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4.1 Introduction The previous chapters summarise work done recently inBangladesh to increase the resilience of low-income housing tonatural hazards. Although similar work has been done in manyplaces around the world over the past 50 years, almost 20% ofthe world's population sti11lives in insecure housing. There hasclearly been a failure to communicate essential building forsafety messages to the people who need them most. It isimportant to consider for whom those messages are targeted.

The largest target group needs little explanation: it is those20% of the world who stand to gain most from bettertechnology and who commonly build their own houses withlittle or no training. However, to help those on low incomesachieve their ambitions for better homes, the messages mustbe disseminated throughout a network of persons,professionals, legislators and institutions who either practiceor could support the building for safety process.

4.1.1

Non-GovernmentalOrganisations(NGOs)

In the past, most shelter programmes have concentrated onprovision of new, improved 'low-cost' houses to selectedbeneficiaries. Typically, beneficiaries would have noinfluence over either the selection process or design of thehouse and consequently the design was inappropriate. Often,in these programmes houses went to households that were notamong the most needy.

Over the years, participatory approaches have helped torefine the targeting of benefits and to allow beneficiaries togive more input into the design process. However, the useand effectiveness of 'participation' remains variable indistribution and quality, and most programmes still give itlittle more than lip service.

4.1.2 NationalLegislators

It is axiomatic in most administrations that laws are made topreserve the status quo. Any progressive legislation tends to

212 BUILDING SAFER HOUSES IN RURAL BANGLADESH

be drafted from the perspective of the educated urban eliteswho commonly comprise legislative bodies. The rural poorhave little power; in the absence of knowledge of crucialpolicy issues, legislation often favours the more politicallyconscious upper classes.

It is, therefore, important to inform urban decision-makersof building for safety issues and to encourage a morepragmatic approach to solving the problems resulting frompoor housing. The corollary is the rural people need to bemotivated and to become aware of what, at least indemocratic states, they may reasonably expect in the way ofinstitutional support as they struggle with their environment.

4.1.3 TechnicalProfessionals

Technicians are trained to seek and implement technicalsolutions to problems. They commonly view the solutions tostrengthening low-income housing as trivial and not worthconsidering. If they do consider the options, they are amazedthat such simple solutions have not previously beenimplemented. There is a big challenge to face in makingtechnical professionals aware of the socio-economic and otherconstraints that prevent the poorest households from buildinghazard-resistant homes. In the longer term, this could beaddressed through including training on appropriate technologywithin the educational curricula for young professionals.

4.1.4 LocalGovernmentAdministrators

Local service providers can playa big role in demonstratinggood practice and providing advice as part of a supportnetwork. Commonly, local administrators build schools,clinics, community and administrative infrastructure. Thebuildings needed for these functions provide opportunities todemonstrate building for safety techniques. As awareness ofbuilding for safety develops, local administrations could, andshould, create educational resources and a technical adviceservice to ensure that standards for workmanship and designare established and improved with time. This type of supportis now commonplace in developed economies, but inBangladesh, the prevailing tendency to avoid officialregulations would have to be taken into account.

4.2 EducatingDecision-Makersand TechnicalPersonnel

Publications, such as this one, have an important role indisseminating awareness of building for safety issues and inestablishing standards. However, the target audience for eachpublication needs to be considered carefully and its style andcontent adjusted accordingly. "

DISSEMINATION OF BUILDING FOR SAFETY MESSAGES 213

Generally, publications in English, or in anotherinternational language, can be appreciated only byeducated elites and professionals. Publications that areintended to be used at the field level might need to betranslated into an appropriate regional tongue. Even then,they might not be accessible to the owner-builder in acountry such as Bangladesh where the adult literacy rate isonly about 30%.

The higher education link programme betweenBangladesh University of Engineering and Technology(BUET) and the University of Exeter, UK has sought toinfluence decision-makers through a series of internationalseminars and associated books and published proceedings.These have raised some awareness at the national level inBangladesh, but so far have had less impact at the grassrootslevel.

Figure 4.1 shows the covers of books of the proceedingstitled "Village Infrastructure to Cope with the Environment"(Seraj et al., 2000a), "Affordable Village BuildingTechnologies" (Seraj et al., 2000b), "Implementing Hazard-Resistant Housing" (Hodgson, et al., 1999), and the booktitled "Communicating Housing Technologies in Low IncomeAreas" (Hodgson and Seraj, 2000). Although the target groupof these published materials is the educated section of thepopulation, the main concepts and technological solutionsdiscussed in these books may very well be extended to thegrassroots level in Bangladesh by suitably translating extractsinto Bengali. The book by Hodgson and Seraj (2000) isdifferent from the proceedings because it is intended toprovide tertiary level lecturers with resource material forpresentation, outlining the parameters which governtechnology transfer at the grassroots. Again, few mainstreamengineering courses can afford the time to devote to thissubject; it is expected that the materials produced might befound useful when delivered as part of general or introductorycourses to undergraduates students of building related fieldsin developing countries.

4.3 GraphicalRepresentationof TechnicalConcepts

Since drawings and photographs communicate moreeffectively than written documents and research articles in anon-literate context, it is quite important to produceappropriate dissemination techniques which utilise visualmessages.


Figure 4.1.. Covers Qfthe Books Produced Under the BUET-Exeter Link

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4.3.1

LeafletSeries

Colourful leaflets embodying building for safety messagesmay playa vital role in bringing simple technologicalsolutions to the doorstep of the users. Such an attempt wasundertaken by Seraj and Hodgson (2000a) by printing ninecolour leaflets, showing and explaining ideas which could beused for making a rural non-engineered house stronger. InFigure 4.2, these leaflets have been reproduced in grey'-scale.Here, the top portion depicts the house design improvementtechnique, and the lower part shows the correspondinginappropriate design and construction method to be avoided inpractice. These leaflets, although drawn in the context ofBangladesh, could be equally relevant in other hazard-proneareas.

Figure 4.2: Folderof Leaflet Serieswith Building forSafety Messages.The Leaflets areShown on theFollowing Pages


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PAINTING BOTTOM OF THE POST IS MOST IMPORTANT

To slow down the decay of the bamboo post treat them with burning and paint with alcatra or soak them in oil asshown on Leaflet 2. The decay is worst near ground so at least treat the bottom 1m before putting the pole into theground. Make sure that at least 200 mm of the treated pole remains above ground so that ants and rain watercannot affect it. The poles should be repainted every year for the longest life.This is only one way of making your house strongel: Other leaflets show more ideas which may also be used.


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RAISING THE FLOOR ABOVE THE FLOOD

Make sure that your house plinth is high enough to make your floor above expected flood level. You can markflood levels on trees to remind you. If your house is in a place where floods happen often then you can make themud stronger in several ways (see Leaflet 9).This is only one way of making your house strongel: Other leaflets show more ideas which may also be used.


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USE TREES TO REDUCE THE WIND STRENGTHThe wind can more easily destroy your house if it is in an open place. You can protect your house by planting tressnearby.This is only one way of making your house strongel: Other leaflets show more ideas which may also be used.


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BUILD HOUSE IN COMPOUNDS

If the houses in a village are put in straight, parallel rows, the wind is forced between them and its speed becomesgreater. It is, thus, better to make houses in compounds with trees between to avoid this problem.This is only one way of making your house strange/: Other leaflets show more ideas which may also be used.


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4.3.2 Raul SongTeam andVideo

In rural Bangladesh, village song teams often perform atweddings and other social gatherings. The skills of thosesingers may be utili sed effectively for disseminatinginformation related to various development issues.

Seraj and Hodgson (2000b) implemented the idea oftechnological information dissemination by producing a 17-minute, professionally created, video presentation containingthree baul songs explaining building for safety ideas. Figure4.3 shows the baul song team performing in a village. Thelyrics of these songs are given in Figure 4.4.

Figure 4.3: RaulSong TeamPerforms at VariousVillage Occasions


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Figure 4.4 Lyrics in Bangia of the Baul Songs in theDissemination Video Produced Underthe BUET-Exeter Link

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About The Baul Song Video

Secure shelter which protects the family against its environment is universallyrecognised as a basic right for all. Despite decades of research, many millions oflow income families remain at the mercy of winds, floods, earthquakes and othernatural forces. Nowhere is this more so than in Bangladesh.In this situation, it is important to find ways to communicate technical knowledgeto the grassroots where it is needed most, and the Baul Song Video is an attempt todo so. 'Bauls' are traditional village singers that communicate spiritual and othermessages to a large rural audience. This tradition was utilised to disseminatebuilding for safety messages.In the songs of the Baul Song Video, printed in BangIa above, several methods formaking stronger rural houses have been suggested. It is anticipated that theproposed hazard-resistant technologies are appropriate, affordable andimplementable by rural Bangladeshi homeowners and craftspersons who arepredominantly poor. The small extra cost that some of these techniques mayinvolve is expected to be balanced by saving in costs of rebuilding the house. TheVideo is the product of a Higher Education Link between the BangladeshUniversity of Engineering & Technology and the Housing & Hazards Group basedat the University of Exeter, UK.

228

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Figure 4.6: Pocket Calendars Each with a Buildingfor Safety Message


4.3.4 Website In this age of increased information and communicationnetworks, the internet plays a vital role in disseminatinginformation across the globe. The web sitewww.HazardResistantHousing.com (see Figure 4.7 for a viewof the homepage) has been launched to facilitate networkingand to assist people in other hazard-prone areas. The websitecontains information pertaining to hazard-resistantconstruction and strengthening of non-engineered structures.

Figure: 4.7 Page from the Website www. HazardResistantHousing.com

4.3.5:

Mass Media The newspaper, radio, television and other arms of the massmedia may be utilised effectively for communicating anddisseminating building for safety messages. Among severalother exposures to the mass media, the UK-based BBC Radio4 produced a program titled CONNECT: The House on theRock on November 13, 2002. In this program the presenterdiscussed with BUET and Exeter academics what science andengineering could offer people whose houses are built inhazardous regions. Apart from producing this informativeprogram, BBC Radio 4 displayed relevant information andimages on its website (see Fig~e 4.8).


my BBC

Contact Us

Help

*** See the slideshow of pictures from Bangladesh ***

There's no place like home. But millions of people around the worldlive in the almost certain knowledge that theirs will be destroyed at anunknown time in the future by a natural hazard. Extreme events suchas cyclones, floods, earthquakes and fires leave hundreds of millionsof people homeless every year. Many of the climatic events areincreasing in frequency and population growth coupled with migrationtowards coastal economic centres is causing many more people tobecome vulnerable. In this episode of Connect Quentin Cooper askswhat science and engineering can offer people whose houses are builtin some of the most hazardous places on earth.

l...~.?..,"'. to ._,

Figure 4.8: BBC Radio 4 Website Displaying the Programme on Housing andHazards in Bangladesh

4.3.6 TrainingProgrammes

Training programmes targeted specifically for organisationsand persons active in the field serve as an effective vehicle fordisseminating research findings so that they find their wayinto practice. Academics from BUET and Exeter Universityhave been running training workshops to build capacity ofstaff members of grassroots-based organisations and to thusextend knowledge beyond the confines of their premises. Aworkshop series, consisting of three workshops, was run inDhaka during 2000. Two of the workshops were held incollaboration with important Bangladeshi organisations -theGrameen Bank and Proshika. Great interest was expressed bymany people from a variety of organisations and importantlinks were made. This was carried over to a capacity buildingworkshop for grassroots workers in a rural area of Dinajpurdistrict, resulting in a stabilised mud-walled village housebuilt by using ideas developed at BUET and Exeter. Capacity


Figure 4.9:'Hands-On I Sessionson StabilisedMud Constructionat a TrainingWorkshop

4.3.7 Long-TermImpact

building workshops have also been run for BRAC(Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee) staff members,which have resulted in workshop participants implementingbuilding for safety methods in houses built through theirprogrammes in northern Bangladesh. In the rural workshops,'hands-on' construction sessions on stabilised mudconstruction and bamboo/thatch treatment were an essentialingredient, allowing office-based staff members to gainunderstanding on the application of these methods in actualconditions (Figure 4.9).


It is very important to keep a detailed record of alltechnological achievements and failures in order to contributeto future work and to avoid repetition. In addition to servingas a record, all the publications and other products describedabove were also produced as dissemination materials, to serveas useful documentation for future reference. Visualdocumentation is particularly effective for record-keeping,dissemination and as educational resources, such as the videos(Figure 4.10) produced by Amanat (2002) on Wind TunnelTests and by Ahmed (2002) on Participatory Action Research.These materials are expected to have long-term educationaland practical value for future researchers and end-users.

Figure 4.10: Video Documentation Produced Under the DUET-Exeter Link

4.4 Guidelines Lack of dissemination of potentially effective technologies isfor Dissemination a problem. Technologies designed by professionals or inof Research research institutions, quite often technically sound and testedFindings rigorously may result in cost effectiveness if implemented.

However, comparatively few have achieved widespreadimpact and social acceptance. There is little detailed researchon aspects of social success or post-project performance. Forexample, in Bangladesh mud houses are greatly susceptible tohazards such as floods, particularly in areas with unexpectedfloods, such as in the southwestern region in year 2000, wheremany mud houses collapsed or were severely damaged.Building with cement/lime stabilised earth may help toovercome this collapse. The national House Building and


Research Institute (HBRI) has undertaken extensive researchinto improvements to mud structures, but very few examplesof application in the field or dissemination of researchfindings exist.

There are tremendous challenges involved in researchdissemination and is a field demanding greater attention andmore extensive study. Yet some simple and basic guidelinescan be suggested here:

....

Any increase in cost, even slight, meets resistance frompoor communities who survive on subsistence incomes.Technologies clearly have to be combined with access tofunds. The Grameen Bank's rural housing programmedemonstrates the potential for such a course.Poor communities, especially those in vulnerable situationsand exposed to hazards, are reluctant to take risks withnew and unfamiliar technologies. Therefore,demonstration through pilot projects is needed. Newtechnologies used in institutional or community buildingsoften convince local communities of their merits. In ahousing project in Zambia, for instance, it was initiallyconceived that machine-pressed stabilised earth blockswere for use for house building, and blocks were madeavailable to project beneficiaries. However, they did notprefer the blocks, which were then used in building aschool. This highlighted their effectiveness andattractiveness; local households then began using them fortheir houses (Goethert, 1990).Rural development programmers run by agencies need tobe supplemented by research institutions, leading to a twoway process. Feedback from the field enhances the workof research institutions and field-based agencies benefitfrom the expertise of research institutions.Agencies working in the field need to connect to relevantexisting bodies of information. For example, improvedconstruction technology with bamboo and mud developedin Central America and India could have relevance toBangladesh. Intemationallinkage may have much to offer.Support to extension workers through manuals, books andinstruction sheets on construction methods prepared byprofessionals or academics may be useful. Such literatureshould be prepared in local language, with culturallycomprehended pictorial matter for effective

.


communication. Mass or popular media may also utilisethese methods. Documents in a technical language thatconfines it to experts is not useful; they have to betranslated into simple, easily comprehensible form forrural populations.

.Post-project evaluation with surveys of user needs is anecessary component of applied research and alsoprovides an opportunity to assess receptiveness ofcommunities to new technologies. This would encouragecommunity participation and assist in understanding thepotential for acceptability at the community level.

.Dealing with natural hazards is linked to a wider set ofsocial, cultural, economic and environmental issues;technological innovation has to be understood withrespect to these. Technologies that appear sound areuseful only if they able to reach the community andcontribute to aspirations that the community has.

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Documents

design process

to212 building safer

safety process

insecure housing

frompoor housing

lowcost houses

rural people

houses withlittle