¶  Ferro-cement Maasai Housing

The Maasai people of Kenya are traditionally nomadic. So their house construction was for temporary purposes, using wood and sticks plastered with mud and cow dung.

The Maasai's nomadic lifestyle has been changing as land use restrictions and other social changes have increasingly caused them to settle in one place. Traditional houses are unsuitable for long habitation - forever needing to be repaired and having no light, ventilation or water collection.

Working with ITDGPractical Action, Maasai women have developed new house designs, based on the traditional design which is important for their cultural and functional needs, but improving it through the sue of appropriate technology.

Foremost of these technologies was ferro-cement: a weather-proof cement skin reinforced with chicken wire and earth that can be formed to make walls, roofs and water collection jars.

Housing built using this technology and utilising locally available materials is not only cheaper to build than other permanent alternatives (like stone) but also provides a number of important benefits.

Improved ventilation and increased cooking space reduces accidents and respiratory diseases caused by breathing in smoke, while rainwater collection tanks and a reduced need for maintenance provides more time for income generating activities like vegetable growing or selling 'Shuka', the traditional red cloth worn by Maasai women.

(Source :http://practicalaction.org/?id=maasai_ferrocement)