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Bayamo - site of EcoMaterials Conference IV |
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 Bayamo, capital city of Granma, one of the country´s fourteen provinces, is located in the eastern part of the Republic of Cuba, the zone most related to the independence movement as well as the revolutionary struggle. Also known as the “La Ciudad Antorcha” (City of Torches) as it burned on two occasiones, San Salvador de Bayamo is the second villa in Cuba, founded November 5, 1513 by Diego Velázquez. The favorable navegation conditions of the Rio Bayamo that passes through the city, allowed the villa to flourish rapidly, along with Santiago de Cuba, which was capital of the colony at that time.
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CIDEM nominated for the “Energy Globe Award” |
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 “EcoMaterials in Social Housing projects” is the title of the presentation by CIDEM, leading member of the EcoSouth network. The award ceremony takes place in Prague (Czech Republic) on April 14 as part of the meeting of the Ministers of Environment of the European Union.
The finalists were chosen from more than 800 projects on a globals scale... and the direct competitors for CIDEM are a project in Chile and another in Switzerland. Fernando Martirena will attend the ceremony in his function as principal author of the project and director of CIDEM and hopefully be the winner of the award.
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Ferrocement for quick actions after a disaster |
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 In this third contribution in our series discussing Different experiences in reconstruction projects, the EcoSur E-magazine documents a project proposal for rapid action after a disaster.
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Sanitation without water becomes mainstream |
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 The Clay House Project in Namibia has developed a dry-toilet that is gaining wide acceptance among users and Experts alike. The Town of Otjiwarongo is planning to build thousands of “Otji toilets” in the next few years. A group of experts to the European Union recommends the use of dry toilets to resolve sanitation problems of rural and semi-urban Namibia.
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Cuba: rapid recuperation after the disaster |
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 Fifteen days after hurricane Ike, almost anywhere in Cuba one feels the enormous effort to reestablish normality. Almost half a million houses were damaged and more than 100’000 collapsed totally. Everywhere one can see people repairing roofs and placing fibrocement elements (similar in shape to asbestos-cement).
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Little technological innovations improve the lives of brick burners |
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 The workday of Cristobal Flores used to start at 3 o´clock in the morning. In the cold of the early morning, at 2800 m over the sea level, Cristobal mixed the earth deposited in his back yard with sawdust, soaked the mixture and started to trample it to grind and homogenize it, with his bull “Martin”. Four hours later, the mixture was ready to mould and be converted into raw bricks.
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New ideas for new constructions! |
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 At this time we lance
the Project competition for 2009. And, our memory takes us back to
the third international EcoMaterials conference in 2005, when the
EcoSur Network organized a competition of projects in two categories.
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In this forth contribution in our series discussing different experiences in reconstruction projects, the EcoSur E-magazine documents a Peruvian project aimed at setting the base for earthquake resistant constructions with adobe. It concentrates on the task to build permanent shelter, respecting the local culture and providing education on how to build safe, but affordable houses. It uses the traditional adobe technology which was the standard for a good and solid house until some decades ago. However, in recent times clay based constructions came under much criticism and the propaganda machinery of the cement and steel producers and traders have influenced the popular perception. Today adobe construction is viewed as unsafe and antiquated by most people.
Providing a cozy and functional venue for the EcoMateriales Conferences has been one of the highlights of the past editions.
Humor about the ecological problems that endanger our planet should be black humor…one of the outstanding lines from the well known Cuban humorist Alfredo Martirena. For more than 10 years he has illustrated the publications of the EcoSur network and of allied organizations. He manages to give form to his profound concerns about what happens, but at the same time crops up his love of childhood and his hopes that the new generations can change the fatal path. In this edition we are pleased to present some of Martirena’s drawings on the theme of ecology...
