CHANDI GHAR (SILVER HOUSE)

Low cost / portable housing made from solid waste converted into building blocks in Karachi

Imagine a one room house costing $125 - $165. The house is pre-fabricated, portable, relatively insulated and is made of solid waste material as building blocks. This is what Nargis Latif of Gul Bahao Trust is doing in Karachi, Pakistan. In the absence of a functioning waste management system for the city of more than 20 million inhabitants, Ms. Latif’s had a role to play.

Started in the year 1994, Ms. Latif wanted to find a solution for the overwhelming waste burned in the residential premises or lying in the streets of Karachi. Doing some research on how waste changes hand and collecting seed money from local philanthropists, she initiated a garbage collection under the banner of Safai / Kamai Bank (aka Garbage Gold Bank) which worked on the model of Essential Encashable Goods, where ordinary citizens deposit garbage and get cash for each category of garbage per kilogram.

The plastic components of garbage are manually compressed together to form a cube shaped block, carrying a pet name by the founder ‘was-tic block’. The other components used in supporting the blocks to form a room include bamboo sticks, aluminum foil, and panaflex sheets. Although the trust has diversified its operations but the major revenue earning source of the trust is from the was-tic blocks and garbage collection points. As per self-reported figures, the trust had a turnover of $ 0.5 million (time frame is not clear) and 70% of the turnover was from the commercial activities of the trust.

In the largest city of Pakistan, Gul Bahao Trust is doing a commendable job in terms of adding economic value in a space where most have not intervene. At the same time, I personally think that the gradual evaluation of the functioning of Gul Bahao Trust have not improved significantly. There seems to be very marginal difference in the structure / condition of the pre-fabricated houses made in the mid-1990s and the ones which have been erected recently. Although the organization seems to be sustainable in its commercial operations but it seems to be attracting venture capitalists to fund the research activities. Another observation is that the trust should be transparent in reporting its audited financial statements to the general public.

The trust has done a remarkable job so far but there is significant room to improve the core activity of the prefabricated houses. In my suggestion, the trust should focus more on its core function by creating a series of prefab houses and less on the horizontal diversification.

Some pictures of the products / activities of the Gul Bahao Trust are pasted below.

PICTURE 2: A view of the prefab house from the inside:

PICTURE 3: A general exhibit of operations under Gul Bahao. (The translation in English is not that good so anyone interested in knowing any part can contact me for a better explanation).

References: http://gulbahao.org/category/about-us - Accessed on 13th & 14th  September, 2015