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Kashmir Earthquake Don't let it happen again!

Shelter Advisor Visit: VIDEOS
Difficult Access Most of the earthquake-affected region is of extremely difficult access, which will make the reconstruction process more difficult to monitor.	Scattered Housing Scattered houses make up most of the rural housing stock (over 80% of the total) in Kashmir and NWFP.	Still Waiting for Help - English Housing inspections, governmental aid packages, NGOs have reached this village. Its sin: being on the wrong side of the provincial boundaries.

Basic Improvements to be Considered: Through Stones
Through Stones The use of through stones is recommended in most manuals dealing with the improvement of low-cost housing in seismic regions. However, their effectiveness had not been assessed using analytical methods. A simple analytical model (UDEC) was used to analyze the effectiveness of introducing through stones in the wall. The results clearly indicated that they do increase both the stability and ductility of a two-wythe stone wall. Click Here For More Details	Delamination Process in a Two-Wythe Stone Wall

Unreinforced Stone Masonry Problem Statement - Most of the unreinforced stone masonry dwellings were either badly damaged or destroyed during the recent Kashmir/Pakistan earthquake. - Most of these houses belong to very poor people who cannot afford to hire masons or buy cement and steel for reinforcement. - As soon as the weather conditions will allow it, they will go back to their destroyed villages and rebuild their houses using the same deficient construction practices (or worst: time constraint). Current Situtation - Most of them are going to spend the winter somewhere at lower elevations near the urban areas and sometime in March they will start going back to the villages in the mountains. - Many of the affected people will be jobless for the next couple of monthsand ready to participate in a construction workshop Objectives 1. Printed materials: raise the awareness among the people whose houses were destroyed about the deficiencies of the traditional stone masonry construction practices and provide cost-free solutions. 2. Workshops: Organize one-day hands-on workshops to teach improved construction practices. 3. Construction supervision: Train and organize people (and soldiers?) to supervise the future construction of houses. Widows should be offered construction assistance.The construction supervision should ensure that the construction improvements are implemented in the correct way. This supervision can be done by volunteers and or soldiers 4. Widows and elderly people will have to be given additional assistance in the reconstruction of their homes Useful links IAEE Guidelines for Earthquake Resistant Non-Engineered Construction ARUP: Design Guide for the Repair of Earthquake Damaged Buildings, India Learning Earthquake Design And Construction Construction Guidelines For Earthquake Resistant Buildings Improving Earthquake Resistance (and others) of Housing Construction Manual for EQ Resistant Eathern Buildings Corrugated Roofing Precast Made Easy	Simple construction manual to improve the construction of unreinforced dry stone masonry at no additional cost. Download Download English
	Additional useful manuals Adobe Tutorial User friendly, self-learning tutorial to build improved adobe structures. Download (PDF)
	Reinforced Masonry Manual Basic construction rules to build safe masonry structure using cost-effective reinforcement Download (PDF)