Liz Sherborne

There are two women's water tanks there built with bag tubing, I think one is at hog harbour but it should be easy to find if you ask around.

Lesieli Joseph runs Vanuatu Earthbag building as a not for profit from Port Vila and I support her work from sydney. With 4 houses 12 water tanks and all the land issues that go with it we have had a steep learning curve. We have had engineers and university professors helping us overcome some of the problems and helping us utilise some of the natural advantages. If you use the coral crush or local pusee for building it will become rock very quickly. Topsoil over there is too good to waste in bag fill.

We would be happy to help you in any way with advice or contacts. It would be great if you could benefit from the mistakes we've made. Earthbag houses are amazing but once you've built one there is no easy option to knock out a wall or make alterations.

You can message us through the Vanuatu Earthbag building Facebook page.
We will be there in a few weeks.

Hi, there are several earthbag homes and water tanks in Vanuatu that have been built since 2012. If you visit the sites around Port Vila you may get a better idea of what you want to build. All of the buildings are certainly strong enough for a category 5 cyclone and small tremors. There are trained earthbag builders in Efate, Tanna and Santo who would love to get some work building if you need some help. We will be helping with a big build near mele in December. This will be our 4th house over there.

The first house we built was round and I can tell you it wasn't well received by the locals. They really don't like the round houses. We didn't do conical roofs because of the problems in a humid climate they become quite damp on the inner walls. Let me know where you are building and if you need any help.