Practices for Constructing on Expansive Soils in Tanzania

Poverty reduction essentially means ensuring the basic needs, improving the sustainable livelihoods and the quality of life for the communities, including the poorest members. These prerequisites can be attained by building sustainable structures (buildings) for long life and with ease of maintenance.

Expansive soils in Kibaha, Tanzania present significant challenges to builders and developers in relation to infrastructure and structures. Challenges emanate from lack of understanding and lack of recognition of the problem followed by lack of implementation of low-cost technical solutions that get to the root of the problem of expansive soils.

This paper unravels mysteries behind the defects of buildings found on expansive soils and brings up valuable insights and recommendations on poverty reduction through geotechnical engineering interventions. According to low-cost technical identification methods of expansive potential, the soils have very high shrink–swell potential.