Bamtech

Bamboo is rightly called the green gold as it qualifies under many of the categories listed for green building materials. Globally, there is a resurgence of interest in Bamboo in this age of information revolution and environmental consciousness. Bamboo is being currently looked upon as an alternate low cost material for the enormous housing problem faced by several developing countries. Bamboo is has always been popular as a building material, especially in house-building and is now widely regarded as the super material of the 21st century. It is one of the fastest growing and highest yielding renewable natural resource making it a good substitute to wood in mitigating pressure on natural forests. Bamboo is a family of grass; it matures in as little as 4 to 6 years much faster than hardwood trees which can take 20 years and above to reach maturity. It sends out new shoots after each harvest and has unrivalled capacity to capture carbon.

Its usage needs to be promoted – leveraging this super material as a sustainable solution to sanitation challenges in areas that still do not have access to proper toilets will not only help in ‘Clean India Mission’ but also help the cause of leveraging bamboo as an economic tool to drive socio economic development of India, which incidentally also has the second largest bamboo reserves in the world. Bamboo walls & partitions panels, bamboo floors and corrugated bamboo roofing sheets, including Bamboo toilet seats can all be part of such toilets. Bamboo indeed has tremendous potential not only to transform India’s rural economy, but also to contribute to the sustainable development efforts.

Supported by BMTPC the South Asia Bamboo Foundation (SABF) has conducted International and Regional training programs on Building with Bamboo and construction of Bamboo Toilets for community and public in many parts of India to enhance local capacity and skills.