Illac Diaz Was in Davao to Promote Sustainable Solutions and Alternative Construction

THE MyShelter Foundation founder Illac Diaz was in Davao Tuesday to promote sustainable solutions and alternative construction as an answer to poverty and calamity devastations. Using the minimax strategy -- minimum resources with maximum gain, Diaz, during a seminar sponsored by the Davao City Chamber of Commerce and Industry Inc. (DCCCII), asked, "Why do we have to look for expensive construction materials when we can use a middle ground technology that is four to five times stronger?" A social entrepreneur, Diaz added that looking for indigenous sources to build something intermediate can be from recyclable materials like plastic bottle containers. Diaz founded the Pier One Seafarer's Dormitory, an affordable lodging house for Filipino seafarers and overseas contract workers who would previously check in to cheap motels while waiting for their papers to be processed. The dormitory is located in a 2,500-square-meter lot at Corte Real and Solana Streets in Intramuros, Manila. "This is one way of helping the environment and help poor families have decent houses to live in and schools and classrooms to get into to," Diaz added. Plastic bottles filled with liquefied adobe mud are piled up to make a walling system and to stabilize or support it. They use sand or stabilized soil that is cemented as a last process. The classroom that they recently finished constructing was made up of five thousand bottles in San Pablo Laguna. There were a total of 30,000 people who helped in the construction of 10 new classrooms. "I realized that these materials are just thrown away, when there is a lot of potential in recycling and it also helps build the camaraderie among communities," Diaz added. MyShelter also invented the Solar Bottle lights that convert electrical light to free light. They have linked with the Rotary Club in Manila and started providing slum areas with these Solar Bottle lights. "This is simple science. It is called solar refraction, with a plastic bottle filled with water strategically placed on top of a tin roof a 55 watts of light can enter one's house," Diaz said. He said a savings of P250 per month on a household's electric bill has been reported, and that they have provided light to 10,000 households and are planning to reach one million households by 2012. Source: sunstar.com.ph