By Dick Wheelock | Engineer and HATW volunteer
Dogba School
26th Oct 2011
I revisited Dogba after an absence of 2.5 years. Flood water was about 75cm deep throughout the village and the crossing from Affame was about a mile long. The newer 3 classrooms built by HATW certainly are working well and were piled high with all the desks from the remaining classrooms (which are not high enough to prevent water ingress at full flood.
2 of the 3 classrooms are being fully used and all damage caused by the falling walnut tree has been neatly repaired.
Some minor work remains to be done on last classroom:-
A 2 further rows of tiles (about 50) are required on the roof.
B Achilles (school director) requested the repositioning of the door, so about 10square metres of
ventilated blockwork has to be built but blocks are already cast.
C Currently there is a double flight of steps from ground level part way along the building and Dieu Donne proposes to move one flight of steps further west to improve access.
The third classroom has been built to a better standard than the initial two and the alterations we made to the floor casting method worked well.
Dieu Donne has obviously put a great deal of effort into the project but admits that he under-estimated the logistical problems involved in a site with no road access.These problems were compounded by the Parry design which
was much more complicated than needed. This has resulted in a building which, whilst fulfilling its requirements was more expensive than anticipated..
The major work now required is the rendering of the outside which, as explained in my previous report, is important to prolong the life of this building. Obviously the sooner this work is completed the better.
On a practical level it would be quite possible to do the remedial works A B and C at the same time as the rendering as Dieu Donne and team would have to mix the mortar in any case although they would be employing the local
contractor to apply it.
Further funds are now needed to complete the work (about £2000). Please can you help?
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