(introduction...)

Ferrocement is a highly versatile form of reinforced concrete made of wire mesh, sand, water, and cement, which possesses unique qualities of strength and serviceability. It can be constructed with a minimum of skilled labor and utilizes readily available materials. Proven suitable for boatbuilding, it has many other tested or potential applications in agriculture, industry, and housing.

Ferrocement is particularly suited to developing countries for the following reasons:

· Its basic raw materials are available in most countries.
· It can be fabricated into almost any shape to meet the needs of the user; traditional designs can be reproduced and often improved. Properly fabricated, it is more durable than most woods and much cheaper than imported steel, and it can be used as a substitute for these materials in many applications.
· The skills for ferrocement construction are quickly acquired, and include many skills traditional in developing countries. Ferrocement construction does not need heavy plant or machinery; it is labor-intensive. Except for sophisticated and highly stressed designs, as those for deep-water vessels, a trained supervisor can achieve the requisite amount of quality control using fairly unskilled labor for the fabrication.

The following specific recommendations are based on documentation of the current state of the art and the ad hoc panel's own evaluation of selected water and land applications of ferrocement, detailed later in this report.