Bamboo in 21st Century - For Safe and Affordable Housing

(In the Context of Gorkha Earthquake in Nepal)

Presented by: Amar Raj Mishra Senior Advisor

Nighbourhood Society Service Center, Nepal

Bamboo in Nepal • Available in natural forest and private lands; • 12 genera and more than 52 species of bamboo occur in Nepal; • Total coverage of bamboo area is approximately 63,000 hectares; • 60% of this lies in the natural (government) forest; • Available in Terai (plain lands) to the high mountains with an

altitudinal ranges of 50 meters to 4000 meters; • Eastern part of Nepal has more varieties of bamboos compared to

western part; • Most of the bamboo species of Nepal have Pachymorph type

rhizomes ; • Estimated annual production of bamboo culms in Nepal is about

3.01 million.

Cultural and Socio-economic Attachment

• Widely used for multi purposes since ancient time; • A viable source of livelihood for many persons and families in

rural area; • Essential for ritual functions like marriage, funeral and many

other religious activities and celebrations; • One of the common sources of income in rural households; • commonly used for fencing, construction of animals’ sheds,

farm sheds and small family houses, scaffoldings, vegetable, feeding animals ; and fire wood;

• Used as raw materials for production of traditional items for household use like Doko, Dalo, Kokro, Mandro, Nanglo, Bhakari, Thumse, Chharti, Syakhu, Khotha etc.;

• In recent years it is also use for production of commercial and exportable items i.e. handicrafts, decorative items and furniture.

Demand of Safe and Affordable

Housing in Nepal • Estimated demand of new houses are 40,300 every year, half of these

demands is in Kathmandu valley; • Nepal having the highest urbanization rate 3.79% among the SAARC

countries, will have more demand in future; • The number of residential houses completely damaged by Gorkha

Earthquake and its aftershocks in 2015 are 602,257 and partially damaged houses are 285,099

• The Government of Nepal had hosted one-day International Conference on Nepal’s Reconstruction that aimed to bring neighboring countries and development partners together in a spirit of solidarity and partnership for the reconstruction of the damaged infrastructures caused by the April/May 2015 earthquakes.

• The mass reconstruction of those infrastructures is about to start; • Priority has been given on the construction of damaged residential

houses in year one and two.

History of Bamboo Housing in Nepal

• History of bamboo housing in Nepal has been linked to ancient time; • Bamboo mixed with wood and other materials like adobe, stone has

been use in constructing many houses to build as high as four stories; • Around 35% of the houses constructed in eastern part of Nepal some

twenty to thirty years ago were made out the bamboo, wood and mud;

• Habitat for Humanity International (HFHI) introduced modern bamboo housing in Nepal in 2005;

• A Nepalese NGO, RES Nepal, who is also involved in promotion of Bamboo houses, had constructed 18 houses under the Bamboo Eco-housing Project in Kanchanpur district of the Western Terai region in Nepal;

• Commercialization of Bamboo Housing: A company like Himalaya Bamboo is involved in construction of bamboo houses commercially since last 13 years, has built more than 35 different designs of bamboo houses ;

• Research, design and construction : Organizations such as Abari and Uttra have been involved in designing and promoting affordable bamboo houses in Nepal since long time.

Earthquake Resistance Architecture-

A New Imitative in Nepal • Nepal's Institute of Engineering's Center for Disaster

Studies has developed a retrofitting technology for rural houses in Nepal;

• This technology would make each house earthquake resistant for a direct cost of USD 20-30;

• This technology creates a one-meter square grid of punched holes in the stone wall, which is then covered with a 10 cm mesh of bamboo on the inside and outside. ;

• This net is secured to the wall by means of 12-gauge gabion wire, which is inserted through the holes and fastened strongly.;

• It is covered with a stucco of mud, which is used in rural areas in order to ensure longer life for the bamboo mesh.;

• This technology has been developed by the center in collaboration with the Civil Engineering Students' Society, Action Aid Nepal, the Lutheran Federation, and Oxfam-GB Nepal;

• The direct cost is only of the gabion wire, because bamboo and mud are available locally.;

• The technology is also very simple and can be used by villagers.

Advantages and Disadvantages of

Bamboo Housing Advantages:

• Bamboo houses are environment friendly, relatively cheap and affordable. • Its quality to resist earthquake pressure is very good. • People prefer bamboo houses in rural areas to avoid both heat and cold where no

electricification; • It requires minimum technology; are based on existing local technology, doesn't demand

high-tech for construction; • The construction period of bamboo house takes two to three months, extremely shorter

than concrete, brick/stone masonry house; • The construction materials are locally available, cheap and processing and production

work consumes less energy compared to other building materials; • With proper treatment bamboo provides service life of up to 50 years; • Durability can be increased with careful choice of bamboo species, preservation, and use

of complementary construction materials and replacement of outdated or deteriorated parts in a regular basis;

• It helps the nations to reduce trade deficit, as raw materials of bamboo houses are almost locally available;

• Bamboo can be used as a substitute of timber, this will help reducing deforestation.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Bamboo Housing (Cont.)

Disadvantages: • The first setback of bamboo housing is perception of general people, the

people in Nepal believe that bamboo is a poor men’s timber and living in a bamboo house is a social shame;

• Because of this sigma people’s perception towards the use of bamboo in construction of houses is limited to a temporary solution;

• Limitation on availability of matured, seasoned and treated bamboo culms for construction of bamboo houses;

• Lack of availability of trained skill manpower in the domestic( local) market for construction of engineered bamboo housing;

• Immature modern engineered bamboo housing industries; • Very limited companies are involved in research, design & construction

of bamboo houses; • Has not been used much because the durability is always an issue.

Government Policy

• Master Plan for the Forestry Sector 1988

accepted Bamboo and Rattan as one of the main NTFP species;

• Beside that there is no any other policy, guideline, regulation and act that includes and addresses Bamboo and Rattan;

• A policy paper for Bamboo and Rattan was drafted by Department of Forest Research and Survey in 2013, since then it is waiting for government approval.

Current Activities on Bamboo Research and Development

• The President Chure Tarai, Madesh Conservation Board had signed a MOU with Kathmandu University that established research and study center for bamboo species under them;

• The University Research & Study Center has planned to plant bamboo species on selected river corridors of Chure region as a piloting for controlling flood and soil erosion;

• The MOFSC has planned to promote plantation of different type of bamboo species to control possible landslides caused by recent Gorkha earthquake and its aftershocks in 61 districts of Nepal including 14 badly affected districts in the fiscal year 2015-16.

Anticipated Challenges • The overall assessment of bamboo business in the country is vulnerable; • Traditional products like Dalo, Bhakari, Mandro, Thumse etc are

gradually replaces by metal and plastic products; • Craftsmanship of these products is slowly eliminating trend and new

generation are less interest to continue their traditional business as they think market is shrinking and profit is low;

• In many cases; to receive the required number of applications for such training courses is big challenge to the organiser;

• The availability of bamboo culms in the forest lands is in decreasing trend as there is no such policy and integrated programme at national level for conservation, development and sustainable use of bamboo resources;

• The bamboo culms are over and unscientifically harvested in natural forests;

• The bamboo business in Nepal is almost limited to supply of bamboo culms for scaffoldings.

SWOT

Strength • The Government has decided that

the reconstruction of damaged houses in both urban and rural areas will be earthquake resistance at a minimum requirement;

• People are looking for safe housing within the affordable budget.

Weakness • The main challenge for promoting

bamboo houses is negative perception and belief of general public i.e. durability of bamboo houses and question of social status;

• Lack of availability of trained skill manpower in the domestic( local) market for construction of engineered bamboo housing.

Opportunities • The current situation developed by

Gorkha Earthquakes and the annual housing demand in the country indicate that the opportunity and market of bamboo housing is immense;

• The reconstruction of earthquake damaged houses are about to start.

Threats • The policy vacuum on promotion of

bamboo in government land. • Uncertainty on regular supply of

bamboo culms from government forest lands (60% bamboo production lies in natural forests).

Conclusion

• Commercialization of bamboo housing industries cannot survive alone;

• Should be linked with integrated program like rural poverty reduction, nature rehabilitation, soil conservation, control of floods and landslides, carbon sequestration, filtration of rain water etc;

• The scope of plantation of bamboo species in private land for commercial purpose has very limited scope;

• The private lands are fragmented into small parcels due to the property division among the family members. Only the degraded and waste land (non arable land) will be available for the use of such purposes;

• The scope of bamboo promotion depends upon the government policy. The mass plantation of bamboo species are feasible on community forests, leasehold forests, government managed forests and river banks. The Chure region has big potential on plantation and development of bamboo species;

Recommendation • The government of Nepal has to introduce a separate policy

for sustainable development and use of bamboo and rattan species;

• People participation in many development programmes in Nepal has given good results and they are sustainable. It should be continued in bamboo sector development;

• In the case of bamboo and rattan people will be attracted if “Right to Use” policy or “Long Term Lease” for the government land including forest land is in place; This could be a causal factor to reduce poverty and sustainable supply of bamboo.

• The priority should be given to the poor and vulnerable families to achieve the national goal of poverty reduction.

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