A culture of seismic resistant construction takes root
October 7, 2008 - Shamim Bibi, 33, lost her husband and daughter in the earthquake that hit Northern Pakistan on October 8, 2005. Today, three years later, she still remembers those horrifying moments, pulling her children from the rubble. “When I went to school to check on my children, the school had already collapsed. I managed to get two of my kids out of the rubble alive, but my daughter died. After that I went to check on my husband, and he also died,” said Bibi.
Her home in Ghannchatter, a village just outside Muzaffarabad, the capital of Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK), was left in ruins. Like thousands of houses, it came crashing down with the first few jolts – in part a result of poor construction with substandard material.
“The enormous destruction to houses, schools, and hospitals was also because of poor quality of construction and lack of seismic consideration in their design,” said Shahnaz Arshad, the World Bank's team leader for the rural housing reconstruction program.
The 7.6 magnitude earthquake destroyed and damaged around without shelter in AJK and North West Frontier Province (NWFP). In the city of Muzaffarabad over 10,000 died and around 50 percent of the buildings were destroyed. The scale of the destruction, and a difficult mountainous terrain made reconstruction a daunting task.
Homeowners in the driver’s seat
The government formed the Earthquake Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Authority (ERRA), and with the financial and technical support of the World Bank, launched an ambitious US$1.5 billion owner-driven rural housing rebuilding program. Under the program, homeowners were provided with a range of seismically resistant and culturally acceptable structural design options and grants in four installments to finance the reconstruction. In three years, ERRA has helped some 600,000 households, spread over an area of 30,000 sq km, with a rapid disbursement of nearly US$1.3 billion in housing reconstruction grants.
“The pace and quality of the housing reconstruction program has been remarkable, especially when compared to similar homeowner-driven housing reconstruction programs elsewhere in the region and internationally,” said Arshad.
Through its Emergency Recovery Project and additional financing to the Pakistan Poverty Alleviation Fund, the Bank has provided US$448 million to the housing reconstruction program. The success of the housing reconstruction also spurred other donors to support the program, resulting in the entire US$1.5 billion program almost fully funded by donors.
Training helps overcome resistance to change
To make all this happen, a massive training program was implemented to help people understand earthquake resistant building techniques. Housing reconstruction centers were set up to provide training and technical assistance to the ERRA Partner Organizations which in turn offered assistance and information directly to the people reconstructing their homes. Mobile teams went to each village and provided assistance and advice.
“We have trained around 100,000 people in earthquake resistant building techniques,” said Asim Khilji, a technical expert with UN Habitat, one of ERRA’s partner organizations. “We have trained architects, carpenters, steel fixers, masons, and we have trained common people who are responsible for building their houses.”
Arshad says this has helped create a culture of seismic-resistant construction. “We have seen in these areas that people that are now building houses using their own funds are also beginning to implement seismic-resistant structural design features.”
According to ERRA’s latest assessment, about 95 percent of the grant beneficiaries have built their houses in compliance with seismic resistant construction standards. Arshad says this embodies a sea-change among a people who were initially very hesitant to accept any variation in the centuries old traditional construction methods they had inherited from their forefathers, although over time many of the details that ensured seismic safety had been lost.
Jawad Latif, ERRA’s Housing Coordinator in Muzaffarabad District, says the program is nearing physical completion and that 98 percent of the people have either finished rebuilding or are in the process of reconstructing their houses. “We are hopeful that most people will be in their houses before the upcoming winter,” he said.
A new sense of security
Shamim Bibi has received all four grant payments, totaling 175,000 rupees, to rebuild her house. It is one of more than 300,000 houses that have been completely rebuilt using earthquake resistant building techniques. “We have built our house according to the design given to us. This is a much better house than before. We are now happy and safe,” Bibi said.
With the imminent completion of the housing reconstruction, efforts are now underway to ensure that appropriate institutional structures remain available beyond the life of the project. Arshad says it is important that housing reconstruction centers and other entities that were set up under the program become permanent to continue to nurture the culture of seismic resistant construction beyond the program period.
Additional Resources
- Pakistan: Development Data A wide range of social and economic measures on Pakistan, including links to the World Bank's most important online development databases. (Read More »)
- Pakistan: Analysis and Research Compilation of all the World Bank's publications on Pakistan, with 'search' options and links to analysis and research. (Read More »)
- World Bank Program in Pakistan Launching pad to all information on World Bank activities in Pakistan.(Read More »)
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