduced biogas plants, initially
working just on animal manure. These
provided enough gas for cooking; combined with reforestation they have been
able to deal with the problem in some communities. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial;">Then I met David Fulford, of <a href="http://www.kingdombio.com/">Kingdom Bioenergy</a>, a former renewable energies
professor at Reading (UK) and for many years the biogas consultant for <a href="http://www.ashden.org/ashden_awards?gclid=CO2m7dui0K0CFUcjfAod8h4Qmg">AshdenAwards</a>. He worked in Nepal for years, introducing biogas design – and now there
are over 900,000 of small family or community sized plants working there.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial;">I asked if he had a design we could use for human waste – in fact can it
work on our sewage? Given that most of the plants I’d seen worked with animal
manure only. He saw no reason why
not. But why not add in food waste, he
suggested.. And he then pointed me towards this <a href="http://youtu.be/LrtINiLgNKY">amazing video</a> of a system used
in India that works entirely on food waste. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial;">To combine both human and food waste, David suggested we buy an
<a href="http://www.insinkerator.co.uk/products/fwd/200.aspx">insinkerator</a> (a kind of blender that fits below sinks, like in those American
horror movies). This would have to be
plumbed into the tank, so thought about well in advance. David kindly agreed to help us by designing a
basic plant (and has since been really helpful on many fronts!). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial;">David also put me in touch with Govinda Devkota, a Nepalese biogas
specialist who has built thousands of these plants. Govinda sent some great technical guidance
material which has helped. (He’s
available for consultancies worldwide by the way!). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 16pt;">On-site
fertiliser too!<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial;">One of the best “outputs” from a biogas plant is the slurry – which is
“delivered” above ground by this system for use as fertiliser and is apparently
an incredibly good source of nutrients for trees or gardens. Our land has fairly acidic, sandy soil, quite
low in nutrients so we could really use this.
So could most of the planet as 80% of our agricultural land is now
effectively denuded by years of intensive chemical agriculture. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 16pt;">So in
summary:<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<ul style="margin-top: 0cm;" type="disc">
<li class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial;">Biogas septic
tanks (digesters) deal with the problem of pollution to rivers or ground
water;<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial;">They provide
a form of energy that would deal with environmental problems locally while
reducing global emission increases from human-based methane production. <o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial;">This energy
can be used to provide free, smokeless gas for cooking – freeing people up
in so many countries from the horror of fire-smoke, which WHO <a href="http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs292/en/">reports</a>
kills over 2m people per year.<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial;">The odourless
liquid effluent that biogas tanks deliver could solve the massive food
crisis affecting millions in poorer countries – by providing safe and
highly effective fertiliser to increase soil fertility, which people can
then use to grow more food at home and improve nutrition. <o:p></o:p></span></li>
</ul>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 16pt;">How our
biogas system should work<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial;">First off, here’s a picture of the plan David kindly drew up for
us. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSMX2CwH5IjO6Oe0AbcL1w92wHXnomrjVI6bSUiGX9lECcgLu2Gzd9MP4h7_nvW4OCpZeNdKWZfZi2Ug1KdYUX9OwwqVvI7u0JNn9I0XHCG7c9Efzlrv6adhf0m0i2WEC1-I10BpPSrZWH/s1600/DSC01876.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="434" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSMX2CwH5IjO6Oe0AbcL1w92wHXnomrjVI6bSUiGX9lECcgLu2Gzd9MP4h7_nvW4OCpZeNdKWZfZi2Ug1KdYUX9OwwqVvI7u0JNn9I0XHCG7c9Efzlrv6adhf0m0i2WEC1-I10BpPSrZWH/s640/DSC01876.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The design we're using to build our biogas digester. Source - David Fulford, Kingdom Bioenergy</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial;"><o:p><br /></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial;"><o:p><br /></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial;">So far this is what I’ve learned: <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 18.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial;"><br />
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36.0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial;">-<span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman';"> </span></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial;">When the sewage in the tank rises to the top of the
“digester pit” (see plan) it reaches the bottom of the dome “roof”. At that
point all the gas will be collected in the “gas dome”. As the gas pressure builds up here it will
“push down” on the liquid in the tank forcing it to “displace” into the slurry
reservoir, (to the right of the plan).
This body of water in the slurry reservoir will then push down on the
gas, providing it with about one bar of pressure – forcing it along the pipe
and to the place of end use (a biogas cooking ring for example). As the gas is used up, pressure drops and the
liquids will slowly return to finding their level again, until gas builds up
again. Get it? <br />
<br />
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36.0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial;">-<span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman';"> </span></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial;">When the quantity of liquids in the tank increases,
the slurry reservoir will fill up quicker and eventually reach the top, where
there is an outlet. Here we will connect
a pipe and allow it to drain into a small holding tank we’re going to build,
where we’ll install a submersible sewage pump.
When this holding tank is nearing full the pump to engage and push the
waste material uphill, some 30m away to a bit of land we have where we’ll build
yet another tank, where we will add sawdust to help the slurry become more
solid and manageable for transporting around.
David told me about some women in India who added worms, which really
improved this process making it even better and more compost-like, which they
were then able to sell as a great fertiliser.
<br />
<br />
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36.0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial;">-<span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman';">
</span></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial;">The temperature in the tank should remain fairly warm
to keep the multitudes of friendly bugs happy. This is around 30 degrees
C. Very warm in other words. True, but
they do generate their own heat as they work away in their anaerobic
(oxygen-free) environment down there.
The problem might be the cold earth in which they are surrounded. So we might try and insulate the tank, on top
at least. We also plan to put in a
heating coil connected to our hot water cylinder so if we every have any
“spare” heat we can share a bit of it with our billion-bug generator mates. I’ve included an electric wire so we can put
a thermostat in there too, to keep an eye on temperatures. I’m told that the
earth around here stays at around 17 degrees C, so we’ll see how they
cope. <br />
<br />
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36.0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial;">-<span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman';"> </span></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial;">We shouldn’t put in too much water into the tank, but
too little isn’t good either. The amount
you get from a low-flush toilet is, David thinks, probably fine. When we wash food waste down the special sink
we can do so with warm water, and so decrease the cold shock factor for our
little buddies. <br />
<br />
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36.0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial;">-<span style="font: normal normal normal 7pt/normal 'Times New Roman';"> </span></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial;">We’ll need a dedicated sink for the food waste cutting
thing – we shouldn’t flush all our washing up water down there, obviously. So we’ve found a space near the kitchen where
we can have a special sink, but even then I think we should install a two-way
valve outside, which we will have to turn manually every time we want to direct
waste to the tank. That way we can still
use the sink to wash veg or boots or whatever, and direct that water to the
garden or elsewhere. Complicated? Not
really, just another thing to do and it’s not as if we don’t have enough of
those! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial;">OK that’s all for now folks. I’ll try and keep posting updates as things
progress. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>Magnushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15258662256324051363noreply@blogger.com55tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-195261637295251390.post-57817305463418267252012-01-06T20:42:00.001+00:002012-01-07T00:52:53.431+00:00In honour of Pete Bursnall<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZXwvzkTVgAJO54D8M3lYZYI3g0dY_YaBn9mooNVpBCT_WnSbBOt278qyxFyMH7y8Rn8ExyHAnWPgP0qfhUb0zU3dHPRDZIh64vXPLcYq0ZeulQ3wo9nTnszXiW8s0NTux_i23-sYLmuAT/s1600/pete.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZXwvzkTVgAJO54D8M3lYZYI3g0dY_YaBn9mooNVpBCT_WnSbBOt278qyxFyMH7y8Rn8ExyHAnWPgP0qfhUb0zU3dHPRDZIh64vXPLcYq0ZeulQ3wo9nTnszXiW8s0NTux_i23-sYLmuAT/s400/pete.jpg" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Pete</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial;">What a shock to learn of the passing of Pete Bursnall, a great guy I’d
become friends with over a couple of years, back in ’06 and ’07. We were both
students at the CAT in Wales, both in that middle point in life, loads behind
us, loads in front; both fanatical about dangerous things in the great outdoors
– the difference being that he actually organised his time well so that he
could actually do most of them. He’d already written a guide book to
mountain-biking an array of Welsh mountains (which he gave me! Seemingly hand
bound and printed too).</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial;">Then he was off
sea-kayaking; I saw a mad picture of him naked on some deserted island
god-knows where, his sea-vehicle parked up on a rocky beach.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial;">A moment of bliss was that?</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial;">For a while we seemed to be comparing injuries. He broke his collar-bone
or something falling out of his paraglider (or flying into a rock I think it
was). I failed to notice a massive hole in the ground while careering down a
hillside on a mountainboard, breaking my elbow and wrecking my wrist. He then
sprained something serious mountainbiking on the ice while I snapped a little
bone in my foot in a pathetically small skatepark in Spain. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial;">Enough of this he stuff; this letter’s to you Pete, wherever you
are. In fact what’s this you posted on
facebook to say you’re “I've gone flying.... Catch you later x” ? When exactly did you get to
fit in that last post? Positive till the end.
In fact it was your positive energy that always got me there in
Wales. Always so much to do, to debate
and to fix, always an inspiration. You
told me about blogging and persuaded me to get one going, which I did. In fact truth is I’ve been slacking for the
past, er, year or two, but now I’ll definately put more up there again, as you
would have harassed me to. I remember
you telling me how you would put the kids to bed and type up your days post,
while they lulled to sleep at your tapping.
How you’d started kick-boxing at your kid’s club. Nice one. Again, I’m
going to take up on that with my kids too. See: you’re still inspiring us
here. In fact they say someone’s not
really gone while their memory remains from those left behind. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial;">Talking of memory, Monica and I decided to dedicate this years’ tree
planting to you. Couldn’t decide which one, so we just went for all of them on
a certain terrace, right behind our little bothy we live in for now, on our spit of land in
Portugal. So here’s what you get: a
redcurrant, two raspberries, a blueberry and a lemon tree. Nikita (now 16 with hands like iron, taller
than me, quite a craftsman and builder and a flow-master on deep fresh snow.
You’d like him). Anyway, he suggested we look at what’s happened to the old
part of the compost loo, now 3 and a half years old. We bust open the wee door Paulo built into
the bottom and behold – compost of joy! No smell either. Bizarre, impossible you might say, amazing we
all said. Anyway, you’ll be thrilled (or
horrified) to learn that this power-mix went in with your berries to give them
a good head start in life. Good bit o’
muclh on top and I’ll keep watering them for a few days as we seem to be
experiencing a bizarrely late Indian summer over here. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial;"><br /></span></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEityyTQFY0MVIsPJdG6ysraqNI1xZ4SP7usxgVpYlU8fnh9hTfey28tDO4zlo2e-SxFTiKkJ6fY6IaqIhTNlyKBy5b5vcHnpld18Qoc076qgNIYr_wYw4f84q0qY2kdpBT0INzZfY8hwpyU/s1600/P1070015.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="238" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEityyTQFY0MVIsPJdG6ysraqNI1xZ4SP7usxgVpYlU8fnh9hTfey28tDO4zlo2e-SxFTiKkJ6fY6IaqIhTNlyKBy5b5vcHnpld18Qoc076qgNIYr_wYw4f84q0qY2kdpBT0INzZfY8hwpyU/s320/P1070015.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Yer lemon tree.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVIHIvPx_xZw4atwbDb7Yt7tg3hbIqX7PBL4girW0tKuFmk8WPIv4XdK9JfefjY4-_dVuiZP-bccpi9dFEKoOWoB-rOIVFL5LENFvquxIDXtZchBawXIdkW3s2BuHDtYF1LBWVjeeX3_YX/s1600/P1070017.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="238" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVIHIvPx_xZw4atwbDb7Yt7tg3hbIqX7PBL4girW0tKuFmk8WPIv4XdK9JfefjY4-_dVuiZP-bccpi9dFEKoOWoB-rOIVFL5LENFvquxIDXtZchBawXIdkW3s2BuHDtYF1LBWVjeeX3_YX/s320/P1070017.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Pete's berry terrace</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiy9-gHc-o7-gfuBt8Os36zGGJqI3svKPbVAYMUW7uWw0UlTda8AG9JwsSSBz90sijzaY9Wp3E8Nt5VTchnZDOOCEXpy8ZiUfE7QAuwcMj9R2yhztkcZyxbBdRZKVsdNB_lT4ydcbe8D14p/s1600/P1070016.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiy9-gHc-o7-gfuBt8Os36zGGJqI3svKPbVAYMUW7uWw0UlTda8AG9JwsSSBz90sijzaY9Wp3E8Nt5VTchnZDOOCEXpy8ZiUfE7QAuwcMj9R2yhztkcZyxbBdRZKVsdNB_lT4ydcbe8D14p/s320/P1070016.JPG" width="238" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">the two raspberries</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial;">Thinking of my family I ache when I think of yours, the enormous
emptiness that you must have left behind. Words can’t express the pain and torture
that they must be experiencing.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial;">As Simon rightly said today, it reminds us of our mortality, the passing
of a friend. So true; soon enough we’ll all be there with you. Will we
remember? Will we think and feel anything?
Nikita and I were just talking about this the other night: what part of
us stays on? Can we bring our memories with us? How painful will that be? Do we
participate in some future part of the universe somewhere? Too many questions
and unknowns; shouldn’t dwell on it I reckon, just get on with life and make
the most of it we can. Every day, every
hour (Nikita says we only have 600,000 hours more or less in life). Given that
we sleep through half of those, that leaves about 300,000 hours. Jeez.. what
percentage of mine have I burned already? How many have I wasted watching some
rubbish on telly or sitting around late at night wasting time… What really
matters? Family, friends, adventure, adrenaline, Fun (of course), love (well
that kind of comes with the former 5), making a difference on our time here for
those less fortunate. I think this is a major one, given that this “here” we’ve
landed on is both a heaven and a hell for people, and the vast majority of our
earthling cousins seem to have such a hard time of it. The energy we generate from the 5
things-that-matter should, I think, be used to power ourselves forward to make
life a little better out there (or a little less crap, whichever way you see
it). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial;">So this is my own humble send-off to you Pete – in reflection of your
amazing life I prepare (in advance) a multi-berry blast to power you on your
way – red, blue, yellow, pink and green – all the colours of the fruits from
your new berry terrace. I hope you enjoy
them somewhere, somehow…<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
</div>Magnushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15258662256324051363noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-195261637295251390.post-3291720041278001352011-05-15T08:02:00.001+01:002011-11-13T23:56:23.245+00:00On bringing sunlight to the darkness<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I need to write more.<br />
<br />
Every passing week I see a growing pile of months that represent the chunk of my life I've lived in Pakistan I wince at the stream of writings that could have been; horrified by my lack of recounting of stories of the peoples and places, ideas and opportunities, chance meetings, inspiring moments of passion in dance or music, children, community.<br />
<br />
They say something about the longest journey, first steps, no time like the present and all that. So yes, now is the time, and I'll try to write in the moments between multiple events and busyness..<br />
<br />
Where to begin? at this stage i usually get distracted by searching out pictures of recent ventures into the real Pakistan (Islamabad is lovely, but worlds apart from the bustling, noisy, dramatic and heady rest of the land). Not that there is one land, it's like several countries, meshed into one, officially for only 60 years, but really for thousands of years before that in an incredible history that makes our simple dwellings in Scotland a thousand years ago seem like the stone ages compared to what's been transpiring around here.<br />
<br />
But today we're here, in the present. I'm still part of a team of advisors and managers of British taxpayers aid money to help flood-affected people rebuild their lives. My first time with DFID the department for international development (and rather an honour at that to be honest). A donor, one of the biggest donors out here, and it's been a pleasure to see how seriously the whole "institution" takes the quality and targetting of our limited aid budget. How efficiently they handle the information flow to Parliament and the beaurocracy which has allowed us to focus completely on the best, most cost effective and lasting types of emergency aid and, later on, investment into 'early recovery' projects. Having spent years on the other side of the table, as an operational organisation, asking donors like DFID for money, how we portion it out. How there's no influence or interference from commercial interests - like British companies being favoured for contracts from UK aid cash. Apparently Clare Short dealt with that sillyness years ago, and it's stuck ever since. British NGOs aren't favoured over any others either. Furthermore, I don't feel that we're under any pressure to make funding decisions based on UK foreign policy; it really is based on degree of humanitarian need, levels of coverage by other organisations and donors (filling the gaps), finding the most cost-effective solutions, those that also empower recipient communities, maybe even improve the dire nutritional situation, promote women's rights and represenatation, possibly reduce their vulnerability to abuse and attack, things that build community resilience to future disasters, and so on. <br />
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There's just so many issues out there, which is partially why I've never decided on what to start writing about. One at a time right? Small steps.<br />
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Let's start with a conversation I had with Farrah a couple of days ago.. Farrah runs a local NGO (called CCHD) that's been involved in womens' rights, advocacy and now with UNHCR setting up legal advice centers around the country, in an attempt to offer some level of representation to people who don't have access - to justice, aid, legal aid, advice. It's such a heavy task. Protection, and the entire legal safety net that we so take for granted in the "West" is shocking by its absence. Only then do I get a glimpse of what it all means. Where do you start with a case of sexual abuse, if the legal system doesn't have the will or means to deal with it? How can you protect the victim who has told her story? Especially in an Islamic culture - which has got to be one of the most gentle and justice-oriented religions out there, but there's so many other layers in society, tribal, family honour.<br />
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Anyway, Farrah and I talked about solar lights which she's keen to find out more about. I started looking into this last November when tens of thousands of people were still displaced by flood-waters living in spontaneous camps in any available sites, sometimes in more formal camps where the army or the humanitarians could provide decent tents, water supply maybe, some sanitation facilities, deliveries of food. We'd visit these camps - always during the day. Our security regs are such that we don't get to see these places at night. Having lived through war and displacement in Monrovia - Liberia - in 2003 I know fine what it's like: very dark. And scary, especially if you're a young girl, surrounded by strangers from other parts of town, or tribes. With no money and stuff people just don't have the means for light. So you get whole transitional townships which somehow function day and night. And imagine trying to find a quiet moment for a little wash, or when you're bursting for the loo in those long hours of night, and those scary strangers have wickedness on their mind, and, hidden in the cloak of darkness they descend on those most precious and vulnerable among us, causing immeasrable harm and trauma. It's such a nightmare and it's happened in every camp setting I've ever been in from Bosnia to Aceh - and now in Pakistan. And like most places, authorities would rather deny it's a problem, that it's happening at all, that the good people of these parts would never do such a thing. But they do, we do. Men that is. There's monsters within us that we battle with and sometimes, stressed and when our social order is thrown upside down by disaster and displacement the monster takes over. <br />
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Knowing this, we have to create means for social protection that are specially designed for life in camps and humanitarian chaos. And one of these should surely be light. Imagine the bustle of five thousdand people in a scrap of land beside a wood and a lake, at night where you can hardly see what you're stepping on. Then see another vision of the same place: a village bright with tiny lights, paths illuminated, toilets in carefully chosen areas lit up and watchable, surrounded by rows of eyes disguised as shelters. Even if nobody's watching, the warewolf knows that someone could be... How much much difference would this make? Surely...<br />
<br />
So back in November, charged with coming up with a plan for my country's portion of aid money for shelter, I worked with some of the great folk at <a href="http://www.concern.net/">Concern</a> to expand the provision of emergency shelter kits (2 high quality tarps, 6 long bamboo poles, some warm blankets for the winter season, etc.). I think we were looking at around 35,000 families or so. At this point I started looking into solar lights and presumed there was some local production facility. There could be, but it's a bit of shambles, and all the panels and lights they produce come from China and they just re-assemble them here. At around $30 a pop. <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhamf-uoji00rj2nRWvgUHcJaI3T7Iv-IgRkSriWOKFOaN1KR_zFR1U60sykq5sDviAug1Vo8bz9ja3m1mODzhs0n8sCyLu523hTzT9RtfP65N9qVqD0gPNiJPjGTBBFbfhhgXBYNqhFOGQ/s1600/P1030255.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="238" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhamf-uoji00rj2nRWvgUHcJaI3T7Iv-IgRkSriWOKFOaN1KR_zFR1U60sykq5sDviAug1Vo8bz9ja3m1mODzhs0n8sCyLu523hTzT9RtfP65N9qVqD0gPNiJPjGTBBFbfhhgXBYNqhFOGQ/s320/P1030255.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Folks in one of hundreds of villages where we worked with<br />
Concern and Rootworks, their local partner, who<br />
are rebuilding houses here, so they can move<br />
out of these tents, a year on after the floods in Aug 2010.</td></tr>
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OK so back up a minute - first we decide we need to do something about the problem of scary men/ prowling spectares, and lets say we focus on light. We agree that if there's any chance to reduce these horrors we should grasp them, we assume, on behalf of the tax-paying population that they agree (hope you're OK with that folks!). Right, next we have to find a product that's going to last more than a few weeks, that's robust and reliable, simple and easy to use. It should be cheap - so we can buy lots of them. There's plenty of $500 units out there, with batteries and fancy battery boxes and so on, but then we'll only be able to help a few families, and they'll probably end up in the richest man's household. No, they should be distributed to everyone, one per family. So price should be low. <br />
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As chance would have some samples were dropped off to our offices in London and sent out for sampling. A relatively new company, and product really - a robust panel using thin-film solar technology stuck to a chunky bit of plastic, offering enough of a trickle of current to charge a light that holds 4 LED bulbs. Pretty meagre light at first, but pressing the button a few times increases the brightness (while also reducing the time they can stay on). Optional extras include fittings for most mobile phones, batteries, radios and so on. Cost for the panel, cable and light only? About ten pounds stirling ($15 or so). <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAaROy3xtGOz-_kT3B5n-7QsVTXn_2JKPHlRwRuuwne_8BweSADDBj5KwPsbPPtlLaHkj_r2PGH85S3Ygys3UFX2H0A1VkIqiwJT2b1Cqk6UPexy9dQ3C1IOU6RXbjaT5oOXSTZz9i-2UO/s1600/P1030316.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAaROy3xtGOz-_kT3B5n-7QsVTXn_2JKPHlRwRuuwne_8BweSADDBj5KwPsbPPtlLaHkj_r2PGH85S3Ygys3UFX2H0A1VkIqiwJT2b1Cqk6UPexy9dQ3C1IOU6RXbjaT5oOXSTZz9i-2UO/s320/P1030316.JPG" width="238" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Talking to a family in Dadu, about their solar light (toughstuff) and how it had been amazing...</td></tr>
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So we shared these with Concern and it turned out they had bought them before - in Haiti. So they bought 12,000 of them and gave them out in Southern Sindh. Feedback was amazing: they were saving about $3 a month on candles or kerosene and a further $5 on mobile phone charging... They had figured out where to find adapters to fit their mobile phones, which meant they didn't have to pay to go to town to charge them.<br />
<br />
OK, so these were distributed long after they had been in camps - they had returned already, so they were "late" in that regard. But the "return on investment" seemed to be really good - i.e. the investment is paid back within a few months, after which they save money.<br />
<br />
To cut a long story short, it has occurred to me that we should include solar lights in all future emergency shelter kits - as long as they are low cost and robust. The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) has been in charge of the emergency shelter sector in Pakistan since Aug 2010. They are some really committed and passionate folks there, and keen on the idea of light, and I'm so pleased to see that this year lights have been included in the shelter cluster's priority list of non-food items. <br />
<br />
So, moving forward in time now (this story has taken months to finish) we have funded IOM to provide emergency shelter for 18,000 families (over 100,000 people) in the newly flood affected areas in Southern Sindh. Each family will get a solar light. This time a different model - from illumination, which sell them at around $7.50 a unit, delivered to Pakistan. That's less than £5 each! <br />
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In two weeks I'm going to visit the people that received these lights and am going to find out what they think. I'll finish or continue with this post then.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioLRhdLetKL5qHn7kHSCanA8nmoYKvnox3GUmtOCB_dqXwsxWMzbyKHSnD_MyNAY6z6wd41ZAfgvRZcYZqb_Thzmsz5wnadj5ylCz_qCK5jfz1ukYBAE4SN1LM2egXj3fZX_ObVGh9Nkqy/s1600/IMG00438-20110405-1425.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioLRhdLetKL5qHn7kHSCanA8nmoYKvnox3GUmtOCB_dqXwsxWMzbyKHSnD_MyNAY6z6wd41ZAfgvRZcYZqb_Thzmsz5wnadj5ylCz_qCK5jfz1ukYBAE4SN1LM2egXj3fZX_ObVGh9Nkqy/s400/IMG00438-20110405-1425.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px; padding-top: 4px; text-align: center;">Granny, at 92, with one of her tribe of great grandchildren, in a tiny village flattened by water in Jacobabad, Sindh. Poor, they may be, but look how healthy and positive and alive!</td></tr>
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</div>Magnushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15258662256324051363noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-195261637295251390.post-19600875964413730802011-03-11T13:47:00.000+00:002011-03-11T13:47:34.828+00:00Multan Pottery - Punjab, Pakistan<div style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px"><br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVRZvxf54K77sF2UWE-RYhJHGNlnhUatVA1mxQv_zmNztHAGhlEvYnl8c-s9CxgONzHQCTqA5jPD4iVRhd0UJuMFNNJwC-VjmxwEWYHGG-dreLySkCPjwAgi_4E4Un6XqBXPtA-WTMgI15/s1600/Multan+Pottery.jpg"><img border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVRZvxf54K77sF2UWE-RYhJHGNlnhUatVA1mxQv_zmNztHAGhlEvYnl8c-s9CxgONzHQCTqA5jPD4iVRhd0UJuMFNNJwC-VjmxwEWYHGG-dreLySkCPjwAgi_4E4Un6XqBXPtA-WTMgI15/s400/Multan+Pottery.jpg" /></a> </div><div style='clear:both; text-align:CENTER'><a href='http://picasa.google.com/blogger/' target='ext'><img src='http://photos1.blogger.com/pbp.gif' alt='Posted by Picasa' style='border: 0px none ; padding: 0px; background: transparent none repeat scroll 0% 50%; -moz-background-clip: initial; -moz-background-origin: initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: initial;' align='middle' border='0' /></a></div>Magnushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15258662256324051363noreply@blogger.com4