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Thursday, February 03, 2005
First earthbag shelter system in Escalante
By Clara Mae Hortelano
TO PROVIDE an innovative housing solution in the country and worldwide, MyShelter Foundation, a registered Philippine non-profit corporation, introduced the first earthbag shelter system in Escalante City.
The Asian Institute of Management Alumni spearheaded the activity.
Illac Diaz, founder of MyShelter Foundation, told Sun.Star Bacolod the foundation's aim is to provide housing units as they recognized the growing global need for housing with the country's current population boom.
Diaz narrated his trip to California and India to learn the earthbag shelter system to create the first structure.
He said the problem can be addressed by using the potentials of earth construction.
"Our mission is to create and implement innovative solutions for more affordable transitional housing for migrant populations and create sustainable communities that will advance the welfare of the individual and their families," he said.
The earthbag shelter system is a low-cost alternative that would use the materials of war (sandbags and barbed wire) to create a safe structure in most regions - without harming the forest.
Diaz added this ancient system would utilize minimum amounts of purchased product and maximum amounts of free earth, maximizing potential of available resources by combining it with progressive technologies.
He said it would also encourage community activity by working together to put up low-cost, educational institutions, which are easy to build.
"This structure is also capable of self-insulating, thus, decreasing the need to use electricity," he noted.
Because of this alternative, saving hundreds of thousands for such structure would mean more money to be allocated for other government priority projects, said Diaz.
"This is more environmental, sustainable and economical," he said. Diaz further said the earthbag shelter system, which provides a dome home structure, is very durable against typhoons.
"Every three quarter of the year the Visayas area is widely hit by major typhoons and every debt of several Filipino families has incurred a total of P40 million worth of damages which resulted to loans and more debts," he said.
"We could not afford seeing them every typhoon season where they would result to more debts to fix their houses and start a new life again."
The first structure of earthbag shelter system, Diaz said, was built in Escalante City with a 45-square meter dome house structure that currently serves as a medical clinic.
The system uses 80 percent earth, cement, sand, sugar bagasse and sulfur adobe-strong compound which makes it 100 percent more durable, he said.
"It is an elongated bricks system mold in sugarcane sacks. The structure was built within 30 days," he said.
In the near future, with the help of the government for funding, Diaz hoped to build mass structure of earthbag shelter system that would answer the housing problem of the country.
Diaz, nephew of late Rio Diaz, added that his project is his own initiative in helping the country solve the housing problem as part of their family's vision to continue the legacy of the late Rio Diaz.
(February 3, 2005 issue)
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