Editor,

Refer to the story, "Getting rid of the cancerous asbestos roofing” (The New Times, January 8).

Yes, I remember in the 60s, those asbestos roofing sheets were part of the ostentatious Western modernity. We were – and still are – summoned to embrace then, lest we head backward, they told us.  

The other dazzling and mesmerising product was the corrugated galvanised iron sheets, also only on the roof of the colonials’ buildings, and of the wealthy – referred to as "évolués” – squared dwellings.

And before, I also remember well, in the 50s, it was fashionable to mark one’s higher social status by living in a house built with fired clay bricks and covered with Roman tiles. As it was then and still is today, the traditional thatched and ‘sticks and mud’ dwellings are denigrated – socially sentenced to death without a fair trial.

By "fair trial” for building materials I mean scientific and technical sessions called to hear scientific evidence, impartially stating the pros and cons of each material in comparison to the others.

The ultimate purpose being to select the most appropriate one, meaning, first and foremost, the safest for each of the various specific uses. It is rather sad now, when realising that 50-60 years ago, and still today, a scientific selection process for building materials was, and still is not at all practiced.

Only market vendors have the say! And yet in most cases health outcomes (today cancer caused by asbestos fibres, tomorrow epidemics caused by zinc washed by rain from galvanised iron sheet roofs) are quite well predictable from shoddy or "half-baked” products now abundant at the marketplace.

Those outcomes need to be fully assessed by teams of scientific experts prior to their use. In addition to medical experts, those teams would include well trained material science experts, as well as high level trained architects who (in place of commercial vendors who are more listened to now) would prescribe the most appropriate materials to use for our buildings.

Perhaps this is part of the mandate of the Rwanda Housing Authority?

François-Xavier Nziyonsenga, Rwanda