HYT has taken the exciting first steps West of the Nile to work in the world’s second largest refugee settlement: Bidi Bidi. The settlement is home to 750,000 South Sudanese refugees making it Uganda’s, unofficial, second largest city.
Yumbe Town, an NGO Epicentre
Yumbe town, previously a small, rural trading centre is now a hive of NGO activity at the heart of the settlement. Large UN trucks kick up the dust while electrical generators buzz constantly to compensate for the lack of a central grid.
The difference in landscape and climate between Jinja, HYT’s base in the South-East, and the extreme North-West is drastic. It is late February, Bidi Bidi has gone four months without rain and the temperature regularly exceeds 40oC.
A UN-NGO Government
The massive influx of people in 2016 initiated an immense international effort to meet the needs of the men, women and children who were forced to flee their homes. Spearheaded by the UN, who are supported by a multitude of organisations, the settlement has left the emergency phase and entered recovery. The UNHCR (UN refugee agency) have a monumental task of managing the effort to ensure refugees are accommodated for according to the Sphere Humanitarian standards.
Under the guidance and management of the UNHCR, NGO’s form consortiums to tackle each sector of development: Livelihoods, Shelter, Food, WASH, education and protection. Each consortium is lead by a nominal NGO.
HYT was delighted to attend the monthly meeting for the shelter department and the Zone 3 partner meeting, both lead by the UNHCR. It soon became apparent that the big players in construction were very serious about understanding ISSB and incorporating it into their plans.
Devastating Deforestation
The humanitarian crisis has taken its toll on the environment. The tree population has been decimated for cooking and construction. A recent environmental impact assessment conducted in Imvepi refugee settlement found that 80-90% of firewood is used for brick burning, it has reached such extreme levels that the office of the Prime Minister is considering banning NGO’s and contractors from buying burnt bricks.
It is no longer just environmentally conscious individuals or organisations applying pressure on NGO’s and contractors to find an alternative to the burnt brick; the environment itself is applying pressure: there simply are not enough trees.
Firewood is imported from
It is a very exciting time to working with ISSB, HYT with its 12 years of experience is looking to lead the movement away from burnt bricks and transform Uganda’s construction industry.
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