Projects

SADC Process

Following the adoption of the Zimbabwe ‘Rammed Earth Code of Practice’ in 2001 we have continued to pursue the Standardisation and Codification agenda in the southern African region. With the help of the Standards Association of Zimbabwe, a long standing NGO, the SADCSTANExCo(Executive Committee) were approached with a request to harmonize the Zimbabwe Standard. This was agreed to and we were invited to present to the SADCSTAN AGM in Antananarivo, Madagascar.
Recently the SADC Standards procedures have changed to allow all technical Standards to take immediate force in law on harmonization. Thus when the process is complete, in mid 2008, 14 countries from Tanzania in the north to South Africa in the south will have a Standard covering rammed earth technology. This is significant because for all these countries cement is currently the monopoly material, meaning that for millions of urban dwellers the stark choice is to use cement and build ‘to code’, or not and risk being bulldozed as an illegal structure. Since cement is economically out of reach of a high proportion of the populations of the 14 countries they have been left in construction limbo for many decades.