LCS: Lime Cement Soil – stabilized soil bricks manufacturing

Sanitation and hygiene in public primary schools: A climate change mitigation approach

Project overall objective:

To improve sanitation and hygiene through use of low carbon content soil bricks to construct pit-latrines in 2 public primary schools located in rural areas Machakos County, Kenya.

Initiative objective

Adopt lime-cement-soil (LCS) technology to manufacture interlocking stabilized soil bricks and blocks for the building industry.
Public primary schools located in rural areas in Kenya use common pit latrines (toilets) for both girls and boys as their wash-room facilities. In some cases these wash-room facilities are not available and therefore the nearest bushes are the alternative. In other cases the pit-latrines have filled to their capacity and maggots (the larva of houseflies) are a common feature on the floors. Majority of the children go to school bare-footed and stepping on these maggots is the common practice. Piped water is not available and therefore children do not normally wash their hands after visiting the toilets.
In the baseline scenario firewood is used for the sintering process to manufacture the traditional building bricks. LCS technology does not require thermal energy for brick sintering and therefore eliminates the destruction of the forests; production process is environmentally-friendly as the machine is run from a clean source of energy; uses 5-10% of water when compared to the traditional processes; the carbon content per cubic meter of the constructed wall is lower (80% lower) because less cement is used in the actual construction and interior finishing; the machine operation is gender friendly and therefore creates employment for both men and women; reduces cost of the building materials and construction time thus reduced overall total costs and promotes use of the clean technologies to the rural households.

Technical support

Makiga Engineering

Financial Support

Hand-in-Hand