Our Correspondent
Imphal, Feb. 10 (EMN): Although there is good potential for ‘bamboo application’ in the urban housing sector considering its sustainability and availability in northeast India, the common aspiration of the public for housing in the region, Manipur in particular, is always associated with bricks and cement as construction materials.
This is because of lack of awareness, skill and technologies, availability of commercially viable (bamboo) species besides lack of support from the concerned authorities. This statement was made by N Somorendro, assistant mission director of the state bamboo mission who identified 35 bamboo species out of 54 in Manipur.
“We also need take up large scale plantation of commercially viable species (such as maribob, wanam, khok-wa etc) as bamboos are fastest growing trees,” he opined.
Renu Khosla, director of New Delhi-based Urban and Regional Excellence observed that procuring innovation is harder in the government because there is no model to follow. “Awareness on the comparability of the material is needed among the people. The idea of artisan architecture needs to be raised in the minds of people for change to happen,” she said.
Although housing is an essential element of urbanization it must be focussed towards sustainable and inclusive urban development including ensuring equal opportunities and better living conditions.
With the rise of consumption, India is already facing supply constraints and import dependence of key materials in certain sectors. The demand for resources in the future will be increasingly huge and may eventually lead to worsening of impact on economy, environment, and access to resources, if not addressed in a timely manner.
For instance, under the Housing for all (Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana) scheme, the Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MHUA) is planning to construct 20 million affordable houses by 2022 in the country. In Manipur too, the government has approved construction of 26,348 houses so far (out of estimated demand of 46,360 houses) for 24 towns out of 27 through Ministry of housing and urban affairs. This will give a lot of pressure on the land and environment.
Interestingly, the state government has no particular instruction or building construction criteria or rules and regulations to be followed by urban beneficiaries when procuring specific housing materials to build houses.
“We have no specific rules for the housing building materials in this scheme. It depends on the concerned beneficiaries in the urban areas-whether they like to construct their houses with locally available resources or not,” said N Gitkumar, director of Municipal Administration, Housing and Urban Development, and the chief town planner of the state.
On the other hand, the MHUA had emphasised the initiatives taken by the central government towards achieving sustainable development goals and alignment to the new urban agenda which outlines principles or implementation along its five main pillars: national urban policies, urban legislation and regulations, urban planning and design, local economy and municipal finance and local implementation.
Stating that bamboo-based construction has an important role to play in this endeavour, especially in the north east, the Vice President Zeenat Niazi of Development Alternatives (DA) when contacted opined that the construction sector needs to reduce its energy and resource footprint, so as to contribute to the Country’s climate mitigation targets and direct the economic development towards sustainability.
DA is the world’s first social enterprise dedicated to sustainable development, to deliver socially equitable, environmentally and economically scalable development outcome.
She also opined that the character of a north eastern town/city needs to respond to the geography, climate and local resource availability. It also needs to respond to possibility of building products and services that can be produced and delivered locally so as to reduce transportation costs, give a boost to local livelihoods and economies.
The focus would have to be on small scale rural / peri-urban industries that utilize Bamboo to produce materials such as roofing shingles, roof trusses, wall panels, floor boards, door-window frames etc. These could be locally supplied to urban and rural housing projects. These will need to be supported through a concerted skill building or rather skill enhancement programme (as Bamboo application skills do exist traditionally).
From the government, investments will be required in research, but more in locally applicable business models and local enterprise development and linking these to public housing programmes as well as promoting these for private construction initiatives also so that there is market development for these products and services, she explained.
