Stonewalls for villages

THE Office of Climate Change is helping coastal villages build stone seawalls to combat the effects of flooding and erosion.
The office’s adaptation division, in partnership with the Bootless Lavadae Association, is now using the technique to shore up vulnerable areas.
It said Tubusereia has a stone wall that was 20m long and 2.5m high. 
The wall was completed last November.
Gabagaba village completed its stone wall just before Christmas. The wall there is 40m long and 2.5m high.
The walls were built with stones without any mortar to bind them and are held up by the interlocking of the stones.
Senior policy analyst Jacob Ekinye said mangroves and stone walls were adaptation measures put in place to mitigate or reduce coastal flooding.
He said stonewalls were cost effective, did not require great technical expertise and protected property and people more effectively and he considered stone walls to be an effective adaptation measure.
The division funded the projects at a cost of K5,000. They were spearheaded by Bootless Lavadae Association president Felix Daroa.
Daroa said the stonemasonry technique used was introduced to them by Anaud Baubil, a Frenchman who was brought in by the World Conservation Society (WCS) for that purpose.
He said it was very cost effective as the only materials needed were rocks and stones and fuel for transportation.
There was no need for cement or mortar which would have been more expensive.
Daroa commended the villagers for their eagerness to help build the stone walls as the
community helped with bringing materials in from the coastal points in the village or from stone quarries. 
The Gabagaba community raised funds to help with the cost of fuel for trucks. Dinghies and canoes were used to bring in the stones to the designated area for the wall.
Labour for the projects was provided by enthusiastic villagers after they had gone through training on stonemasonry.
The division plans to continue with the stone walls as long as the communities concerned agree to take ownership of the projects.