06 Jun 2013

Hard-times call for desperate measures and as the saying goes “all things around us were once just ideas; the product we see represents decisions taken to transform those ideas into reality.”

Mr Johann Scheffer of Kasane has lived up to this philosophy after desperately working hard to transform one of his ideas into a reality so he could put bread on his table.

Mr Scheffer jumped from one business idea to another until he settled for building houses using empty orange bags, filled with sand and cement. The technique produced a more durable building that could last for decades, according to Mr Scheffer. The technique of making bunkers from sand bags was used as a military strategy during the First World War.

BOPA spotted Mr Scheffer in Kasane’s Plateau township building a high perimeter wall using sand-filled orange bags. The builder said he had modified the technique by using orange bags because they tend to be more durable than the original sand bags.

He said sand was mixed with cement to create a more durable building, adding that orange bags allowed cement to go through and this acted as a mortar between the different layers used in conventional building methods. Mr Scheffer said a solid bricklike boulder was created from the mixture of sand and cement in the orange bags.

He said the technique was simple as it did not require one to go for training, as such it could be done by anyone, adding that the method was cost-effective because bags were not expensive to buy and they could also be freely acquired. He also said any type of soil could be used except black cotton soil (seloko) as it cracked when dry.

Mr Scheffer said it took the foreman he had engaged only 90 seconds to fill up three orange bags. He noted that no time was wasted to add mortar in between layers of bricks because bricks were already wet which also made the shaping and compacting of the bags on the wall part of the building process.

He said the house built using the method was cool during summer and warm during winter.  Mr Scheffer said the method could be used again to build bridges and boundaries.

Mr Scheffer told BOPA that many people in the Chobe area had approached him after he had built a house using his new technology in Mabele. He is waiting for the Chobe District Council to approve his “new found technology” so that it could engage him. ENDS