Advisory Center for Affordable Settlements & Housing

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Document Type General
Publish Date 01/07/1998
Author
Published By Department of Civil Engineering, Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, Dhaka, Bangladesh. - Email: amin@bdcom.com
Edited By Arslan Hassan
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BANGLADESH’S ENVIRONMENT-FRIENDLY LOW-COST HOUSING OPTIONS FOR LOW-INCOME COMMUNITIES

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Document Type: General
Publish Date: Jul-1998
Primary Author: AFMS Amin, S. Ahmed and SAJ Shamshuddin
Edited By: Arsalan Hasan
Published By: Department of Civil Engineering, Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, Dhaka, Bangladesh. – Email: amin@bdcom.com

Bangladesh is one of the most densely populated countries in the world. About 80% of its population live in rural areas and about 50% of its total population still are below the poverty line. Most of the people living in the villages or in urban slum areas do not have a habitable dwelling house along with safe water supply and sanitation facility which are the basic needs of human being. The use of indigenous materials dominates the country’s present housing pattern. But the houses built of these materials lack in structural stability and durability which in turn depend largely on judicious selection of materials and sound structural design. Thus these houses cannot provide a cost-effective return to the poor users. Again, due to country’s varying hydrogeological and socio-economic condition, different localities need different technologies to get access to potable water supply and sanitation facility as well. The paper closely examines all these issues and suggests a number of low cost options of housing with safe water supply. and sanitation facilities for the low-income communities of both rural and urban slum areas taking into consideration the following essential parameters: durability, structural stability, affordability and local construction & maintenance competence aspects. Although the scope of the paper does not entail the cyclone prone southern coastal area where the design criteria and considerations will be different, it takes into account about 80% of the total geographical area and population of the country. Last but not the least, the paper presents a replicable model for the communities of similar socioeconomic pattern.

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