“Cyclone Pam hit Port Vila as a category 5 cyclone in March 2015. Many water tanks were destroyed, pierced by debris, and houses lost. For the first two weeks the only clean water available on half road Erakor was coming from the earthbag tanks [at the earthbag Women’s Center.] Suddenly everyone understood what the women had been trying to do.
Lesieli Joseph is the president and founder of the Ernas women’s centre Port Vila, Vanuatu. Lesieli has built 40 earthbag tanks since cyclone Pam and has started women’s groups in seven islands. An earthbag water tank in the islands costs $600 to build including materials and labour. Although it is one third of the price of a manufactured one, the price is still prohibitive for many families.
Lesieli has now started her own not-for-profit building business called Vanuatu Earthbag Building. You can check them out on Facebook.”
***It’s only a matter of time before large NGOs adopt this technology and run with it.
This is awesome. I love seeing earthbags being used to solve such important issues.
These are a great beginner’s project. It’s easy to build a water tank in a few days. Everyone gets to practice each step of construction and you end up with something everyone needs and appreciates. The women’s center was overwhelming for the volunteers in my opinion and it was difficult to get it finished. So now I’m recommending people start with small projects.
I’m very happy to see that this group has continued building earthbag water tanks. This is very encouraging. Now that the concept is well proven and documented, it could spread far and wide across the Pacific Island (and beyond) where millions of people struggle with lack of water.
wow! awesome!
I trained several builders in Vanuatu and showed them in detail how to make a good living as a contractor building these water tanks. I wonder what happened to them.