Gul Bahao

Into the 21st century with new ideas from Gul Bahao

Chandi Technology

Prefabricated housing

Prefabricated housing

For the last several years, it has been observed that new kinds of challenges spring up during the sacred month of Ramazan. Yesterday, while the city was being battered with rain Gul Bahao’s team under the supervision of its technical chief D. Alim was putting final touches to its latest innovation of prefabricated roofing.

Till the writing of this piece, the Environment Museum stands out on main Rashid Minhas Road, its silver facade glittering in the sun, while not a drop of rain water has entered its 20ft x 40ft hall, despite record breaking rain.

Talking to the press Nargis Latif of Gul Bahao claimed that the organization’s Environment Museum which was inaugurated by the Vice Chancellor of Karachi University on 5th June has all the solutions for disaster management as well as to preempt disasters, the city witnessed during the heavy rainfall.

Gul Bahao has truly gone into the nitti gritty of waste management which is the root cause of the flooding of the city’s roads. Nargis said that at the inauguration of the Environment museum she had warned of “Karachi being drowned in gutter water but nobody listened, she lamented.

Talking about Gul Bahao’s latest innovations, the managing trustee of Gul Bahao said rain proof roof has been made for single storied Chandi Ghars using light weight blocks made from waste (but clean) thermo- pole pieces arranged in the form of slopes. The important aspect of this is that this double roofing can be put in a matter of hours.

During the holy month of Ramazan another experiment is being made to make water proof tarpaulins. This has two advantages

  1. Raw material is plastic waste which would otherwise enter the sewerage system and block it
  2. It is cheap so that the poorest of the poor can afford it in times of inclement weather.

Another innovation thrown up by Gul Bahao during heavy rains is for low lying areas. This is especially useful for factory owners who would like to save their millions of rupees worth of goods from being submerged in rain water. These are 10-20 kgs heavy “Wastic Blocks” which can form a platform in a few minutes.

Nargis Latif said that the museum is open to all traders, manufacturers, policy makers, scientists and professionals. She said the projects on display at the museum should be especially attractive for businessmen as these require very little investment but whose profits could be immense both money wise as well as for handling and preempting natural disasters.

Concluding, Gul Bahao has appealed to the incumbent President of Pakistan, Mamnoon Hussein to visit Pakistan’s Environment Museum which has taken 20 years to emerge at a cost of more than 8 crores.

Worlds first plastic house plant established

Today, Nargis Latif Managing Trustee of the Gul Bahao Trust while addressing the assembly of A level students of City School PAF chapter announced that Gul Bahao has succeeded in establishing the world’s first assembly plant of prefabricated housing made from plastic waste on main Rashid Minhas Road on a two thousand yards plot. Nargis claimed amidst tremendous applause that Gul Bahao has developed a totally new product through its research work which is comparable to any other innovation of the 21st century. She exhorted that we Pakisanis must rid ourselves of the inferiority complex that we are incapable of innovating. She said one of the impact of the plant will be to make a name for Pakistan as no one in the world including the developed countries has come anywhere close to designing the Chandi Ghar (Made of building blocks from plastic waste) She said that the raw material is being supplied by manufacturers free of cost and in tones which has helped to reduce the cost of the houses considerably the result is that the plant is in a position to supply hundreds of houses to flood affected areas. And now a 20’ x20’ house will cost as little as Rs 40,000. She reminded the audience that last year Gul Bahao put up a number of Chandi Ghars in the flood affected areas of Muzzafargarh and Thatta . Nargis said that in order to make a deeper impact Gul Bahao will open the doors of this vital research open to the public especially the business community so that the Chandi Ghars may be produced enmasse and large numbers of flood affectees may be benefited.

Here, the head of Gul Bahao announced the formation of the Gul Bahao Club whose objective she said is to form Research Centres in the schools. However as a first step she said students will be asked to bring in recyclable garbage like paper, plastic etc from their homes which will be a source of revenue generation for the houses to be built for the flood affectees . She said in the past the students had donated their dry garbage but only in a limited way and that now efforts would have to be increased manifold. She revealed that Karachi University and NED University have been supporting Gul Bahao’s cause by donating their recyclable waste. This she said helped the organization considerably in meeting its expenses. She exhorted the students to “donate” as much recyclable garbage as possible to Gul Bahao.

Kindly put your valuable 1,000 ( one thousand ) Rupees in First Women Bank, Gul Bahao account no 0007001857810001 or Allied Bank, Nargis Latif acc. no.0010032750390011( 0159 branch code –  One Unit costs Rs. 40,000 with double ceiling).

Chandi Ghar braves the storm

Chandi Ghar braves the storm

In yet another vindication of Gul Bahao’s research program it was reported by Mohammad Ali Shah, Chairman of Fisher folk Forum that the Chandi Ghar put up by Gul Baho at Ibrahim Hyderi a couple of months ago has stood up to the devastating cyclone hitting the coast and is as good as it was first made. The accompanying photograph shows the Chandi Ghar put up on the roof of the Sachal Hall located in Ibrahim Hyderi.

While several of these pre-fabricated structures were sent to Mansehra at the time of the earthquake, the one at Ibrahim Hyderi is the first one to have been sold to any party in Karachi. This is not to say that the Chandi Ghar is totally new to Karachi, thousands if not lacs of people have seen or read about it through the media as well as live in exhibitions held at the following:

  1. SITE Stadium
  2. Twice at Expo Centre
  3. On the Super Highway
  4. Regent Plaza

as well as PCSIR exhibitions, as well as under the NIPA bridge in Gulshan-e-Iqbal. What is the Chandi Ghar? The brochure describing it says it is made up of used but clean plastic waste like shopping bags to form what is called Wastic Blocks, an alternative to concrete blocks. The second and more easily available component of the pre-fabricated structure is the Pana-flex Panel, again this uses used flexed material and cardboard. Depending on the workmanship this pre-fabricated house is strong against storms, water, insects, fire etc. It is insulated against extreme temperatures, it is easy to put up, taking only a few hours and easy to dismantle and extremely cost effective. The room shown in the photograph costs as little as rupees 15,000, above all it is extremely good looking so that this innovation may be equally attractive to both the rich and the poor

Recently Nargis Latif approached the director TDAP (formerly Export Promotion Bureau) Mr Nusrat Iqbal Jamshed and was able to convince him of the importance of the Chandi Ghar in the local industry. In her written proposal Nargis Latif spelled out the advantages of this new technology which gives it an edge over other building materials and can be used in the following

  1. For relief work (earthquakes,tsunami and other natural disasters)
  2. During Hajj, there is a huge potential for temporary houses
  3. For military purposes, in war games or real life battles, temporary shelter for guards and police men
  4. For mining companies/ oil drilling companies
  5. For medical camps
  6. Tourism industry on the coast as well as in the mountainous areas
  7. For research work carried out over inhospitable terrain
  8. For camps in big cities on Prime land to be used as election camp, mobile schools, advertising purposes etc
  9. The blocks are modular so they can be used alternatively as beds, swimming pools or as water tanks

Being highly impressed by Nargis Latif’s presentation, Mr Jamshed asked her to have the Chandi Ghar patented as this would ensure that is became the intellectual property of Gul Bahao. To which Nargis replied that she would rather that the credit should go to the people of Karachi who have put in their labor, money and moral support. In fact she said that Gul Bahao has a number of other innovations to its credit which all lumped together are called Karachi’s Gift to The World

In the meantime, Gul Bahao has planned to gear up its work and start the world’s first Chandi Ghar Plant in Gulshan-e-Iqbal. It has at the same time appealed to the people to make the plant a success by giving interest free loans or funds.