Harare (New Ziana) – The Zimbabwe government on Tuesday approved a Memorandum of Understanding between the Ministry of National Housing and Social Amenities and its Egyptian counterpart on new building technologies.
Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services Minister, Dr Jenfan Muswere said this while briefing the media after the weekly cabinet meeting on Tuesday.
He said the MOU between the local Ministry and that of Housing, Utilities and Urban Communities of Egypt got the Cabinet nod after a presentation by Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Minister, Ziyambi Ziyambi in his capacity as chairperson of the Cabinet Committee on Legislation.
“The MoU is on cooperation in the field of affordable housing and new building technologies for sustainable development,” he said.
“This entails providing for low-cost housing and the provision of social amenities within the framework of a Joint Commission of both governments, under the bilateral cooperation framework between Zimbabwe and Egypt.”
National Housing and Social Amenities Minister Daniel Garwe said the MoU is meant to allow the two countries to share knowledge and experience in the delivery of affordable and sustainable housing with Egypt having advanced technologies in housing delivery using local materials such as steel.
These technologies would help the countries tackle climate change issues arising from current traditional construction methods using cement, brick and mortar which contribute 37 percent of carbon emissions.
“There is now a conscious decision to migrate from the use of traditional methods to new technologies in housing delivery. If anything, the benefits are many, a standard house of three bedrooms will probably take six months to build while a similar house using new technology will take maybe a month,” said Garwe.
“Those are benefits of using new technology, the other benefit is cost, and you cut cost by almost 50 percent.”
He said all these applications were being undertaken using local materials and Zimbabwe looked forward to ride on the advantages of using steel considering the country will in about two months become one of the largest producers of steel in Africa.
Instead of construction sites being dominated by concrete frames, Garwe said Zimbabwe was planning to migrate to the use of steel which had the advantage of speed and hoped to also tap into Egypt’s knowledge and experience in urban renewal.
New Ziana
