After the guns fell silent in 2006, the Ugandan government established a post-conflict strategy called the Peace, Recovery and Development Plan (PRDP). Over the years since, many projects have been initiated and completed with the involvement of Hydraform.
As a part of the PRDP strategy, Hydraform offered an innovative opportunity to address many of the points in the government’s plan, which was devised specifi cally to support the following key areas:
- strengthening the state
- rebuilding and empowering communities
- revitalising the economy
- peace-building and reconciliation
- disaster relief and assistance.
The plan also included elimination of terrorist threat to stability, building of security and access roads, water, revival and re-enhancement of education, emergency relief, health and immunisation, farming for food security and income generation as well as the re-education and orientation of the minds and hearts of the population towards peace and development rather than war.
A case in point involved the landslides triggered by heavy rains in early 2010 that displaced more than 4 000 people in a short period. The Office of the Prime Minister (OPM) in Uganda, which is responsible for disaster management, responded firstly by relocating the affected people to a more stable geographic area, and secondly by implementing a housing plan.
Since the OPM had already been using the Hydraform Building System in other government intervention projects, it was a natural choice here too. Under the guidance of Hydraform, the Ugandan company G1 Group Ltd executed the project to build over 60 houses.
Since the Hydraform machines will remain in the community after the project is complete, the contractor was mandated to train different youth groups in block production and artisan skills during the construction phase of the project. The idea is to avail the unemployed community members of the opportunity to continue with commercial block production and building long after the need for disaster relief ends.