Abstract:
This
paper
assesses the potential of
bamboo building material
s
to
meet East Africa’s
urgent
housing needs
,
with special reference to Ethiopia.
The paper
is based on a one
-
month
field study of Ethiopia
conducted
in early 2011, where
we investigated
local bamboo value
chain
s
and their sustainability through a series of interviews, questionnaires, and site visits with
local bamboo stakeholders.
From the
study
, we
found
that
many rural communities use
bamboo
extensively as a building
material
with
widespread applications in
wall, roof, ceiling, structural
work
and
scaffolding
systems
.
Ethiopia
has a rich diversity of traditional bamboo housing
designs, practice
s and skills.
However,
we also
found that the sustainability of Ethiopian
bamboo architecture is under threat from
modernization,
decreasing availability of bamboo
resources, increased rural populations, and lack of adequate processing skills and modern
d
esigns. Despite these challenges,
our
economic an
alysis
indicates that using bamboo for the
development of tourist lodges
and,
or
,
low
-
income
urban
housing
offer a financially viable
means of developing the bamboo construction sector. T
herefore, t
o ensure
sustainable
development of bamboo
-
based construction
,
we
recommend that
Ethiopian Government, with
assistance from international development agencies, should
1
) continue to integrate bamboo
with local building materials and promote a broader range of
bambo
o construction projects
through its urban and rural housing development programmes, 2
) prepare building codes and
product standards for bamboo housing
and construction products, and 3
)
develop clear
conservation and utilization policies for bamboo resource
s
.
