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Video: Cuba builds eco-homes for hurricane victims
photo by Sheep"R"Us (source: Flickr Creative Commons)
Cuba is using local, low cost, eco-friendly materials to rebuild houses for many who lost their homes due to hurricanes.
In 2008 three hurricanes successively tore through Cuba, causing an estimated $10 billion in damages. Many Cubans were left homeless by the severe storms.
Cuba’s CIDEM research and development institute found an innovative solution for rebuilding sturdier homes for hurricane victims using locally sourced, inexpensive ‘eco materials’. CIDEM works with the Cuban government and receives the majority of its funding from Switzerland and Canada. Construction is low-cost, low-tech and labor intensive – ideal for poor countries with a high level of unemployment.
CIDEM operates in 18 Latin American countries as well as in Africa and Asia.
From a CNN Eco Solutions report:
In a context where energy is very expensive… and where resources are expensive and the environment is being destroyed, you have to look for local solutions.
–CIDEM director Fernando Martirena.
Check out the accompanying video report from CNN Eco Solutions below.
by Graham Land
Additional resources:
World Habitat Awards (2007) Ecomaterials in Social Housing Projects
Tags: CNN, Cuba, ECO, homes, houses, hurricane, victims, video
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