Jamie Kyles, ICO Project Lead, travelled to NW Tanzania and the village of Nyamuhunga in September 2019.
Project planning meetings were held with Salvatory Kahwa, the on-site project manager. Salvatory is a teacher at the Kagondo trade school operated by the Kolping Society of Tanzania. His specialty is construction techniques so he is well-placed to manage this initiative which will introduce an entirely new earthquake resistant construction technique to east Africa.
The HI CSEB (hollow interlocking compressed stabilized earth block) construction method is well-established in other parts of the world (Nepal, India, Sri Lanka, Iran).
During 2019 we have confirmed soil suitability for CSEB manufacture through lab work with Tanroads, the highways department of the government of Tanzania.
We have also purchased the block-manufacturing equipment from the manufacturer in India. We expect to receive the equipment in late Q1 2020 and to proceed with construction of the first earthquake resistant house in Q3,4.
