PAKISTAN: Self-Help Best for Quake Reconstruction

By Zofeen Ebrahim Reprint | | Print |

Zofeen Ebrahim

KARACHI , Nov 7 2005 (IPS) - Aqeel Bilgrami’s biggest worry these days is how to ensure that the government does not get led away by people trying to make money out of reconstruction efforts, now underway for the survivors of the Oct.8 earthquake, with inappropriate materials and technology.

Bilgrami, one of Pakistan’s best-known architects, dismisses the government’s emphasis on pre-fab housing a ”ridiculous notion” which may work for putting up make-shift hospitals and schools but never for the gargantuan task of reconstructing some 400,000 houses.

”Pre-fab is never going to be practicable as the material will not be locally available, cannot be incremental which is the need, and once the donors leave, how are you going to sustain this?” he asks.

At least 75,000 people are known to have been killed and 80,000 others injured after an earthquake measuring 7.8 on the Richter scale devastated Pakistan-administered Kashmir and the adjoining North West Frontier Province. More than three million survivors were rendered homeless.

As president of Pakistan’s Institute of Architects, Bilgrami has been able to get together a team of expert architects and engineers, some with experience designing ‘seismic homes’ in Pakistan’s northern areas, and has come up with four typologies for housing and reconstruction.

”The terrain is such that you cannot design just one type of house. In cities like Balakot and Muzaffarabad, which are accessible by road and where we can use reinforced concrete, cement and steel using effective designs suitable for government buildings, schools and hospitals.”

For residences, a simple design using reinforced concrete is envisaged while homes in semi-accessible mountainous areas can use whatever material is readily available, including what can be salvaged from the debris. ”Indigenous rubble must be re-used and, if possible, steel or cement can be used for beams and columns.”

In the remote mountainous hamlets which are only accessible on foot, Bilgrami wants to use ”indigenous material of compacted earth blocks and reinforcement can be wood and wire mesh which is easy to carry and, if possible, lime or cement to strengthen the earth”.

”We have he designs ready, now if only we can present it to General Zubair, the person who is taking care of reconstruction,” said Bilgrami. ”We need to show them (authorities) that our designs are practical, implementable, replicable and economicalà these four important words hold the essence of our designs”.

The reference was to Lieutenant General Muhammad Zubair from the Earthquake Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Authority(ERRA) established to take over the task of rebuilding 20,000 sq km of area including roads, bridges, houses, government buildings, schools and private buildings.

” Experts from all over the world have shown immense interest and are giving their input, for which we’re immensely grateful, but if you ask me, I think we are quite alright as far as our own expertise is concerned,” says Bilgrami confidently.

Arif Hasan another noted architect and planner also has simple solutions which are low-cost, involving local material and talent. ”All that is needed is to come up with simple, earth-quake proof homes using the same materials that are being traditionally used in their homes.”

Hasan spoke of a design manual that can be disseminated to anyone interested in working on shelters. ”Even if we make a conservative estimate of one-third of homes being razed, we need to build some 250,000 homes.” He also says there is need to look into those homes that can be repaired instead of writing them off.

Both Bilgrami and Hasan emphasise the importance of getting people involved. ”This has to be done on a self-help basis. Local men will have to be involved. In turn, they will acquire skill and technology which they can apply whenever they need to.”

Hasan proposes a work-for-cash programme to help remove the rubble as people are hard pressed for money. ”The government can provide sledgehammers and daily wages to the people as bulldozers and heavy machinery cannot reach all the areas.” He also says rebuilding can be carried out till mid-January, in a vast majority of the affected parts. ”It’s the mountainous areas which will have to wait (till after winter)”.

”The government can help in the form of subsidies and by providing tin sheets, insulation material, reinforcement rods and bars. The rest of the masonry work and the labour can be carried out by the local people. And they can dig out their sheets, windows and doors and re-use them,” says Hasan.

Self-help is a strategy that is finding favour with international organisations including the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) and the International Federation of the Red Cross (IFRC) which are have begun providing shelter repair kits to the survivors.

”Presently, at least two expert teams are on the ground in the remote valleys of Muzaffarabad district. The whole idea is that they’ll carry out an assessment and afterwards, if local communities agree, they will call through satellite telephone to drop shelter material in the area,” Chris Lom, head of the IOM emergency shelter programme in Pakistan, said last week in Islamabad.

The IOM shelter repair kit includes sheet iron roofing, plastic sheeting, hammers, nails, spades, pickaxes, saws, stoves, blankets, mattresses, kitchen sets and children’s clothing.

This joint pilot initiative involves the distribution of some 600 locally-produced shelter kits on an experimental basis primarily to remote villages, which, if proved successful, would be increased, as long as funding and procurement hurdles can be overcome.

One housing design that is attracting attention is based on ‘Calearth’ technology which is still new in Pakistan. Local architects, though not completely sold to the idea, are impressed by the fact that the technology has passed seismic testing required under California’s strict earthquake-zone building codes.

The brainchild of Nader Khalili, an Iranian-born architect based in California, Calearth technology uses ‘superadobe’ which involves filling sandbags with a mixture of cement and adobe (mud) and connecting them with barbed wire for reinforcement. These tubular sandbags are laid one on top of the other to form walls and do not require any complicated engineering skills.

While a Calearth designed quake-safe houses look more like an igloo or a beehive, than the traditional village homes made of stone and wood, these can be put up for a little more than twice what a tent would cost.

But unlike tents, these are not temporary solutions for quick relief but can be seen as long-term, low-cost, quickly-constructed housing. ”I just have one problem. Housing has to be acceptable to the people who are going to live in them and social norms need to be understood,” Bilgrami said.

Citizen’s Foundation, a voluntary agency that is known for setting up schools all over Pakistan, is also working on permanent housing and plans to construct 5,000 quake-proof homes, each costing 6,000 US dollars and has asked Bilgrami to design it for them.

The Dawn group of newspapers has come up with an ‘Adopt-a-Village’ scheme and advertised for engineers, architects and town planners. Graduates and technicians who volunteer are being provided free transportation, boarding and lodging.

”The task is mammoth and if all designs are correct, people can earmark their areas and begin work. The government has to start re-construction soon, for if it doesn’t, people will not wait and start rebuilding on their own and what they build may not be an effective or quake-proof,” Bilgrami warned.

With winter approaching and the pace of reconstruction still slow, people have begun trekking into the towns and cities putting pressure on already limited resources.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination for Humanitarian Assistance (OCHA) estimates that 3.2 million people scattered among 15,000 villages over an area of 77,700 sq km need shelter and it has recognised that tents will not be sufficient to address the enormous shelter needs.

Supporting the Pakistani government and working closely with affected communities, the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is assisting in the management of six tent cities within Muzaffarabad city, as well as in three more towns in quake-affected Jhelum Valley.

”This is to ensure that people living in the camps receive basic services – many of these camps were spontaneous and began with nothing,” Christine Neveu, senior emergency officer of the agency’s emergency preparedness and response section, said.

”We think it (difficulty) will increase as more and more people in higher altitudes come down,” Neveua said. ”If people at those levels are unable to fix any type of shelter for themselves soon, the onset of snow will drive them down, she warned.

The Pakistani army estimates that well over 100,000 people in high altitude zones will need to be moved to camps at lower altitudes before winter sets in around mid-November.