DEVELOPMENT-CUBA: Hurricane-Proof Roofs

By Patricia Grogg Reprint | | Print |

Patricia Grogg

SANTA CLARA, Cuba, Jan 7 2005 (IPS) - Cuba’s housing deficit, one of the country’s most pressing social problems, is accentuated every year during hurricane season, when thousands of homes are damaged or destroyed. But micro-concrete roofing tiles and blocks made of eco-materials hold out new hope.

“I’m fortunate, I have a house. But until recently, I would lose my roof with every strong wind that came through here,” said Felicia Lezcano, who lives just a few blocks from the sea in Isabela de Sagua, a small fishing village on the northern coast of the central province of Villa Clara, around 300 km from Havana.

Thousands of families living in high-risk areas in Cuba and other countries in the Caribbean and Central America face the same worry every time a major storm comes up.

Some 100,225 housing units in Cuba were damaged last year, including 5,360 that were completely destroyed, by hurricanes Charley and Ivan, which slammed into the western part of this Caribbean island nation.

Local residents in Isabela de Sagua recall that in 2001, Hurricane Michelle hit the village with winds of up to 280 km per hour, destroying dozens of buildings.

But the homes of 21 families, who already had hurricane-resistant roofs made of micro-cement, which consists of sand, conventional cement, water and galvanised wire mesh, were left with their roofs intact. “At least in this sense I feel safe now,” said Lezcano.

Michelle damaged around 176,000 housing units in this country of 11.2 million people, including 13,000 that were totally destroyed, and 2,000 that had to be relocated to safer areas.

The tropical storms that hit Cuba every year aggravate the already chronic housing deficit, estimated at half a million units by the Housing Institute, which lacks the funding to provide solutions.

Authorities and academics also agree that the state of housing units in Cuba makes them even more vulnerable to hurricanes and other storms.

According to official figures, 40 percent of the country’s more than three million housing units are in poor or mediocre condition – a proportion that rises to 50 percent in the country’s eastern provinces.

Experts with the Centre for Research on Structure and Materials (CIDEM), at the Central de las Villas University, say any reconstruction or construction strategy must keep in mind the need to reduce vulnerability to storms.

“The passage of Michelle served as an acid test. Micro-cement roofing tiles and blocks made of environmentally friendly materials have gained in credibility,” the assistant director of CIDEM, José Fernando Martirena, told IPS.

CIDEM’s proposal to combine the manufacturing of alternative building materials with the improvement of housing in regions at high risk from storms has been increasingly applied in Villa Clara and has even extended to the neighbouring province of Matanzas.

Moreover, the project, named “from waste products to houses”, which is based on technologies that have arisen from research carried out by CIDEM, figured last year among the 40 finalists for the United Nations Habitat award.

The eco-materials are produced using local resources and technologies, and are not only environmentally-friendly, but are also affordable, because they bring considerable savings in terms of production costs.

Martirena and other academics at CIDEM believe the manufacturing of these building materials is key to guaranteeing the sustainability of any rebuilding project, because it eliminates reliance on foreign suppliers.

These technologies include CP-40 alternative cement, produced with agroindustrial waste (from the sugar cane industry, for example), which is mixed with ordinary cement to create blocks for building cement block houses.

The savings are considerable. With one ton of cement, the eco-materials workshop produces 1,200 blocks, 50 percent more than could be manufactured in a conventional factory.

Less electricity is also used, and there are savings in transport as well, since the workshops mainly produce the materials to meet demand in the immediate areas where they have been set up.

The key to this kind of project is decentralisation, which foments local development – especially in remote areas – generates jobs, and helps increase income in the local communities, which also participate in the decision-making processes.

“We have demonstrated that within the current Cuban system, without changing the system or the underlying political conceptions, it is possible to decentralise, through the participation of local government bodies and the beneficiaries of the project themselves,” said Martirena.

So far, the rebuilding and restoration projects undertaken by CIDEM in several towns in Villa Clara, which have included the manufacturing of eco-materials in small workshops installed in each specific area, depend on external financing.

The Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (COSUDE), the European Union, and private foundations from Germany are among the main donors of funds for these projects, which have helped to rebuild or repair around 2,000 homes in Villa Clara.

However, such funding flows do not last forever. “We have provided, at the local level, a positive example of what can be done, but the government has to channel these initiatives and assume responsibility for them at a national level,” said Martirena.

CIDEM began its work in Villa Clara after Hurricane Lili swept through in 1996. And when Hurricane Mitch devastated Nicaragua and Honduras in 1998, the agency helped organise projects for relocating the homes of people living in flood-prone zones to safer areas.

Similar projects are being undertaken in 18 countries of Latin America and Africa, where a large part of the equipment used for the manufacturing of eco-materials is exported from Cuba.