RECOVERING INDIGINIOUS KNOWLEDGE FOR SAFER SCHOOLS

Text: Rohit Jigyasu

Photographs: Courtesy AKPBS,P

Safer construction practices are vital for life line buildings such as schools located in earthquake prone areas.  Unfortunately much of the South Asian subcontinent is highly vulnerable to earthquakes. In fact, over the last few decades earthquakes have been one of the main reasons for the heavy loss of life and property in the region. Post earthquake damage assessments have revealed that much of the damage and destruction was due to the poor quality of built fabric, which was structurally too weak to resist even the mild lateral forces associated with earthquakes. 

The increasing vulnerability of structures can be attributed to various factors such as the poor quality of construction, lack of maintenance, and unsympathetic additions and alterations. However in most
cases, the blame is squarely placed on the ‘non-engineered’ vernacular structures using traditional construction materials and techniques, which are largely perceived as outdated and weak, thereby
resulting in their outright demolition during post earthquake rehabilitation only to get subsequently replaced by ‘modern’ structures using contemporary materials and construction practices. 

However detailed investigation of earthquake prone regions in the subcontinent has revealed that many so called old and non-engineered vernacular structures have indeed performed remarkably well during the earthquakes due to the traditional construction systems that have indigenously developed over time. However, the hard fact is that most of these structures are increasingly vulnerable due to the gradual loss of traditional knowledge.  The crucial challenge is how to make traditional knowledge relevant to contemporary building context, including life line buildings such as schools, hospital and ultimately houses. This would require us to address contemporary structural adaptation of traditional knowledge necessary for achieving a safe and sustainable future.

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Life enhancing programs through AKPBS,P’s interventions in the northern areas

Text: Compiled by Maria Aslam-Hyder

Visuals: Courtesy AKPBS,P

The northern areas of Pakistan are among the most isolated areas of the western end of the Himalayas, surrounded by high mountain passes. The area’s remote human communities reside in narrow valleys dominated by mountains and rivers. Ethnic diversity of these areas is unique, and many of the passes are migration routes between central Asia and the Indian sub-continent. The construction of the Karakoram Highway has opened the area to outside influences.

Pakistan’s northern regions are disaster prone, falling in a seismically unstable zone at the point of confluence of the Indian and the Eurasian plates. These regions are regularly impacted by natural disaster events such as earthquakes, floods, landslides and droughts. Degradation of natural resources, especially the loss of foliage and vegetation, has caused land degradation and soil destabilization. Earthquakes have resulted in the destruction of houses, infrastructure, facilities and property, as well as creating economic and social hardship.

The Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN), through its various development agencies and affiliate bodies, has been working for the social, economic and environmental uplift of these communities for decades. Recognizing the connection between poverty, high seismic risk and poor housing construction, habitat risk management has always been essential to the AKDN development process, with physical development undertaken to minimize risks associated with natural disasters.

As part of the AKDN, the Aga Khan Planning and Building Service, Pakistan, (AKPBS,P) undertakes initiatives to develop built infrastructure and promote indigenous construction technology in these areas. AKPBS,P assists organizations and institutions to improve communities’ built environment and living conditions through applied research and implementation; improved technological products and tools; and institutional capacity building.

AKPBS,P takes an integrated, community-based approach to sustainable development while its development programmes address not only the immediate needs of clean water, adequate sanitation and safe housing, but also, have an overall impact on economic, social and environmental sustainability. Poverty alleviation, environmental sustainability, gender equality, natural resource management and economic regeneration are the basic objectives of AKPBS,P’s interventions. Capable, proficient, vibrant and self-reliant community based organisations underpin all AKPBS,P’s developmental interventions.

AKPBS,P’s programmes, Water and Sanitation Extension Programme (WASEP) and Building and Construction Improvement Programme (BACIP)  have been cited as Good Practice Cases in the 2010 UNDP MDG Good Practices publication. In 2011, AKPBS,P was awarded the Ashden Award for Sustainable Energy for avoided deforestation.

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Early Recovery Interventions in flood affected areas of Sindh by AKPBS,P

Text: Mishaal Rozina Merchant

 Visuals: Courtesy AKPBS,P

Living in the flood plains of river Indus on the southern side, are many small clusters of settlements of fishermen and agrarian communities. The monsoons bringing water downstream the river are sometimes a source of joy and misery at others. When bringing fresh water fish and alluvial soils it provides people with sustenance and when striking with its full fury it sweeps away their homes. Such was a disaster in August 2010; over 17 million people were directly affected by the floods having to go through the trauma of leaving their homes, land and belongings behind and relocating to unknown places for indeterminate time periods. Thatta being the confluence of River Indus and the Arabian sea, is prone to double disaster from the flooding of the river and the sea level rise.

“I am enthusiastic over humanity’s extraordinary and sometimes very timely ingenuity. If you are in a shipwreck and all the boats are gone, a piano top buoyant enough to keep you afloat that comes along makes a fortuitous life preserver. But this is not to say that the best way to design a life preserver is in the form of a piano top. I think that we are clinging to a great many piano tops in accepting yesterday’s fortuitous contrivings as constituting the only means for solving a given problem.”

Richard Buckminister Fuller

Aga Khan Planning and Building Service, Pakistan (AKPBS,P) – an agency of the Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN) - partnered with The Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance (organizational unit within USAID)  to take  on the challenge of post disaster reconstruction in rural Sindh.  With the unique methodology of using locally available materials to endure the local weather conditions, research, documentation, rigorous monitoring and evaluation, and encouraging continuous feedback from the local communities led to design enhancement as a continuous evolutionary process. This approach made the 2,800 shelters more durable and responsive to the traditional housing needs of the communities, and changed the lives of almost 14,000 Internally Displaced Persons in 120 villages. These communities now have access to clean drinking water and sanitation facilities through the 148 toilet blocks and 234 hand pumps installed in the region.

Deprived of toilet facilities and rain proof shelters, for many, the intervention was a life changing enhancement - clean drinking water, proper toilets with privacy and soak pits are a luxury for many in this region. For the first time, these women in Sindh have access to private toilets giving them privacy and dignity.

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