Reconstruction for low-income communities in earthquake zones: an investigation for the implementation of community-managed housing reconstruction programmes in low-income countries located in earthquakes zones

The world's earthquake problem is increasing without a change in the earth's geology. Human suffering during earthquakes is almost entirely caused by man-made structures. This is mainly because the world's population is fast increasing and previously unoccupied areas are now being inhabited without much attention being given to vulnerability of the building sites and construction techniques. Such buildings cannot withstand even moderate earthquakes. Earthquake fatality records show that most of the losses to life occur in low-income and lower middle-income countries. Economic losses due to earthquakes arc usually large in high-income countries. The financial impact of earthquake disasters is greater in poorer countries, who find serious problems in rebuilding their towns and villages after a disaster. Most government-implemented reconstruction programmes in low-income and lower middle-income countries have failed because they did not meet the socio-economic needs of the earthquake victims. Consequently a majority of such communities were obliged to live in vulnerable houses. The lack of acceptability of most reconstruction programmes emphasised the need to investigate and analyse the associated problems. This has been performed by studying a recently implemented programme. lt was intended to review the earthquake-victims' response to the programme and what should be done to introduce efficient and effective earthquake-resistant construction strategies in the hazard-prone areas. For this purpose, field work was carried out in the Republic of Yemen to study the reconstruction programme undertaken after the 1982 earthquake. The research findings suggest that reconstruction programmes will be implemented more efficiently and effectively, if the people living in earthquake-affected area arc aware of the hazard and they manage the location, design and construction of their houses using safe techniques. The study proposes certain measures for adoption by the governments of such countries to mitigate the risk of disasters in earthquake-prone areas.