Appropriate technology for post-disaster reconstruction - Rebuilding After Disasters: From Emergency to Sustainability - page 62

by various NGOs, most homeowners still prefer to replace traditional tiled
sloping roofs with flat concrete slabs, even though the former are much safer
compared to flat concrete roofs, which merely collapsed like cards after the
earthquake. Ironically, similar processes were seen four years later after
the Kashmir earthquake, where many reinforced cement concrete (RCC)
constructions built after the earthquake did not follow even the basic rules
of construction. For instance, rather than resting directly on the beams, the
roof slabs of many structures were cast on two or three brick courses placed
on the beams, which in some cases were not even at the same level. 6
In a particular reconstruction site named Indraprashtha Nagar, the housing
that was built by an NGO used a synthetic material for roofing that leaks
during the rainy season. As a result, the residents have built a concrete slab
without any reinforcement. So strong is the misperception against stones that
even temples, which were originally built of stones, are being reconstructed
in poorly mixed concrete but following exactly the same design as before
(Figure 3.8).
One of the ironies of reconstruction after the Gujarat earthquake, as well
as after the Marathwada and Kashmir earthquakes, was that stone, the main
building material for the majority of the housing in rural as well as urban
areas, was rejected outright by engineers as well as by the local people. Very
few realized that the basic reason for heavy damage sustained by stone con-
struction was not the stone itself but the way it was used as poorly bonded
Figure 3.8 New temples in Chandrani. Due to widespread post-earthquake fear
of the use of stones, replicas of traditional stone temples built with
concrete can be seen in Chandrani village, Gujarat.