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Technical Brief: English
The fundamental need for shelter can be easily recognised: people must have protection from the elements, somewhere to grow as a family, a place to work from and a home to call their own. In many countries people do not have the resources to buy houses built by professionals but rely on their own labour, using local materials to build their homes gradually. People make improvements and extend their houses as family requirements change and resources permit.
On the evening of 29 May 1990 Alto Mayo (see Figure 1) was struck by an earthquake measuring 6 on the Richter scale. The effects were felt in an area covering more than 8000 square kilometres, damage was sustained by 8000 houses with nearly 3000 irreparably damaged. These figures only begin to suggest the magnitude of loss felt by local communities. In the district capitals of Habana and Soritor, eight out of ten houses were destroyed.
Practical Action is an organisation focused on achieving long-term, sustainable development and does not undertake disaster relief. However, Practical Action (then called ITDG) was well placed to assist in the reconstruction efforts; staff who worked in the area were well known by local people. In partnership with local organisations Practical Action had established working relationships and friendships that enabled them to quickly become involved in preparing a reconstruction plan.
Relief intervention was the remit of Cáritas Peru, a church organisation supported by an international network of organisations concerned with humanitarian work. Given the disruption to daily lives caused by the earthquake, Practical Action recognised the opportunity to create long- term benefit and was careful to consider how people could participate in rebuilding homes. Reconstruction had to continue at a pace that people could afford and at the same time meet people's need for economic survival alongside their need for shelter. Practical Action had to be certain that activities proceeded in accordance with local people's priorities and would not be dominated by external pressures and agendas.
Practical Action's intervention in the reconstruction began in the town of Soritor (see map). This settlement was chosen as the starting point for two reasons: the extent of damage sustained in the town was relatively high as was the level of community organisation. Social structures existed that enabled Practical Action to consult with the local community despite the disruptive impact of the earthquake. After community meetings Practical Action engineers and social scientists developed a reconstruction plan for the Alto Mayo region which was then presented to the local authorities.
The community based organisation FEDIP (el Frente de Defensa de los Intereses del Pueblo de Soritor) had evolved in the preceding years, during times of economic hardship, to negotiate prices and represent the interests of local producers: their organisational skills and knowledge proved to be critical in achieving project success. Soritor is divided into six neighbourhoods; each of these had an existing neighbourhood committee that organised collective meetings to discuss reconstruction efforts. FEDIP's experience of fighting for the interests of small-scale agricultural producers meant they were well aware of the realities of local life with a strong committee structure, they were able to seek the views of, and represent, people at district, provincial and departmental levels.
With financial support from the British Embassy and the Overseas Development Administration of the United Kingdom (now the Department for International Development) backed up with technical documentation from university researchers and photographic evidence of houses built in Huacucho, Duval Zambrano and Hermelando Aliaga, of Practical Action, set about consultation exercises with the 5000 inhabitants of Soritor.
Figure 3: Maria rebuilt the family home using improved quincha ©. Download the full PDF version to see this picture/table/diagrams.
María seen with her daughters Kary, Rosa and Zoryisabel, rebuilt her house on the outskirts of Moyobamba in a neighbourhood called Huacucho. The process of reconstruction was not an easy one for Maria but she feels she learnt a great deal from her involvement in her community's affairs. Despite considerable pressure from her husband to rebuild their house in bricks and concrete, Maria saw the improved quincha project as a realistic opportunity to rebuild a roof over her family's heads. She sold her sewing machine to obtain the necessary capital to purchase building materials. María was chosen by her community to represent their views in project discussions and negotiations. Alongside a male representative she was to become involved in a series of activities which, she says, developed her skills in dealing with people and built her self-confidence.
The Huacucho Neighbourhood Reconstruction Committee that María represented became an agricultural cooperative. María worked with other men and women to generate income by raising small livestock, selling agricultural produce and home-made food in the local market place. For a period she was also president of the Mothers' Club. Once María felt she had played those particular roles in community leadership for long enough she went into business for herself. Her considerable skills are also put to use as governor at the local school attended by her three daughters.
During the initial six months after the earthquake, efforts focused on recording people's ideas, aspirations and concerns in order that these could be included in the Alto Mayo Reconstruction and Development Plan. Of equal, or perhaps greater significance was the process of drawing people together to share their opinions. This process enabled Practical Action and their project partners to develop practical working relationships and organisational structures to forge links with the wider local population. The reconstruction plan was not seen as a quick-fix solution to the very apparent housing problems but as an opportunity to link post-disaster efforts directly into long-term development activities.
With such a large and immediate need for rebuilding it was crucial for Practical Action to be confident that the people who would benefit from the project were those who needed it most. Practical Action relied heavily on FEDIP and Cáritas to ensure that selection of project beneficiaries was undertaken in an objective manner and was seen to be fair. Initially the feeling locally was that everyone was a victim of the earthquake and that everyone should therefore benefit equally from incoming aid. However, it soon became apparent that some people had more resources at their disposal than others.
Practical Action staff did not decide who the project beneficiaries would be, though staff were often intermediaries in complex negotiations with various parties. Neighbourhood committee members were consulted first, and were asked to write down a list of. 30 - 35 heads of households. The people on that list were subsequently classified by Practical Action 's Community Liaison Officer into four categories:
This list of people was then passed to the local order of nuns who made final adjustments and decided who the beneficiaries should be.
One immediate problem Practical Action had to tackle was the widely held belief that external interveners like Practical Action and Cáritas would provide all the materials required; 1990 was an election year and politicians seeking election might have encouraged people to believe that new houses would be freely available. A high level of expectation existed - in some people's minds that Practical Action's role was as a housing provider: they should build the houses for people and hand over keys upon completion. Practical Action strongly believes that it is more useful to help people to help themselves and to assist in building technological capacity in order that people benefit in the long term, after Practical Action's project is over.
During early discussions it was not clear which building technologies would be chosen. It could be argued that earthquake resistance was the only criterion governing the technical choices to be made. However, Practical Action believes that sustainable development depends upon a good deal more than predetermined technical solutions.
Using drawings, manuals, photographs and videos from pilot housing projects in other regions of Peru, project staff were able to demonstrate building technologies. A series of meetings resulted in an increasing level of understanding between project partners of their respective roles and the nature of support that was being offered; as well as linking needs and priorities to design and technology.
The technologies used to build houses cannot be viewed in isolation from their social or economic context. Although Practical Action staff could see benefits in working with improved, local technologies, they were also aware that people tend to prefer 'materiales nobles' (noble materials), such as fired brick and reinforced concrete. These modern technologies are of higher status, greater durability and longer-term financial value. However, affordable, earthquake-resistant building technologies were required for rebuilding; many of the rammed earth 'tapial' houses failed in the earthquake but 'quincha' (a type of wattle and daub) had shown its inherent earthquake resistance. The need for affordable, locally available, safe shelter won the argument: Practical Action project engineers and local men and women decided that 'improved quincha' was a preferable and practicable technology choice.
Olympia Guerra became known in her neighbourhood as 'La Maestra' - The Craftswoman. She lived as a single woman in the village of Jepelacio and worked in a neighbourhood building team with four other women and four men. She felt that operating in a small group was beneficial as everyone had to do their share of the work. Olympia was taught by a skilled craftsman who was employed by Practical Action to assist in the reconstruction project. With newly developed skills Olympia learnt how to build a concrete base for her own house and then went on to help others do the same.
Practical Action were keen to employ Olympia as an extension agent but the strongly held belief that building is a man's job, coupled with peer pressure, is said to have made this impossible. Instead she participated in the team's own workload and played an active role in the reconstruction of her own and other neighbours' houses during a programme of activities lasting more than six months.
Quincha technology has been used in parts of Peru for many centuries. Traditionally, a quincha house would have a round pole frame which was set directly into the ground, infilled with smaller wooden poles and interwoven to form a matrix which is then plastered with one or more layers of earth. Since 1535, the Spanish colonisers employed quincha for building domes on top of massive earthen church walls. The 1746 earthquake, which had a devastating impact upon the city of Lima, triggered much wider use of quincha. After that earthquake, the governors of Peru decreed that any construction above ground floor level should be built of quincha. One can still find older houses in Lima with earth walls at ground floor level and a quincha structure above.
In the Alto Mayo region, a large proportion of the population have immigrated from the mountainous region of Cajamarca where massive earthen architecture predominates. The collective memory of these people did not include experience of earthquakes and their technology choices reflected their earthquake-free homelands.
An earthquake in 1970 produced renewed interest in earthquake-resistant building technologies. During the 1980s researchers at the Catholic University, the National Engineering University and the National Institute of Housing of Peru, supported by the United States Agency for International Development, investigated ways of improving upon traditional building materials and housing systems: they focused in particular on quincha technology.
The results of investigating quincha technology in a university environment were new designs with increased earthquake resistance. Research highlighted methods of improving durability and creating standardised construction units. Housing units were designed to include uniform measurements of 1.2m between structural columns which were made of square timber sections (200mm x 200mm).
Practical Action engineers drew on this academic research when presenting the improved technology to the men and women of Soritor. Technical details were soon adapted once Practical Action project engineers and technicians started work in Alto Mayo. For example, timber poles replaced the square columns as they are more readily available and do not require machinery or labour to process them from their raw state.
Improved quincha has the following characteristics over and above traditional quincha:
Improved quincha has many advantages in addition to earthquake resistance. Easy access to materials and low cost were of primary concern to Practical Action and to local men and women. The local availability of timber poles, bamboo and earth means that improved quincha is more suited to a self-help building programme than many alternatives.
Practical Action Latin America Av Jorge Chávez 275 Miraflores Casilla Postal 18-0620 Lima 18 Peru
Tel: +511 447-5127 Tel: +511 444-7055 Tel: +511 446-7324 Fax: +511 446-6621
info@solucionespracticas.org.pe www.PracticalAction.org
This article was added to our catalogue on Friday 20 October, 2006.
