Page 89 - Research & Innovation Report 2020

ENGINEERING, THE BUILT
ENVIRONMENT AND TECHNOLOGY

Professor Sijekula Mbanga Grey water pre-filter chamber

use, the water shortage the country is facing, and the rapid
rate of urbanisation. The ventilated, improved pit latrines in the
informal and rural areas are also proving to be a major challenge
as they require routine suctioning but they are not maintained by
the municipalities. This poses health risks, such as cholera, when
there is excessive rainfall. “We need to mainstream and popularise
water-wise sanitation technology methods that already exist, while
inventing other eco-friendly dry-sanitation systems,” says Prof
Mbanga.

“In terms of housing construction materials, we are talking with
TIA and DSI about collaborating in a project with Furntech – a
South African company in the furniture industry – to develop a
low income timber-frame housing prototype that would use local
materials, boost the forestry industry and create more green jobs.
The discussion includes colleagues from our School of Architecture
and from Wood Technology on the George Campus. Similar talks
are underway with the National Housing Finance Corporation and
the MTO Group near Tsitsikamma about adapting the MTO timber- Grey water system
frame prototype to the government housing subsidy framework.”
“Part of our mandate is to guide government in making the right
Property economist and postdoctoral research fellow, Dr Emmanuel choices. We are developing policy briefs on all the areas covered
Kabundu, in the Department of Buildings and Human Settlements, and linking the technologies to other areas such as carbon footprint
and a researcher in the CoP initiative, is looking at the affordability reduction and carbon tax.”
of new technologies for government and individuals.
In August 2021, the CoP team, with TIA and DSI, is hosting a
He says, “I’m focusing on a life cycle cost analysis for low-income seminar as its ‘soft launch’. The purpose is to discuss all the
human settlements because new and supplementary technologies aspects of sustainable human settlements and to create space
and systems for sustainable building, energy, water and sanitation for researchers from other institutions to present papers and
require higher capital costs, but the benefits in the medium and case studies on sustainability research. Participating are planners
long term make economic sense. It also makes sense in terms of and researchers from the metros and municipalities in all nine
climate change, particularly since South Africa is committed to provinces, the Provincial Departments of Human Settlement and
reducing its carbon footprint. human settlement entities.

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