Group bares plan to construct 50 environment-friendly school buildings

MANILA, Philippines - The Philippine Institute of Civil Engineers, Inc. (PICE) disclosed yesterday that the group would construct about 20 to 50 environment-friendly school buildings in depressed communities nationwide.

Undersecretary Romeo Momo of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), also the president of PICE, said that constructing these green-engineered school buildings was their group’s contribution to help reduce the effects of climate change.

“We are constructing green-engineered school buildings nationwide. Initially, we are planning 20 school buildings that would be spread out in our 17 regional chapters. Unlike the standard design of school buildings, these would be green-engineered buildings using indigenous materials in the area,” Momo said.

“At the same time, we would be maximizing the use of available resources such as wind and light to reduce the use of electricity. If possible we would also be able to reduce carbon emitting materials,” he added.

PICE has already finished one school building in Ilocos Sur and there are ongoing construction in Lamut in Ifugao, Pampanga, Cebu and Tarlac.

“I visited Lamut and it was a very depressed (area). When I went there, there were only three classrooms for grades 1, 2 and 3, they were waiting for us to finish the classroom by July so they could put up a room for grade 4 pupils of the Lamut Primary School,” Momo said.

They are targeting communities with no school buildings in remote areas.

He cited that their classrooms measure seven meters by nine meters in size, but they would have bigger windows for better ventilation and better lighting. They would also install comfort rooms.

The new school building would cost about P300,000 each, compared to the P500,000 for standard school buildings.

Momo said that in some cases, they might use anahaw, a native palm, which would be reinforced by sticks, to construct the roof of the school buildings.

They have also gained the commitment of the local government units in the chosen sites.

“There is also a sense of volunteerism here because the local officials would sometimes provide the laborers. Since the PICE are civil engineers, our members who would supervise the project would do it for free,” Momo added.

PICE will need about P6 million to build the initial 20 school buildings by September.

Momo said that PICE would raise funds during the coming “Greentech Summit and Exposition 2012” under the Project Green Engineering Philippines (PGEP) that would be held on Sept. 21 and 22 at the SMX Convention Center in Pasay City.

Registration fees and booth fees from the summit will be used to finance their green-engineering school building project.

They are expecting some 2,000 participants mostly from the Philippines, but there will also be Korean, Japanese, Vietnamese, Mongolian, Australian and Indonesian participants.

The school buildings would be turned over to the Department of Education (DepEd) after construction.