July 27, 2006

Canadian architecture student shares experiences in Africa’s building climate

FAZEENA SAMAD

staff writer

TORONTO

Parachuting international aid into rural villages in Africa for infrastructure improvements, without providing additional skills training, is an unsustainable band-aid solution, says one Canadian architecture student.

Michelle Smith, a final-year architecture student at the University of Waterloo, recently completed a co-op work term in rural Togo in the villages of Adjahun Fiagbe, Nyamessi and Awudikope. She says that even with help, the challenges faced by rural construction projects are many because of a lack of local participation in the design/build process.

She proposes instead that aid be “directed towards local research, education and training programs.

“A farm worker in Togo makes the equivalent of C$1 a day, and a teacher only $70 a month. Yet one 50kg bag of cement costs $7 (because the cement industry is run by foreigners),” she says. “A three-classroom school built according to the formula requires around 800 bags of cement, to say nothing of the reinforcing steel or the wood and steel sheeting for the roof.

MICHELLE SMITH

ABOVE: Like other areas of the world, there is a shortage of skilled construction labour in South Africa. BELOW: Photo shows the contrast between a concrete-built school and a traditional village house made of mud-brick and thatch material.

“So this type of construction is totally inaccessible to the average rural citizen.”

Since the government doesn’t have a construction agenda, Smith says, villages are completely reliant on NGOs without any prospect of the situation changing because no one is making the effort to find a better solution.

As a result, many of the structures in the villages are constructed mainly out of a combination of mud-brick and thatch materials, with the few exceptions being the buildings that were built with aid from NGOs.

The villages consist of two-room houses arranged in open spaces connected by footpaths.

“A typical family house consists of sleeping buildings and outbuildings such as the kitchen grouped around a central open space. The houses are divided into at least two rooms which are accessed from the outside and do not interconnect,” Smith explained.

“Nyamessi follows this model completely, whereas in Adjahun, some outside money has come in allowing the construction of larger houses with several rooms opening off a central living space.”

Compounding the problem is that the villages have limited access to drinking water and electricity, and road access is partial (and often impassable in the rainy season), making it difficult to transport material and equipment to construction sites on a regular basis.

During the construction process, Smith’s duties included co-ordinating deliveries, hiring skilled labour, and supervising worksites to ensure that construction adheres to build plans.

“The delivery of materials proved problematic at times, with trucks breaking down or getting caught up at customs ‘checkpoints,’ and drivers refusing to subject their trucks to the pitted dirt track leading to Nyamessi, particularly after the rains in March,” Smith noted in her work report.

She also faced additional challenges because schools in Togo have to be designed and built to government specifications, which limits classroom size and material usage to concrete.

“Villagers see no point in coming to the worksite.”

Michelle Smith, Architecture Student

Both schools were designed “as a series of classes arranged along an exterior verandah with an office and storage room at one end. The foundations were [made] of solid concrete block work, and the walls of hollow blocks between reinforced concrete columns with exterior walls composed of perforated blocks above four solid courses to allow for light and ventilation.”

Plans also included a roof made of corrugated steel roofing sheets supported by wooden rafters.

However, there is a shortage of skilled labour in the poorer villages because of a lack of affordable apprenticeships.

“Families cannot afford to send their children to apprenticeships because everyone is needed on the farm,” Smith told Daily Commercial News.

“The dependence on NGOs also creates an attitude of ‘why bother?’ in the villages, which I saw especially at Adjahun. Since NGOs usually come in with all of their skilled labour, villagers see no point in coming to the worksite.”

Smith says that help from the Canadian construction industry could help alleviate some of the challenges for construction workers in the rural areas.

Smith proposes the creation a sponsorship apprenticeship program that would see long-term trade skills passed on to the villagers.

Adding that while “more far-fetched, some sort of research program to develop or highlight lower-cost construction methods” to the villagers would also be helpful, noting in particular, “a centre for construction research in Lome that is interested in a partnership to help to further its research into stabilized-brick construction methods”.

The two schools (although unfinished because of a lack of funding) will be in full use in September 2006.

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