In a remarkable achievement, students from the University of Karachi (KU) have designed a model for lightweight houses that can survive floods in the future.
According to the details, the Architecture students at the university’s Department of Visual Studies presented the economical, environmentally friendly, and mobile design of houses that can be utilized in flood-affected regions and particularly in villages.
The houses will be made from bamboo frames joined together to form walls. Interestingly, the bamboo walls are adjustable and detachable, hence they can be removed and converted into a floating boat.
Read more: Pakistan floods were aggravated by climate change
Most importantly, since the houses will be made from materials like bamboo, mat, mud, reusable plastic bottles and tires, etc. they can reportedly be built at a cost of Rs. 50,000 to 100,000.
Pakistan’s flood crisis
The unique model of flood-resilient houses comes at a time when Pakistan faced the worst floods in over a decade. The recent bout of floods has displaced over 30 million people and caused massive infrastructural damage in many districts of Sindh, Balochistan, KPK, and Punjab.
One-third of the land in Pakistan is inundated one-third of the land, inflicting massive devastation to human lives, infrastructure, livestock, and crops.
Harrowing videos of houses getting swept away by the floods made the rounds on social media. As a result, millions are currently homeless in Pakistan. Only 4,000 have been provided with temporary tents to live in, which are not even safe, and the surrounding environment and water are unhealthy.
Hard to comprehend the scale of the flood disaster in Pakistan, the 5th most populated nation in the world.
Nearly 1400 dead, 1 million houses were damaged or destroyed, and 50,000,000 people were displaced.
1/3 of the country is underwater.pic.twitter.com/nJkg5UAjGK 02— Tomthunkit™ (@TomthunkitsMind) September 22, 2022
Even more alarming is the fact that Pakistan has to face the effects of natural disasters due to global warming in the future. Therefore, the country needs to be prepared for many more floods in the next 30-50 years.
With flood-resilient houses, a lot of the problems which Pakistan recently faced can be averted, for instance, the collapsable walls which can be used as boats can save people from drowning and transport them to drier lands. Moreover, the light materials used in the building of the house can protect people from getting hurt. Heavy debris from stone structures can be extremely dangerous.
Read more: Flood relief package from the international lender