Editorial
Addressing nation's housing problem
Novel ideas from home and abroad should be encouraged
FACED with the crisis of ever shrinking land-man ratio, meeting the constitutionally guaranteed basic human need of a shed over every citizen's head is becoming a big challenge before the policymakers. The challenge is still bigger in cities, where rural migrants--people dislodged from their village homesteads for various reasons, environmental or otherwise--are flocking to in droves and landing in the unhealthy shanties.
To meet the challenge, the government has plans for low-cost housing for the poor. The methods of making low cost residences for the low-income groups follow the conventional building technology. But since Bangladesh is also a frontline state braving the fallout of climate change, its building technology needs also to meet the added challenge of adapting to it.
Many new ideas to address the problem of housing the low income and those rendered homeless have been floated from time to time. Most of these approaches are meant to meet the post-flood or cyclone rehabilitation exigencies and, hence, follow the traditional practice of making low-cost sheds with a mixture of corrugated iron sheets, wood and bamboo. Others use low-cost versions of the conventional materials and technology for more durable structures in the urban setting.
Amid this welter of ideas, novel ones that at once meet the criteria of economy accommodation and that of adaptability to climate change are also placed on different occasions.
A Bangladesh-born Canadian architect recently made one such suggestion. She has come up with the novel idea of a 'lift house project,' in which a section of the building's structure can float on water during floods, while the other section made of ferro-cement always remains fixed to the ground. The materials used to build the duplex house can be obtained locally and are within the reach of the very poor. This house designed by Prithula Proshun, a graduate in architecture from the Waterloo University of Canada, has the added feature that it is a self-contained unit with community toilets, facilities to collect and conserve rainwater, produce its own power from solar energy and bio-gas through recycling wastes produced by the residents themselves and so on. The design has been conceived with an eye to the particular environment of Dhaka city.
Riddled with endless problems, Bangladesh's need for such new approaches to solve those cannot be gainsaid. Housing is just one of the problems clamouring for urgent attention. Authorities should listen to such honest suggestions from experts both at home and those from among the diaspora. They deserve to be recognised and encouraged so that that the nation can benefit from their expertise and experience.
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