Appropriate technology for post-disaster reconstruction - Rebuilding After Disasters: From Emergency to Sustainability - page 51

covering urban and rural situations. Ironically, 'relocation' and full-scale
'village adoption' were the main highlights of this package, very much like the
case of Marathwada, where a large-scale rehabilitation project was initiated
by the Maharashtra government and financed by the World Bank following
the 1993 earthquake. Even the criteria for relocation and house size were
strikingly similar to the earlier case. 4
However, in contrast to the Marathwada case, the government's plan for
relocating villages in Gujarat was met with stiff resistance from the local
people, who did not want to be uprooted. As a result, the Gujarat govern-
ment finally decided not to press for relocation and advocated 'owner-driven'
reconstruction as its primary approach, in contrast to the 'contractor-driven'
approach that was followed in Marathwada (see Chapter 8 for a more
in-depth review of owner-driven reconstruction in India). An owner-driven
approach primarily lays the onus of responsibility and reconstruction of
houses on the owner. It is essentially a community-led process in which the
external agencies are the facilitators. Thus the government agreed to provide
financial assistance to all those who did not want relocation and full-scale
'adoption'; such beneficiaries could undertake reconstruction on their own.
As a result, owner-driven reconstruction on such a large scale turned out to
be a pioneering attempt at post-earthquake reconstruction in India.
Under the owner-driven approach, the Gujarat government introduced
a system whereby the families who chose not to be included in any NGO
reconstruction programme received financial assistance from the govern-
ment, depending on their entitlement. The compensation was released in
three instalments, parallel to house-construction phases. The first, comprising
40 per cent of the total cost, was paid at the preparatory stage, the second
(another 40 per cent) upon completion of walls and the remaining 20 per
cent once the house was finished. The second and third instalments were only
disbursed after verification and certification by government engineers, who
were appointed for site supervision, overseeing the quality of construction
and checking the use of basic safety features during the construction. 13
With the adoption of the owner-driven approach, NGOs and international
organizations came forward to help the local communities in deciding
the design and technology of new constructions. Most of them promoted
owner-driven construction by providing the beneficiaries with construction
materials such as wood, bamboo, spreadsheets or concrete blocks and rein-
forcement bars, according to the structural design advocated by the outside
organization. As part of public-private partnership policy, the government
made the building materials available at subsidized rates. For example,
UNDP, in partnership with local NGOs such as Abhiyan, initiated the 'transi-
tion recovery concept'. As part of this concept, the shelter programme was
aimed at reducing vulnerability, building capacity, promoting sustainable
recovery, demonstrating seismic safety in housing and providing alternative
accommodation for the rural displaced. 11
As reconstruction progressed, a significant gap emerged between the initial