Garbage houses in Nigeria: how the government of an African country solves environmental and housing issues (7 photos)

Currently, the issue of housing and its availability is very acute. stands all over the world. The population of people is growing, the construction industry just can't keep up with us.





And given the constantly progressing process of urbanization, when people move to cities from villages and villages, the proverb about "not rubber" is becoming more and more relevant. Each country decides housing problem in its own way. Some states are not in a hurry at all to decide, but this is a topic for another article.

I want to tell you about the amazing experience of creating houses from practically improvised materials, which is now actively used government of Nigeria.



I wonder if it is possible for us to apply such technology at least partially? But first things first.

Nigerian builders surprised the world with their ingenuity. They They came up with the idea of building high-quality cheap dwellings from dirt and garbage. And literally.

Thus, in an African country, two problems: the poor will receive long-awaited housing, which is also as environmentally friendly as possible, and nature is cleaned of non-decomposing waste. This is literally an attempt to kill two birds with one stone.





As you know, plastic does not decompose in the ground for hundreds of years. years. This is a big problem since in Nigeria on a daily basis more than 130 million plastic bottles are thrown away. It's perfect an incredible figure for a relatively poor country where recycling plastic (like any other waste) costs the state extremely expensive.

It is estimated that the construction of one round dwelling goes up to 14,000 units. This means that almost 10,000 Nigerians families with the assistance of the non-profit organization NGO Africa Community Trust could potentially get housing. Yes, housing is frankly atypical and contradictory, but their own. And it may seem to us that we should rejoice at such it’s just impossible - you are frankly relocated to a landfill, but for hundreds of thousands Nigerians, even such housing is a blessing.



The stages of building new residential areas are simple. Plastic bottles of the same volume are filled with dry sand. Unusual building materials stacked on top of each other and fastened clay and cement mortar. This results in strong walls that do not afraid of neither fire, nor earthquakes, nor bullets. No worse than cinder blocks.

At the same time, bottle caps are visible during construction, which may be intimidating at first. But at the stage of finishing work, the "walls" once again smeared with a building mixture, thereby giving the houses completely the look we are used to.



Designers say that budget houses made of plastic and sand can include up to three floors. It is planned to equip every dwelling built with a solar battery. Fortunately, the climate in Nigeria allows you to use the energy of the sun all year round.



The only question is how comfortable it is to live in such houses. Still, sand is a material that heats up quickly and also cools down quickly. Therefore, in the conditions, for example, of our country, to live in such a house would hardly be comfortable. But the creators of the project say that all this is taken into account, and the houses are quite comfortable for living.



Well, I want to believe it. And how gracefully the government came out of the situation, too, pleasantly surprised. And the ecology helped, and thousands gave the man a roof over his head. And most importantly - almost spent on it mere pennies. After all, most people at construction sites are volunteers and the same people in need. All in all, an interesting experience.