Projects

Zimbabwe Standard

‘The Zimbabwe Standard Code of Practice for Rammed Earth Structures’ was begun shortly after the publishing of the ‘Code of Practice’ in 1996. We initiated the request to the Standards Association of Zimbabwe [SAZ] and were seconded by the newly formed Scientific and Industrial Research and Development Council [SIRDC]. The process was lengthy, involving a committee drawn from academia and industry meeting to appraise the text of the Code, a shortened version of our original, line by line.

The Standard follows all but the Earthquake section heads, seismicity is not regarded as a high risk in Zimbabwe. It also notes other SAZ publications to which the text refers. In this way an otherwise fairly inflexible planning structure in Zimbabwe has had a ‘new’ material adopted by one of the most competent professional bodies in the country. This is important, if governments will not move to change out dated planning restrictions on materials it must be done in other ways. The new Code was published in 2001.