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‘Earthquakes Don’t Kill People…Bad Buildings Do’
Jan, 21 2010
“In Haiti a block is maybe an eighth of the weight of a concrete block that you’d buy in the U.S.,” says Peter Haas, the executive director of the Appropriate Infrastructure Development Group (AIDG).
(Haiti) -- Many people have been surprised to learn that the earthquake that struck Haiti last week, which measured 7.0 on the Richter scale, was the same severity as the 1989 San Francisco quake (also a 7.0). The scenarios afterward, however, couldn’t be more different: The San Fran quake left around 12,000 homeless and killed just 63 people. Haiti, meanwhile, has been thrown into utter chaos, with 1.5 million people potentially homeless and a death toll that is reportedly approaching 200,000. The crucial differences, of course, were building codes and access to emergency services. Time’s Bryan Walsh has reported on just how bad the codes and building practices in Haiti were:
Haiti, the poorest country in the western Hemisphere, had nothing — what building codes it had were unenforced, police and other emergency personnel were almost nonexistent and many of its people were already in ill health….
“Earthquakes don’t kill people,” says John Mutter, a seismologist and disaster expert at Columbia University’s Earth Institute. “Bad buildings kill them.” And Haiti had some of the worst buildings in world. There are building codes, but in a country that has been ranked as the 10th most corrupt in the world, enforcement is lax at best. The concrete blocks used to construct buildings in the capital are often handmade, and are of wildly varying quality. “In Haiti a block is maybe an eighth of the weight of a concrete block that you’d buy in the U.S.,” says Peter Haas, the executive director of the Appropriate Infrastructure Development Group (AIDG), an NGO that has worked on buildings in Haiti. “You end up providing buildings quickly and cheaply but at great risk.”
The poor construction practices were so pervasive that they even crossed class boundaries — while the poorly-constructed slums collapsed during the quake, so did Port-au-Prince’s luxury hotels and the UN’s mission headquarters. As such, a week later many Haitians are still struggling to find a safe place to seek shelter — who would want to sleep in a building that may still collapse, particularly since aftershocks are still occurring?
As for rebuilding, the paradox is that to simply rebuild would be a colossal mistake — the entire system needs to be overhauled, or else more sub-standard structures will go up to replace the old ones, making the country a sitting duck once again when the next hurricane or earthquake strikes. Walsh notes that rebuilding efforts can make use of innovations like building improvements for pre-fab housing, which make it tougher and more resistant to quakes. But, as with all building projects, these projects will take money. While relief efforts are still pouring in, it’s unclear how much of the foreign aid will go to simply restoring the population to some safety and order, and how much, if any of it will be leftover for rebuilding.
by Melissa Lafsky
SOURCE: http://www.infrastructurist.com/2010/01/20/earthquakes-dont-kill-peoplebad-buildings-do-more-on-haitis-building-codes/
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Bad Buildings is also bad suppliers
Suppliers of construction materials have a special Corporate Social Responsability in developing countries to see to it that their products are properly used.
When they have a monopoly position like most cement companies do in developing countries, the attention for quality is often poor, as I have witnessed in the Caribbean. Education how to make good concrete is virtually limited to 3 shovel gravel, 2 shovels sand, 1 shovel cement, some water.
When you realize how many hours an American or a Western European has to work to buy a bag of cement and how many hours in Haiti, it better be exeptionally good!
So we will do our best to popularize better production of concrete in developing countries and quality control this time and Name, Shame or Fame suppliers on the internet who are and who are not cooperating. I will not name names this time around and hope to be constructive, for the future of concrete, that of the developing countries and especially Haiti.
PS Happy to see that TITAN cement got on the 7th place in CSR!
Posted By : Boudewijn Piscaer
Posted On : 1/22/2010 8:52:35 AM
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