From disaster to development
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Cost, design and social aspects are included in post-tsunami housing, say A.R.Santhakumar and Alok Patnaik
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Back on track: Facets of post - tsunami housing.
The tsunami which struck the coast of Tamil Nadu due to a very severe earthquake measuring magnitude of M 9.3 near northern Sumatra, Indonesia on December 26, 2004 had a widespread impact on fishing villages and towns all along the coastline of Tamil Nadu. A calamity of this nature had never been known in this State as evidenced by the death toll of over 8000 human lives. Lakhs of people were rendered homeless. It totally damaged the entire coastal economy of Tamil Nadu.
Housing policy
It was realised that most of the buildings which had collapsed / damaged due to tsunami were mainly due to poor construction practices without considering the hazard proneness of the area. To mitigate such risks in future, it was imperative that all the houses / infrastructure to be constructed in hazard prone areas should incorporate disaster resistant construction technologies stipulated in Bureau of Indian Standards. A separate Project Management Unit (PMU) was formed to coordinate and facilitate the reconstruction programme with the District Administrations and NGOs.
The State Government laid out a comprehensive housing policy to be followed by the implementing agencies in standardising the size, cost, design and social aspects. The Government considered its role as a facilitator for the reconstruction with its role confined to finalising the specifications, draft the MoU to be entered into by Government with other agencies who wished to take up the construction of houses. Each of the housing units was planned to have a plinth area of 325 sq.ft. with water supply, sanitation and infrastructure facilities. The technical guidelines developed in detail for RCC, brick and traditional building incorporated disaster resistant features to prevent collapse of building in case of occurrence of future disasters with key considerations on foundation in weak soil and high water table. The housing policy addressed the social aspects through “housing insurance coverage” and joint land patta in the name of spouses. Capacity development
To achieve highest standards in terms of quality, training to masons and engineers was taken up with utmost priority by the Project Management Unit. The engineers and technical supervisors associated with the housing reconstruction from NGOs contracting agencies and government departments were imparted special orientation to adopt these guidelines. A series of training programmes were conducted during the reconstruction phase. The special features in the guidelines had to be demonstrated to the artisans such as masons, carpenters and bar benders for enabling them to follow the same.
For this, at various site locations, training camps were organised by the District Authorities in collaboration with UNDP involving NGOs and polytechnics.
Quality audits
In such a massive reconstruction programme, it is indeed a challenge to ensure uniform quality.
An independent agency Hunnarshalla Foundation in association with NCRC and UNDP conducted a techno-social assessment of the shelter reconstruction to assess the quality of construction benchmarking the guidelines. By and large the implementation was satisfactory. However, a series of corrective measures were initiated including re-examination and revision of some of the provisions of guidelines issued originallyTechnology demonstration
Most of the fishermen for whom the houses were constructed preferred only RCC structures. In order to illustrate the advantages of cost effective, environment friendly, traditional technologies, both Government and UNDP came together to showcase these technologies by constructing 20 Technology Demonstration Units (TDU) at community level.
These units demonstrated various technologies incorporating disaster resistant features such as fly-ash bricks, concrete blocks, cement stabilised earth blocks, filler slab, and application of ferro-cement as roofing elements.
Various masonry techniques like Flemish bond, rat-trap bond and interlocking mud block technologies were demonstrated. These TDUs were built with the active participation from the local NGOs, technical institutes in collaboration with UNDP.
While land was provided by the Government / community, during the construction local masons and artisans were trained in alternative technologies and safe construction practices. Several handbooks and training manuals were published in Tamil for training and education of the masons and the community.
The technology demonstration units were intended to demonstrate two aspects.
Enhancement of safety using Disaster Resistant Construction Practices and ensuring economy using Cost Effective Technology.
Retrofitting
In Tamil Nadu more than 80 per cent of the rural buildings are prone to various disasters. Therefore retrofitting buildings becomes the first and crucial step towards disaster preparedness. Retrofitting is a technique to assess and strengthen existing buildings to resist abnormal loads caused by natural disasters to withstand collapse. Local masons trained specially on this technology were involved in retrofitting 32 traditional buildings – mostly existing community halls at village levels. A guideline and a handbook on retrofitting brought out by the Government helped this effort and will be a source for future adoption of this technology.
Disaster though dreaded in the end should lead to a durable development with community resilient growth. The unprecedented rehabilitation effort has made the fishermen get new housing colonies which have enhanced their life style. The rehabilitation scheme revealed the need for community participation in reconstruction work. Now the effort needed will be to train the owners of buildings not only to use them appropriately but also to maintain them for a durable life. The new habitats for the affected people will usher an era of social, cultural, economic and infrastructure affluence.
Mr. Santha Kumar is Advisor, Shelter Reconstruction UNDP / Govt. of Tamil Nadu Mr. Alok Patnaik is Project Officer (Shelter & Habitat)United Nations Team for Recovery Support, UNDP.
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