In his recent State of the Nation Address, President Jacob Zuma said that about 3 million housing units had been delivered since 1994 and that nearly 500 informal settlements had been replaced with quality housing over the past five years.
Local soil is the most accessible source of building material for millions of people and incorporating it into the construction of residential units will help meet the demand for low-cost housing in an environmentally-friendly way. Pictured is a house created from stabilised soil.
However there are still 1.6 million households living in informal settlements and a backlog of more than 2.3 million housing units, according to the country’s last census.
The solution, says Jean du Plessis, managing director of AnyWay Solid Environmental Solutions RSA, is right under our feet.
He explains that local soil is the most accessible source of building material for millions of people and incorporating it into the construction of residential units will help meet the demand for low-cost housing in an environmentally-friendly way.
Although most soils do not contain the mix of clay, silt and sand required for good brick making, the addition of soil stabilisation technology enables the creation of a new, stronger and more durable material, he says.
AnyWay Solid Environmental Solutions RSA, a global leader in providing soil stabilisation products to the infrastructure and development sectors for use in the construction and maintenance of roads and infrastructure, has developed a line of products designed to be mixed with local soils, even those of sub-standard quality, to meet a variety of needs in the house building process, including compressed stabilised earth blocks (CSEBs), plaster and mortar.
Building with stabilised soil offers a number of advantages.
“Not only are soil blocks cheaper to create than concrete bricks, but because these can be manufactured on-site, it saves on transport costs and fuel consumption, especially in remote areas with poor road infrastructure.”
Furthermore, he says structures built with soil have good thermal properties, thus saving on heating and cooling costs. In fact, a study by the Institute of Technology, University of Fort Hare found that homes built from soil offer better thermal comfort than low-cost RDP houses.
“Soil structures are also fire, noise and bug resistant and have a negligible carbon footprint.”
Perhaps the greatest benefit is that residential units can be constructed by those communities that need them.
Through combining the soil on which they live with soil stabilisers and their labour, these communities can create cost-effective and technologically suitable houses, roads, community centres and schools.
Du Plessis points out that this has already proven effective in several projects undertaken by AnyWay as part of its Rural Community Development Plan which has been executed around the world as well as in South Africa.
In collaboration with the Gauteng Economic Development Agency, the Sinqobile Community Youth Trust and Desert Star, AnyWay brought the Plan to the small community of Simunye, located in Westonaria, Gauteng.
Here, training on how to stabilise soil and create blocks from the resulting product was provided to community members.
Through their involvement in these labour-intensive processes, skills were transferred to community members, thus empowering them to form their own small and medium-sized enterprises.
These not only provide a way to make a living but also ensure the continued availability of houses, infrastructure and roads. In addition, the structure that they built was tested by the SABS and found to comply with the requirements of the National Building Regulations.
“Although the government has done well in providing housing to millions, by exploring and implementing alternative methods more can be done to ensure that, as President Zuma states, ‘life will also continue to change for the better’ for more South Africans,” adds Du Plessis.
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