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JINJA, Uganda 鈥� Simon Tigawalana dreamed for years of doing something about the dirt floors in his small house, blaming them for making his family sick. But in a rural area in one of the world’s poorest countries, covering the floors with concrete was financially out of reach.

Then a company called EarthEnable approached him to offer an alternative: a clay-based earthen floor. The cost of this durable, sealed floor is less than half that of a concrete floor. Tigawalana now has an EarthEnable floor in two rooms and hopes to soon add another to the last room.

鈥淚’m happy that we now have a decent home and can also comfortably host visitors,鈥� said Tigawalana, a 56-year-old father of 16. 鈥淓ver since we got a clay floor my kids no longer get cough and flu that used to come from the dust raised while sweeping the dirt floors.鈥�

EarthEnable, which seeks to upgrade housing across Africa, has been promoting and installing the clay-based floors in Uganda since 2017. Besides eliminating dust that can irritate breathing, the floors are credited with reducing infestations of jiggers 鈥� a parasitic flea that can burrow into the skin and cause pain, itching and infection. Uganda’s health ministry says poor hygiene due to dirt floors contributes to such infestations.

鈥淥ur floors help to prevent pathogens and other illnesses linked to dust floors, since most of these families can’t afford hospital care,鈥� said Noeline Mutesi, a sales and marketing manager for EarthEnable.

The first step in building the floor is digging and leveling the surface. Then murram 鈥� local red soil rich in iron and aluminum oxides 鈥� is mixed with sand and water and then compacted. After two weeks of drying, masons use wooden floats to smooth and further compact the surface. Next, the pasting process involves applying a fine clay screed to further smooth the surface and prepare it for a final sealant, a flaxseed-based varnish that hardens into a durable, plastic-like resin.

A typical floor costs around 240,000 Uganda shillings (about $65), which EarthEnable says is about 70 percent cheaper than concrete. Buyers can pay in installments. EarthEnable, a U.S.-based nonprofit, operates for-profit subsidiaries in Uganda, Rwanda and Kenya, and says any profits are invested into startup costs in new markets as well as research and development.

EarthEnable said it has installed about 5,000 floors in Uganda, more than 39,000 in Rwanda and more than 100 in Kenya. The company also does wall plastering to help reduce dust, moisture and insect infestations common in mud homes.

In Jinja, the company’s program employs more than 100 masons from within the community. Many are disadvantaged boys who have dropped out of school because they can’t afford fees, said Alex Wanda, a construction officer at the company.

鈥淲e focus on employing these young village boys that we train in skills to build these earthen floors, thus creating for them employment opportunities,鈥� Wanda said in an interview.

About 42 percent of Ugandans live in extreme poverty. Its Bureau of Statistics says the country has a housing deficit of 2.6 million units, and it’s growing. The country needs to add 300,000 housing units per year to overcome the deficit, mainly in rural areas. That is where many Ugandans live and where housing quality and availability remain pressing concerns.

The company also touts the clay floors as a more sustainable alternative to concrete, which besides being more expensive generates major carbon emissions in production.

The cement industry is聽one of Uganda’s biggest contributors聽to carbon emissions, accounting for about 628,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide in 2023, its highest recorded level. More broadly,聽construction accounts for 37 percent of global emissions, according to the United Nations Environment Programme.

Uganda, like much of the rest of the world, has seen a rise in extreme weather events 鈥� such as flooding and prolonged drought 鈥� made more likely by climate change.

鈥淚nitiatives like this are crucial in the global effort to decarbonize the construction sector,鈥� said Penina Atwine, a program officer at the Uganda-based organization Environmental Alert. 鈥淪uch innovative local solutions that address both climate change and social needs like EarthEnable’s model could inspire similar approaches across the globe.鈥�

In the village of Budima, Rehema Namukose spent most of her family’s savings to build a house. She couldn’t afford a cleaner floor until she worked through EarthEnable to pay for a clay floor in installments. She lives there with her three children and credits the new floor for improving the health of a sickly daughter.

鈥淭his is affordable for my family and will help us maintain hygiene,鈥� she said. 鈥淲e are now living a better life.鈥�