Waste-to-wealth: Nigerian Government Trains Almajiris
In the quest to save the environment from been go extinct, the Nigerian government and NGO has transformed 100 Almajiris, Drug addicts, to house builders through collected waste plastic bottles for Low-cost Rural Housing project.
The Founder of a Non-governmental organization in Kaduna state, north western Nigeria, Developmental Association for Renewable Energies (DARE), Engineer Yahaya Ahmed, said that his organization in conjunction with the Federal Ministry of Special Duties and Intergovernmental Affairs has trained over 100 Almajiris and other street youths on mainstreaming through collaboration for action to encourage the scavenging of plastic bottles for low-cost rural housing schemes in the country.
According to him, all the 100 students were trained extensively on the latest technology of building design and construction, using plastic bottles for constructing houses that can last for over 500 years, the houses which are fireproof, bulletproof and earthquake resistant as well as eco-friendly.
Yahaya made the statement during the certificate and award winning presentation to the best performing students at the center, which is located in Sabon Yalwa village, along the Kaduna–Zaria Expressway.
He explained further that, the aim of training them was to build capacity of those youths roaming the streets and ghettos to be self reliant and developing entrepreneural skills in the field of constructing new houses with waste plastic bottles, so as to save the environment against pollution and as well reduces the quantity of waste and garbage being leashed out from communities to marine environment.
He stated, trainees at the center filled the plastic bottles with sand and linked them at the neck by an intricate network of strings to build the house.
Yahaya added , they were trained in various fields of designing and construction using all sorts of plastic bottles to erect solid houses; starting from waste collection by scavengers at the trash dump center to mixing the bottles with local sand and laying the foundation of building a strong house.
“This type of house built with used PET plastic bottles house is one the cheapest and most affordable that everyone can construct without spending so much money because the building materials are available on the streets, river banks, and trash dump centres.
“The trainees spend 3 months of extensive training at the center with other specialists from some part of the world that voluntarily came to educate them and sentitized them on latest plastic bottles designs in order to enable them become professionals in the field of designing and constructing locally made houses that can last for hundreds of years.
“They are now our Ambassadors that can represent us anywhere across the country, because they have been trained and fully certified by the organization that trained them for months,” he explained.
Furthermore, yahaya stated that, they were equally trained on how to make floor and interlocking tiles from pure water sachets and other soft plastic waste from the environment with the aim of embracing new housing construction technology using waste as primary source of raw material.
“They also make blocks from pure water sachets which they sell at affordable prices. The block is stronger than the normal sandcret blocks people buy from building material markets.
Adding “Any house constructed properly with PET plastic bottles is fireproof, bulletproof, earthquake-resistant and can adapt to all kinds of changes in weather patterns during the year”, he stated.
Similarly, Professor Babatunde Bolanji Bernard, who is part of the Federal Government’s delegation from the Federal Ministry of Special Duties and Intergovernmental Affairs which organized the training said, all the youths that participated in the training have now gotten a job to do, and this would help the government reduces the number of unemployment, while making them to be skillful and more important in the society.
He continued, “It is our collective responsibility to see that more Rural and Urban youths are trained in the field of housing construction from waste plastic bottles, so as to save the environment against the human–made disaster which causes flood and other problems related to environemental degradation, which has a negative impact on agricultural land.”
While stressing that, they are planning to train more unemployed youths in this field of building designs in the society, Babatunde then appealed to all the graduate trainees to make proper use of the knowledge learned towards building more beautiful houses that can last for hundreds of years.
One of the beneficiary at the event, Lawal Mukhtar, expressed satisfaction and thanked the organizers for helping them impacting new skills which he said, to will changes their lives for a better future.
Adding that, he is intending to open a new center for training of more almajirai and other youths in the communities, so as to have more building technicians in the society.
He then called on wealthy individuals and Cooperates organizations to support the youths that received the training, in other to enable them train more unemployed youths in their various communities.
Murjanatu Abdullahi
Kaduna VON
