Turning the Tide

(This article was published in "The Sunday Indian", 19 January-25 January 2009)

Turning the Tide
Guwahati's Cane and Bamboo Technology Centre designs a bamboo house that could save millions during floods and earthquakes

 

Barely a stone's throw away from Guwahati city that houses the capital complex of Assam, Panikaithi's Muhammad Azibur Rahman has found a way of dealing with the state's floods: he crosses the highway with his family as the swirling waters of the Brahmaputra gobbles up his little bamboo hut; for those horrible months he then lives on the other side of the highway in a broken down tent, pieced together with rags. If the water on the other side should rise, however, he then perches himself and his family on the highway itself, living his days and nights in even more horrible poverty. That to him is quite the cycle of life before winter comes and the waters recede and he can see his fields appear once again from the heart of the once turbulent river. He then starts from scratch, building his hut that the river has by then turned into a den of hissing snakes. That is near Guwahati. Now, hundreds of kilometres upstream too, where the Brahmaputra is a raging sea, Uday Pegu of Dhakuakhana has had it much worse, having had to watch two of his family washed away even as the river demolished his rickety "sang bongola", a bamboo house traditionally built by his people (the Misings) on a bamboo platform to keep their homes safe from the waters that they had learnt to battle down the ages.

Things, however, are beginning to change with the ever-handy bamboo of these hills and plains now coming in even handier as the Cane and Bamboo Technology Centre (CBTC) in Guwahati innovates Pegu's age-old tradition – that of using bamboo to keep a population, quite literally, above the floods. At hand is a new bamboo house that comes with an "80-year life" guarantee and costs just upwards of Rs 35,000 to build. And there's luxury to add if one so wishes: the air-conditioned version of the house costs Rs 3 lakh. But most of all, this is a house that could help keep safe millions of people who have hitherto been at the mercy of floods which routinely wash away their lives, homes and families. In areas such as the Northeast – particularly known for being prone to seismic disturbances – the houses, given their low weight and structure, could be a good shelter against earthquakes too.

Bamboo has a natural affinity towards water; it can grow several inches in a day and is usually kept in water to keep it fresh. CBTC's chemical treatment now enhances the plant's life far beyond what Pegu's residents could have imagined.

 

"A combination of creosote and diesel which is used to treat the bamboos before they are used, guarantees their extended life," says Anjal Goswami, CBTC's deputy manager and chief architect. The idea of such a house found its roots in a group led by Kamesh Salam, CBTC Director and a man originally from Manipur. "We first got together people from various north-eastern regions to study the way they have been building their bamboo houses." Added to that, of course, was the modern technical edge that resulted in the creation of these state-of-the-art structures. A joint project of the North Eastern Development Finance Corporation (NEDFi), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the Department of Science and Technology of the central government and the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation, it is a ray of hope for many.

As expected, the house is currently a rage with various departments which were at a loss when it came to dealing with floods ravaging so many parts of the country. "We have already received orders to construct 5,000 such houses in tsunami affected Tamil Nadu," says Salam. "Bihar wants 500 such huts for their floodplains." The Department of Posts, meanwhile has placed an order of 1.25 lakh rural post offices in vulnerable villages across the country. "Apart from being developed with resources that are readily available in this region, the house also lends the feel-good of living with nature," says Salam. A showcase for the Centre is a 2,000 sq ft amphitheatre constructed for the tourist village at Kisama in Nagaland.

Once set up, the house can even be made double storeyed, replete with the trappings of any modern, environment-friendly construction. What is an added bonus – and a crucial one on that – is the fact that the house can be dismantled and put together at ease, something that could have life-saving implications in disaster-stricken areas. The basic construction has provisions to allow for its walls to be plastered, and fitted with modern amenities. Embellishments, for those who can afford, are available in the form of wooden and cane parts that can then be added. Given its use in times of natural calamities, the Centre has looped in the army too, with its personnel now trained in the construction of such houses. The only sore thumb: the government of Assam – the state which bears the brunt of the annual ritual of floods causing the death of thousands, and ironically, where the new bamboo houses have been conceived – is yet to show interest.

Back in Dhakuakhana, thus, Pegu still waits for his little hut of safety as does Azibur, who now is busy tending to his small field at Panikhaiti, dreading in his sleep the floods that will come again next year – all of which could be changed with CBTC's innovation.

Pankaj Barthakur

Dwelling delights

PUBLISHED IN THE ASSAM TRIBUNE (www.assamtribune.com) SATURDAY SUPPLEMENTARY "HORIZON" ON SATURDAY, DECEMBER 13, 2008

(Pankaj Borthakur and Swarvanu Nath Deka inform us about the elegant and aesthetic bamboo houses that are a boon for disaster-prone areas)

Living safely amidst flood has been a big problem for Mohammed Azibur Rahman of Panikhaiti village under Chandrapur development block, 17 kilometres from Dispur, the capital of Assam. The same condition disturbs more than three hundred families of his locality. For, they have to repair their flood damaged houses after each devastating flood. 

But the floods were more harsh to Uday Pegu of Dhakuakhana that claimed two lives of his family few years ago. When in a rainy day he saw that a flood devastated his ten-year-old shaky chang ghar (traditionally built by Mising community in Assam) within few minutes, he had nothing to do but swim across water to save his soul. Life became miserable for him after the flood. But rays of hope of living safely rejuvenated him when he learnt about the newly developed bamboo hut by the Cane and Bamboo Technology Centre, Guwahati (CBTC). Azibur also, while narrating that he had to chase three snakes from his broken hut to save his wife Jasmine and two daughters last summer, told us, “if the government provides such a hut for us in low rate we will be safe at least during floods.”

Officially named as ‘bamboo-hut’, this model residence was developed by the Cane and Bamboo Technology Centre with local forest resources like bamboo, wood and cane. Cane and wood are slightly used in the hut while bamboo remains the bulk of the raw materials. 

“We have developed this bamboo-hut with the local resources which give you the taste of living in Nature,” says Kamesh Salam, director of the CBTC. He reveals that the centre projected this idea for the first time in 2002.

Although the hut reflects the technical innovation of modern-day civilization, originally it gives us the flavour of traditionalism of indigenous people of the Northeast. The CBTC director, who hails from Manipur, says that the idea came to their minds from the traditional huts of the tribes in Assam and the Northeast. The traditional huts, made of bamboo and wood, in Assam are recognized as environment friendly. “Bamboo and wood can absorb the high temperature. These elements also protect people from extreme cold. Bamboo and wood maintain a balanced temperature in the newly built hut which is conducive to everyone’s health,” says Salam.

However, it is recommendable that while the traditional bamboo huts in Assam and other states of the Northeast are built in an ordinary manner, CBTC gives it a systematic and technological touch. It is interesting to know that before using, each and every piece of bamboo, wood and cane is being prepared through a special method of chemical treatment. This method of chemical treatment makes the bamboo, cane and wood pieces long lasting adding to the durability of the hut. 

“In this chemical treatment a liquid mixture of creosote and diesel in equal proportion is used where the pieces of bamboo, wood and cane are immersed for two to three days. This mixture is used as a preservative for the forest resources used in the hut,” says architect and deputy manager of CBTC, Anjal Goswami. He also says that the guaranteed durability of this hut is 80 years.

Besides this, another feature of great importance about these huts is that the architects can give an innovative modern touch while erecting them. All the parts of the hut are foldable. It also requires less man power as only a handful people can carry the folding bamboo walls, windows, doors and the GC sheets to a particular place and assemble them in an organized manner within three days. Even air-conditioners can be fitted in the plastered bamboo huts. 

Goswami says his group has built a 2,000 square feet modern air-conditioned community auditorium in the Kissama village near Kohima following an order of the Nagaland government.

The architect informs the modern bamboo hut is built in two structures. One model is constructed just over the ground, and the other is built on platforms above concrete posts. “While the first one is highly conducive to the earthquake-prone areas, the second is appropriately reliable to the inhabitants of flood-affected areas,” says another architect in the centre. 

For these important features of the hut even the interested personnel of the Indian Army have been especially trained for weeks in Assam to make such huts during the periods of natural disasters like earthquake and flood.

When the building materials of the modern day concrete buildings are becoming costlier day by day, the natural resources of the bamboo hut remains cheaper, particularly in the northeastern states. Moreover, bamboo is a largely available forest resource in every state of the Northeast for which neighbouring countries like China and Thailand are projecting bilateral business agreement with India.

The non-AC model of a three-room hut costs between Rs 30,000 to Rs 40,000 while the cost of such a hut with air-condition facility is around Rs 3 lakh. In the past couple of years, both the models gained increasing popularity in Mizoram, Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh and Assam. 

The response of the governments in some of the northeastern states in popularization of the modern day bamboo hut developed by the CBTC has been encouraging, the officials say. But they are still looking forward to a favourable response from the state government in Assam which is rich in forest resources like bamboo, wood and cane. “Although we are incessantly working for the popularization of this hut in Assam, proper initiatives that need be taken by the Government of Assam are sadly lacking as those in authority seem to be totally indifferent,” laments one of the officers in the centre, on the condition of anonymity. 

Every cloud has its silver lining. Each and every official in the Guwahati office of the CBTC is now upbeat with the enthusiasm of making 5,500 bamboo huts in Chennai and Bihar. Director Salam says: “We received an order for constructing 5,000 newly developed modern day bamboo huts in tsunami-affected Tamil Nadu and 500 others in flood-affected Bihar. DoNER minister Mani Shankar Aiyar took this initiative after examining our technically constructed hut in the fourth North East Business Summit in Guwahati in September this year.” 

The centre also received another order recently from the Department of Post to build 125,000 village post offices in the rural areas across the country.