Cheap housing ideas

True as what Than Win and some of us already foreseen, the numbers of refugees lining the delta roads looking for donations and free food are increasing and getting more unmanageable - the uncordinated donations are becoming a big problem.

Some of us are also thinking ahead of the situation even if our resources to help are limited, nevertheless the local people have practical ideas which should be explored and shared by all concerned parties. I saw a big Singaporean based company Yoma is working together with the Singapore Red Cross in a big way and taking care of Haingyi island, a place in the West Delta where the cyclone came ashore and where we had intended to help in our small way.

Than Win was already working out a design for making cheap version of the local huts using material available locally. During our visit to the delta, we visited and saw the simple bamboo structure which I noted were most suitable for the local environment, its design withstood the test of time over hundreds of years, being the most practical and comfortable way of housing for the delta people. So it is no wonder no one like to stay in tent.

I still wonder why the foreign aid agencies are sending mosquito nets - is it really practical? Why water purification when its the Monsoon season and rain water are readily available? There was also no disease outbreak even as we could see after the first few days? Am I missing something or the outside media are hyping this cyclone for their own purpose and agenda? or just ignorance?

I have yet to see any outside media objectively reporting what has been done by the regime. I think they are more interested in playing to the gallery, asking clever trick questions to put the regime in a bad light. No wonder the "clumsy" regime is clamming up. This again, of course play into the outside media hand. Sad that we are still unable to communicate properly. We shoiuld all be paying more attention to co-operating with one and all, including the regime to help the cyclone victims as everyone is claiming they wanted to do.

Today, as I go through the internet, the Moe Gyo blog came up with some similiar practical way of helping and sharing ideas of the type of huts they plan to build .....

We call such huts 3x2 and 1-attached. Meaning there're six small rooms in a hut (with an attachment). One room is big enough to comfortably house 2 persons. A hut can house 12 people. Building five huts cost about 1,000,000 kyats ($850). A hut costs 200,000 kyats ($170) and one person's cost will be about 20,000 kyats ($17). These are actually really affordable housing.These are more necessary now than big permanent houses (taking months to build) for them. The villagers can build the huts themselves. We provide the meals while they are building. By having them take part in building these huts, they also get a sense of contribution and understand that not everything can be given to them as gifts. After such huts are built, we will work together with other related NGOs to arrange sanitation and water.