Storyline
A cheap, eco-friendly flooring system is helping to improve health and bring down construction costs in Uganda. The clay-based earthen floors use local earth instead of cement, helping to reduce carbon emissions, and when replacing traditional mud floors, help reduce dust as well as disease-causing pests.
The Ugandan company racing to install it is EarthEnable, which specializes in this sustainable, affordable system. The flooring is a better option than more rudimentary materials used by those living in poverty, which tend to attract a lot of dust and pests that can damage health.
“In the villages, people use cow dung to maybe take away the dust, but within the shortest time, like in two days, you see that the dust has come. And basically, this floor will help that person come out of the dust,” explains Alex Wanda, a construction officer at EarthEnable.
The raw components are easily available, even here in Jinja, which is 130 kilometers from the capital Kampala. All they need to do is dig the murram, which makes up the majority of the flooring and is right there. It’s mixed with sand and water and then compacted. Then it’s left to dry out for two weeks before more material is applied, and it’s topped off with a sealant made from clay and varnish.
It is cheaper and responsible for far fewer carbon emissions than cement flooring.
“For the cement floor, it is expensive. Why? The client will have to buy cement, will have to buy the gravel, will also have to buy sand and in big quantities, and all that is money, vis-a-vis earthen floor. For us, we need only murram, and you find out that the client doesn’t feel like maybe you are oppressing him. It’s very easy. He directs you where the murram is, you dig it and bring it to the site, and you start construction,” says Wanda.
EarthEnable says their flooring system is also more hygienic—it’s easier to keep homes clean and pests out.
This article and video were provided by The Associated Press.
Script
[Masons mixing earthen material for flooring]
[Liquid pouring from cup]
[Masons making floor using earthen material]
Alex Wanda (interview): “In the villages, people use cow dung to maybe take away the dust, but within the shortest time like in two days you see that the dust has come. And basically this floor will help that person come out of the dust.”
[Homestead in Jinja]
[Construction workers collecting murram for flooring]
[Construction worker preparing floor]
[Worker compacting murram floor]
[Construction worker treating murram floor]
Alex Wanda (interview): “For the cement floor, it is expensive. Why? The client will have to buy cement, will have to buy the gravel, will also have to buy sand and in big quantities, and all that is money, vis-a-vis earthen floor. For us, we need only murram and you find out that the client doesn’t feel like maybe you are oppressing him. It’s very easy. He directs you where the murram is, you dig it and bring it to the site and you start construction.”
[EarthEnable staff mixing the flooring material]
[Exterior of EarthEnable offices]
Noeline Mutesi (interview): “Currently our communities, those that we are serving, have been facing issues that are a result of the dust that comes from the mud floors and the mud plasters. Such diseases has been like flu, malaria where by mosquitoes hide in those dusty places. We have also had incidences of jiggers, the lice, and all those other insects that bites people’s bodies, and also the bedbugs. But once we install for people these floors that are decent, without the dust, we get to get rid of all of these.”
[Exterior of EarthEnable offices]
This script was provided by The Associated Press.
