Real Risk

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effectiveness, durability, and responsiveness to local needs. Almost

40 such facilities have been built to date, with German and British

support.

Training to build seismically safe buildings

Wood has traditionally been used for building reinforcement in

northern Pakistan. This has lessened over recent decades as forests

have diminished and more cement, steel and bricks are being used

for local construction. This has made the local houses unsafe and

non-durable, as craftsmen lack the skills to properly use modern

materials and the resulting elaborate, high-maintenance structures

are vulnerable to earthquake risks. To address these issues, AKPBSP

initiated two programmes in 1988:

• The Mobile Training Course (MTC) for semi-skilled adults

• The Basic Engineering Course (BEC) for schoolchildren.

The 5-6 week long MTC takes place in villages, with hands-on train-

ing in the form of constructing an actual building. At the end of

each MTC, a toolkit and a manual are given to the village organiza-

tion to be loaned free of charge. Enhancing the community

participatory approach, the course deals with topics including site

selection and planning for construction, house orientation, and

building materials.

The BEC aims at creating awareness among schoolchildren about

improving and maintaining the quality of the environment. Manuals

are carefully conceptualized to be accessible to children of various

age groups, and are continually upgraded, while an inbuilt moni-

toring system charts the success of the course.

The popularity of the MTC/BEC is clear from its social accept-

ability and increasing enrolments. Its value is also evident in the

improved shelter construction in NA/C. Through community

effort, trained people also help unskilled neighbours, and there is

a marked improvement in living standards. Over 3,000 craftsmen

and children have benefited form MTC and BEC courses. A recent

internal evaluation found that over 70 per cent of MTC partici-

pants have been able to significantly improve their earnings

because of the course.

Housing and construction improvement

Private dwellings in northern Pakistan are often found in clusters,

combined to form communities or villages. There are three distinct

types of house: Bipush or Kho houses, plain area houses, and

terraced area houses. The houses are mostly made of timber

columns and beams with non-load-bearing infill walls of stone, and

mud-reinforced walls with horizontally placed timber logs. Most

houses are highly vulnerable to the impacts of natural disasters,

such as high-intensity earthquakes. The problem has been exacer-

bated by the extensive use of wood for traditional house

construction, heating and cooking, which has caused excessive

degradation to vegetative cover. In addition, most community build-

ings, schools and other public buildings in the valleys are

non-engineered structures.

AKPBSP develops, manufactures and delivers affordable, region-

ally appropriate home improvement products which provide

practical solutions to issues including seismic resistant, energy effi-

cient house construction and insulation. These products and

techniques include lighter bow-string and composite beams for

reducing timber use in roof construction, HDGI wire wall rein-

forcement (earthquake resistant) to replace timber wall

reinforcement and reinforced concrete columns, and proper foun-

dation techniques to improve load bearing capacity. These

techniques, on average, cost only 5-10 per cent more then tradi-

tional construction, but are more seismically resistant, less damag-

ing to the environment, and easy to build as they optimize traditional

skills.

Non-masoned houses depend on good stone construction with

adequate tie-stones, roof diaphragms, minimum openings, low wall

constructions and short wall lengths for earthquake resistance.

Nevertheless, even the best-constructed non-masoned houses will

fail in a major earthquake. HDGI wire is provided in the shape of a

long, ladder-like mesh that can be produced locally. It is applied

horizontally between courses of stone or mud block, binding the

two faces of the wall and providing longitudinal reinforcement. The

technique is equally applicable to dry-stone masonry using stabilized

mortar only; mud walls and adobe construction; and in masoned

construction with either stone or cement blocks.

Through in-house research, AKPBSP has developed, tested and

applied over 60 different interventions to improve living condi-

tions in NA/C, from portable shelving and food storage containers

to energy-efficient and thermal-efficient house construction tech-

niques, solar products, double-glazed and roof hatch windows,

and water heating facilities. Over 12,500 products have been

installed in 5,000 households, benefiting over 43,000 people

across 100 villages and reducing annual household biomass

consumption by up to 60 per cent in the region. The ongoing

programme has been recognized by UN-HABITAT as good prac-

tice, and by the UNDP Small Grants Programme as best practice

in human and environment development.

Community preparedness

FOCUS’ Community Based Disaster Risk Management (CBDRM)

project aims to build the knowledge and skills that will enable

communities to survive and recover from natural and man-made

disasters. Community involvement and social cohesiveness are key

to the success of the project at the local level.

CBDRM has been designed for both urban and rural communi-

ties to enhance local awareness and understanding of hazards and

Training volunteers for post-disaster rescue work

Photo: FOCUS