News - 9. page

First prize of the Rockefeller Foundation for solving the problem of  rain harvesting in Kerala.

Problem:

• To build a tank of at least 6 m3 capacity for rain harvesting during the Monsoon, that costs less than 120 US$ and does not need machinery for the transport and erection. Furthermore, it must be mounted on weak consistency ground, with underground water that comes up during the Monsoon.
• To create job places for low income inhabitants, specially for women.
• Use only local materials.

Our solution:

A 8 m3 capacity tank designed to be easily erected by two women by assembling locally made vegetable fibre-cement panels.  Our design reduces the erection time to only 2 days and the cost of 120 US$ to the final customer leaves a margin of 30 US$ for the workers. The carbon emissions  calculated for the whole process of fabrication are null.