Just before my house around the first bend to that opening that lead to my street, you know that corner with the uncompleted building and the open sewer left unfinish after the street Council told the man he built it on the road, Yes you remember..
There a woman who just finished roofing her house and I surmise she has spent close to 2 or 3 million naira to roof her house, and I am not happy at what waste ignorance could make as a norm, For her it's a normal thing, for me it's a waste of funds.
Well let's see
Slate cost around 5 thousand naira per sheet
she used more than 250 pieces, I know I counted them, as it is a 5 room bungalow.
Slate cost around 5 thousand naira per sheet
she used more than 250 pieces, I know I counted them, as it is a 5 room bungalow.
Now add that sum with the cost of wood where the average 2 by 3 cut of wood goes for 2 thousand she must have used it more than 200 pieces, plus the nails and carpentry,.
Then we now talk about the ceiling, Asbestos goes for 5 thousand naira per sheet, with plywood and nails with another payment for extra carpentry work can you imagine what she has spent just to roof her house
But if she had been educated, understood a better she could have bought
One trip of sand for 60 thousand naira
One trip of sand for 60 thousand naira
one trip of gravel stones for 60 thousand naira
10 bags of cement (she wouldn't even use up to that) for 100 thousand naira
20 iron rods for 140 thousand naira, and paid for a carpentry casting of a roof for 50 thousand naira.
Remember she could use bamboo or decide not to use as much iron rod or at all but let just say she was being safety cautious.
Her total expenditure would be less than half million naira, she would not spend up to a quarter of what she has spent doing the norm.
To say that as a country we need to critically check and evaluate the things we waste money on, is to say nothing at all, most of them are contrived, indoctrinated, unevaluated and frankly ignorant.
To make the concrete roof sturdy all she will need is to take broken tiles and cement a slant that channels the rainwater into a roof gutter,
The new roof now serve as a verandah, a place for the children to play, a place to hang laundry, a mini garden, a cool spot with an umbrella, and it is working as a roof.
The sad part about this is that eventually the slate will become worn, old and following the "latest trend" she will need to change the roof to aluminum roofing and toil even harder for an ignorant and unsustainable norm, because the aluminum roofing too, will not last.
Now when we say education is power education is enlightenment, We know what we are saying, a government intervention that can educate the people on the best and cheapest way to roof their houses is a true government of the people, but do we have that? No.
All they care about is how best they can siphon off the ignorance of the masses and churn tax.
Now on the environmental side, think of all the trees that went to waste for something that is unsustainable, Now look at the roof of people's houses, look critically at each roof, ask yourself is this roof going to last?
All a concrete roof need is a four iron bars and a net barricade and the roof serve an auto function of a farm, a garden, and verandah.
Because she has built her house as a five room bungalow on a quarter plot, she doesn't have a compound, her house is a more like a prison and look at how much she spent just to imprison herself. why? because that is the norm and she didn't question it.
A Government intervention is mostly centered on education and orientation, to teach people how to best roof their houses, Ensuring that they change their roof to concrete roofs so that they can have a small vegetables farm on the roof of their houses. It will go a long in ensuring the Farm in every house policy especially in a crowded metropolis like Lagos.
a Government intervention on rooftop should stop all use of aluminum and slate roofing in houses, and ensure a taxation on tree felling, that should bring sustainability to our buildings and peace to our forests and common sense to our people.
It all lies in education, introspection, a mindset geared towards sustainability and evaluation, most call it change, others call it reformation.
e5