Choosing the right building blocks

Choosing the right building blocks

The United Nations declared it one of the ‘100 best practices in human settlement rehabilitation’ in 1998. Yet, a whole year after the ground slipped away beneath Killari’s feet on September 30, 1993, nervous villagers were roughing out the nights in make-shift thatched huts, while several of the 27,183 brand new homes scattered across 52 villages stood uninhabited.

Obviously, some farmers had decided that the seismically-savvy construction thrust upon them by urban planners and IIT pros were better suited for storage.The story of Maharashtra’s five-year Latur-Killari project is sprinkled with crucial lessons for Gujarat. As quake-proof homes begin to make their way to Gujarat, it is useful to look at the Killari recipe of post-quake reconstruction and rehabilitation that Maharashtra, which has adopted seven villages in Bhachau taluka, wants to dish out in Gujarat.

The lessons are many, from the wisdom of outdoor toilets to rural disdain for concrete flooring for cattle-sheds, closed kitchens stifled with smokey chullas and homes relocated too far from the fields.

‘‘Fear against the use of stone was so strong that people slept outside their houses in thatched huts for almost a year following the earthquake. Houses that were seismically strengthened were either uninhabited, used as storage or inhabited only during the day only,’’ says the Maharashtra Emergency Earthquake Rehabilitation Programme (MEERP) manual on Earthquake-Resistant Construction and Seismic Strengthening of non-engineered buildings in rural areas of Maharashtra, a guide to earthquake engineering practiced in the strengthening of 2,20,000 homes in 2,500 villages in 13 districts after the quake.‘‘In the initial phase, people were suspicious of construction techniques used to repair and strengthen damaged stone masonry. It was difficult to convince them that there was nothing wrong with stone as building material. The way they used stone for building houses was wrong,’’ it says.

The State’s Vulnerability Atlas pinpoints a staggering nine million homes in Maharashtra as seismically vulnerable. ‘‘Over 60 per cent of existing buildings located in seismically active areas of India are of masonry construction, vulnerable to even moderate quakes.’’

Thus, it’s critical to understand why urban planning and expertise don’t necessarily make for great post-quake rehabilitation in rural India, says seismologist Arun Bapat, who toured almost 40 villages of a rebuilt Latur and Killari.

‘‘These urban planners designed no space for livestock adjacent or within the rural reconstruction. How can you move cattle and buffaloes into homes or sheds with concrete flooring?’’ he asks.

For Gujarat, the advice is to ensure that the hi-tech blends with the traditional. ‘‘The reconstructed homes had no verandahs. Why would villagers willingly move into such a home? Rural minds will hesitate to accept a home with an in-built toilet. No space was marked for the traditional tulsi vrindavan. Kitchens had no outlet for smoke from the chullas.’’

Disaster management expert Vinod Menon, who visited Maharashtra’s base camp at Bhuj, adds, ‘‘You cannot walk in and create an artificial township in devastated villages. They will never accept it if it doesn’t mesh with their lifestyle.’’

It’s also useful to remember that ‘quake-proof’ construction is a myth. The MEERP admits that its buildings ‘‘are expected to remain fail-safe, to prevent casualties, but not earthquake-proof in a major earthquake.’’

‘‘It’s important to discuss a belief, almost a myth, that buildings and structures designed for earthquakes are earthquake-proof. It is perceived within the myth, that current design provisions will prevent all damage in new buildings during a code-prescribed earthquake,’’ says the MEERP manual. ‘‘...There’s always a possibility that a severe earthquake could adversely affect even a structure designed and built to comply with state-of-the-art seismic resistance.’’

Pointing to major quakes in Mexico City in ’85, Armenia in ’88, USA in ’94 and Kobe in ’85, the manual says the ‘‘failure of structures using advanced materials like cement and steel may take place, and there’s nothing like 100 per cent safety.’’

The Killari lesson also makes economic sense. A unit cost of a strengthened home is one-half of reconstruction costs. Replacing heavy roofs with lighter structures, installing ring beams at lintel and roof levels to preserve integrity, and through-wall-anchors for stone masonry with knee braces at beam-to-post junctions to prevent lateral swaying of timber frames are all cheaper than rebuilding the house from the ground.

Relocated homes also need access by road and bridges. Farms need restored irrigation. In relocated villages, Maharashtra had also constructed 157 kms access road, repaired 131 culverts and bridges, strengthened 18 major bridges, 125 embankments of percolation tanks and strengthened 92 embankments above 10 metres in height.