(ERGO) – New brickmaking machinery introduced in Somaliland has been pushing manual workers out of construction jobs and left many unable to make ends meet for their families.
Mohamed Ali Abyan, the deputy leader of the brick workers association in Hargeisa, is among the 140 workers who have been laid off in the past four months. He said due to his unemployment his wife and eight children are depending on their neighbours for food.
“They sometimes get food and sometimes they don’t, somedays God gives us food otherwise they just drink water. That is how severe the impact has been. It’s made a huge difference to our financial situation.
We used to get a good income but now we don’t even cook food because I am unemployed, that is how we live now,” said Mohamed, who had been earning $250 as part of a team of 10 brick workers.
Mohamed said his family had been evicted from two houses in the past four months for failing to pay the rent. He hasn’t paid the $40 rent for May and said he had been informed that they would be evicted again if he failed to pay in June.
He has worked in the brick making sector for the past 11 years and has no alternative livelihood. Four of his children in grades 2, 4 and 5 in Nurdin School dropped out of their studies in May when their unpaid school fees accumulated to $160. They are now staying home with no education.
He has taken $800 worth of food on credit from three different stores. Now that the shop owners know he is out of work, they decided to stop selling him any more food on credit.
“The burden I am faced with is that my family need to pay bills, they need water, they need rent money, they need education, it is hard by God it’s very hard! I am responsible for my family and I can’t support them. This has stressed me and it is difficult to deal with it,” he told Radio Ergo.
Mohamed said he tried to get other jobs but has not been lucky to find any. He has no money to invest in starting up a small business.
Another brick maker, Ismail Mohamed Ali, has also lost out to the new machinery. He used to come home with $10 from a day’s brick-making work, which gave his family of nine people a decent living. He is now forced to depend on his relatives and friends for support.
“You can understand the situation of an unemployed person, it is difficult because I used to support my family and I’m now unemployed. I am unemployed and I don’t have anything,” he said.
Ismail and his family currently have 10 kilograms each of flour, rice and sugar that he was given by his sister. He said they are eking out the supply and only cook a meal at night.
He regrets that he didn’t prepare for these hard times, but says he never thought his manual skills would be taken over by machinery.
He has used up most of his savings and wishes he had acquired other skills, having tried to get work in shops but not yet finding any vacancy.
Brick making machines have become popular in Hargeisa as they are cheaper and faster than manual brick making. These machines that cost $12,000 can produce 1,000 bricks a day, which is double the rate of manual production.
For businessmen like Abdirahman Samatar Elmi, who sells bricks in northern Hargeisa, machinery has introduced more efficiency to his firm. He told Radio Ergo that they have retained only the workers needed to operate the machines and lay the bricks. He added that profits have improved since adopting the machines as the company can on take more contracts with their increased capacity.
