Migori County has embraced a new technology of making concrete blocks for building constructions. The new technology involves mixing murram soil with cement or using murram alone to make concrete blocks using a hydraform machine.
The block maker machine produces between 1200 to 1500 blocks per day with a fuel expense of 5 litres, making the whole process cheaper than going the age-old earth-baked bricks using hot kilns. Jared Opiyo, a businessman in Migori town makes his own concrete blocks for construction of his house and encourages residents to utilize the government owned hydraform block maker machine to conserve the environment.
The businessman said that initially he used to make earth bricks for sale, a task that could take him seven days with a workforce of eight labourers to produce what he is producing in a day using the hydraform block maker machine. He said that digging up the soil, mixing it, making bricks and finally baking the small cubic bricks in hot kilns is a process that may take months to complete. The machine produces blocks that are thrice the size of one earth-baked brick. With a work force of four people, the block maker is capable of producing at least 1,500 blocks a day.
Economically viable
โI used to take three months to produce 3,000 earth bricks. With the block maker machine I am able to produce 3,000 blocks in two days with a workforce of four. Earth brick making process is quite tiresome, uneconomical, and hazardous to human health and is an environmental pollutant,โ stated Opiyo.
Opiyo explained that the process of burning earth bricks requires huge tones of trees, a process that interferes with the existing forest cover that should be conserved for future generations. The businessman also acknowledged that making earth bricks is not economically viable.
โWhen I used to make earth bricks, out of 1000 bricks I could have 200 breakages. Some bricks could not undergo proper burning process reducing another 100 bricks. At the end of the day I could only account for 700 bricks that were ready for the market,โ Opiyo said.
Earth brick making
Earth brick making is a traditional process that Opiyo says anybody can do. The supply is so high making it impossible to sell unless one reduces the costs to Sh7 a brick instead of the initial range of between Sh12 to Sh15.
Those who have engaged in earth brick making have created huge gullies on their farms following the massive excavation of soil for brick making. Opiyo said that this is hazardous to the environment, human and animal life. The gullies left behind on peopleโs farms pose a serious bane to food production besides posing death traps for both human and animals in case of accidental falls.
In this case, good alluvial soils are destroyed at the expense of farm products as well as creating gaping water-logged ponds that become mosquito breeding grounds. The disadvantages are countless and needless to enlist. Opiyo encouraged Migori residents to embrace the new technology of using the government owned block maker machine to improve their livelihood and build decent houses.
