In the scorching desert, one man built 2️⃣5️⃣ homes out of plastic bottles for refugees 🏜 His idea seemed impossible at first, but the results are truly impressive—find out how he did it in the article below! ⬇️
A refugee from Algeria is literally rebuilding lives. Tateh Lehbibi Breika, a 27-year-old man born and raised in Ausserd, is building houses out of plastic bottles. These are affordable and practical homes that can even be built in the desert.
Building houses in temperatures of 113 degrees Fahrenheit is no easy task. Sandstorms also make construction difficult. The five camps near Tindouf, Algeria, are home to many people who were left stranded there during the Western Sahara war, which happened 40 years ago. Unfortunately, heavy rains in 2015 destroyed many of the houses built by the refugees.
Breika came up with an unusual solution. He has a master’s degree in energy efficiency, which he earned thanks to a scholarship from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. At first, he planned to build a rooftop garden and grow plants in bottles, but the round shape of the houses he was building made that difficult. Then he remembered a documentary he had seen during his studies and got an idea.
Houses built from plastic bottles are much better at withstanding storms than those made of mud, earth, or even tents. The thick walls of these bottle houses are also more resistant to sandstorms and are waterproof.
Breika built his first bottle house for his grandmother. Working with the UN, he has now built 25 of these houses.
Because of his work, people started calling him “The Bottle Madman.” Even though he has received awards for his idea, Breika said, “People still see me as the guy obsessed with bottles and strange houses.”
