21 Jul 2015

Botswana Institute for Technology Research and Innovation (BITRI) has launched Kgalagadi sand building block (KSBB).

KSBB is a brick predominantly made of Kgalagadi sand with a blend mixture of flying ash, a by-product of coal and ordinary portland cement.

BITRI board chairperson, Professor Otlogetswe Totolo said, during an open day function, that BITRI had remained mindful of its mandate and obligations to the nation by rolling out technology solutions for Batswana to improve their lives.

Professor Totolo defined the event as providing an opportunity for small and medium enterprises to get involved and ensure that projects such as KSBB were put to use in the market.

He stated that the importance played by construction sector in Botswana, “takes only a short trip down memory lane for us to recognise how far we have come as a nation in terms of the built environment.”   

He said those in the business of innovating the sector by using new materials and technologies were increasingly needed to improve the sector. That, he added, would help with creating new ways of doing things further to develop the industry.

Professor Totolo said the rollout of the KSBB technology required a multi-faceted approach such as engagement of different stakeholders who could bring significant contribution to improve the construction industry.

He stressed the importance of embracing the contribution made by science, stating that advances in science were improving human conditions. Developing countries like Botswana, he said, must embrace the developments because they could contribute to economic diversification and sustainability.

Permanent secretary in the Ministry of Infrastructure, Science and Technology, Mr Dikagiso Mokotedi, said the construction industry was one of the main engines of economic growth.

Construction provided infrastructure required by other sectors of the economy to flourish and also provided a basic human need; housing.

Mr Mokotedi said the construction industry was instrumental in providing national communications network.

He also described the industry as part of the prospective unemployment solutions, as it provided significant employment opportunities at non-skilled and skilled levels.

Mr Mokotedi pointed out that “unlike other countries, it will be modest to say that Botswana received next to no infrastructure from its colonial masters and the country had to start from scratch.

For 20 years, he said, the industry had been contributing to Botswana’s economy and over the past five years there had been signs of decline in performance on several levels. He said sectors’ contribution to GDP declined to 5.2 per cent in 2000 and 4.7 per cent in 2009.

However, he said, it showed signs of recovery in 2012, contributing to GDP with estimates of 6.7 per cent and the sector had since employed 6.1 per cent of the national total labour force.

“The industry is besieged by a number of problems whose symptoms have surfaced in different forms” such as late delivery of projects, cost escalations and increased perception of increased corruption procurement process, he said.

With such pitfalls faced by the industry, he said, there was need for transformation, and the enactment of enabling legal instruments to self-regulatory. He described such efforts as fundamental to the growth of the construction industry.

“The industry needs innovation and this is why the opportunity to share the KSBB technology with public and private sectors is important” he said. Ends