Financial Times

Tsunami housing
Bring in professionals, Lankan expatriates
By Sellakapu S Upasiri de Silva
The unexpected Boxing Day tragedy destroyed most of the coastal habitat. This destruction forced many concerned citizens to write to national dailies expressing their views about how to provide housing for the Tsunami victims. Some articles supported the sustainable development as a way of providing houses for Tsunami victims.

Sustainable development may be the way forward in this environmentally conscious world even though Sri Lanka is very slow in absorbing the benefits of such developments. But, in planning houses for these affected people it is very important to consider the affordability factor of such developments than meeting the sustainable development targets. As responsible professionals it is our duty to propose 'cost effective affordable dwellings' to be completed within a limited budget and the required time frame, as this rebuilding process is very urgent. Another important point we should consider is the economic impact of these sustainable development proposals if the Sri Lankan government is unable to get the funds as pledged by donors in time. If these proposals are going to hinder the government's responsibility to provide affordable housing to these people then as responsible citizens and professionals we must look for other alternative development methods to overcome unforeseen delays. One general type of dwelling is not the answer to this massive problem.

Town house
The question of how to provide housing for the Tsunami victim's has become a very hot topic in Sri Lanka today. Professionals, professional organisations and others support their preferable types of construction and try to impose them on the government as the best solution for this tragic situation. Some proposals are not even touching the sustainable development guidelines of the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-HABITAT). But, Mr. C A. Wijeyeweere of the Ministry of Housing has suggested some valuable ideas in discussing this problem. Unfortunately, in Sri Lanka responsible parties have failed to implement sustainable development methods up to now.

In my opinion implementing these development methods will be a failure at this crucial re-building process. Sustainable development methods should have implemented many years before this disaster, but now the 'time and the cost' is not in favour of such elaborate system in helping the Tsunami victims. Tsunami victims have no time to appreciate benefits from sustainable development methods and the Sri Lankan economy and the environmentalist may hinder these proposals. Providing housing should be considered along with 'affordability'. Affordability and sustainable development are in two different planes and if the government use the affordability factor then most requirements for sustainable development need to be overlooked.

Mr. Piyal Hemantha Ganepola in his article "Town Houses - A sustainable alternative to walk - up flats" - Daily News, Wednesday, 19 January 2005 has not considered the 'construction cost (including the land cost)' necessary to construct Town houses and Walk-Up flats in his comparison. Some other prominent professionals contributing their ideas on this topic have not compared any other type of low or medium cost housing to prove that their model is the cheapest. If we carefully evaluate the 'Time, Value and Cost" as the main ingredients in providing housing for these tsunami victims we must consider the best available solutions for individual's or groups. Construction Cost (including land cost) may play an important role in providing housing for these Tsunami victims as Sri Lanka is expecting foreign aid to undertake these re-construction (and new construction) works. The Sri Lankan government's main task should be to construct affordable housing meeting the aim of the United Nation Human Settlement Programme - i.e. human rights demand people to live in security, dignity and in comfort. The Sri Lankan government should plan and construct these houses within certain sustainable development parameters targeting adoptability and provision for future expansion to meet the expectations of these people.

Sustainable development is not necessarily limited to sustaining and protecting the environment alone. It is generally agreed by many economists that sustainable development lies in optimising and achieving the goals set across the three systems identified in the basic development, the economic system, social system and biophysical resources system. To achieve sustainable development the goals of these three systems should be captured and sustained. Economic growth of a country depends on its human, education, industries, employment and the environment resources. Environment falls into two categories - those to do with protecting the environment, and to do with the sustainable use of the environment.

High rises
During the last decade, world bodies played a very important part in the protection of the environment and sustainable development became a key issue. People in many developing countries including Sri Lanka realised that environmental degradation is created by inappropriate and haphazard investments or developments forced upon them. If the Sri Lankan government allows any haphazard developments for Tsunami victims forced upon them by the donor countries and NGO's providing funds for the rebuilding process without proper planning then the Sri Lankan government is guilty of degrading the environment as well as the lives of these people.

Many private sector organisations in Sri Lanka with foreign collaborators have embarked on the construction of high-rise apartment buildings with two to three bedroom units for human settlement around Colombo and the suburbia. This is a very positive move in the right direction to provide habitable settlements for human consumption. Many of these developers have taken inadequate action to protect the environment and expect the purchasers of these costly but mostly medium standard finish units to look after the fragile environment. The exorbitant cost of these high-rise units prevent a majority of middle to lower middle class citizens owning a habitable accommodation at an affordable cost. On the economic side these inflated selling prices (costs) are creating a negative impact in our economy and reverse the economic growth as developers transfer the massive profit out of the country without investing in the country.

Town Houses and Walk-Up units or flats are of two different types of developments or construction. From 1978 onwards the late President Premadasa (when he was the Prime Minister and the Minister for Housing and Construction) introduced Town Houses in Sri Lanka after a successful tour to inspect the construction of Town houses in Kenya. At that period Kenyan government (with the UN/World Bank aid) was responsible for constructing over 3000 Town houses for the upper and lower middle class citizens of Kenya.

Town houses are a welcome proposal if agreed by the people, where land is very limited (along the coastal belt with the100 meter restraint) and the purchase cost of land has risen exorbitantly. It is the duty of the government to built affordable housing, either town houses, single houses or high rise units or walk up flats (minimum three floors for cost savings), where the middle class citizen can afford to live owing a moderate house within their means. The government's approach to this rebuilding process should be one which would allow the best use of the available land to provide maximum housing units for these displaced persons. The Housing Ministry should look into housing as means of human settlement within reasonable cost with the help of UDA and other government organisations.

Town Houses - houses connected to each other with a common wall - should be undertaken only if it is affordable with the availability of land and the cost of construction. The cost difference per square metre of a low-density two storey Town House construction using full bricks or concrete blocks with concrete floor slabs compared with low -density multi unit Flats constructed with reinforced concrete frame work with medium standard finish is 5 to 10% costlier than the construction of multi-unit flats. But, inclusion of the cost of land per Town House and the high-rise flats the cost of constructing Town houses will increase according to the cost of the land. Town Houses are more secure as it provides social character and changes according to family needs. But if we restrict the land use to reduce the cost of these town houses then the expected changes will get restricted.

Torrington flats
In the early 1950's the Sri Lankan government Public Works Department constructed six-unit walk up flats in Bambalapitiya and Torrington Square for the middle management government employees. Bambalapitiya walk-up flats were designed with three bed units with few garages and shops to provide urgent needs for the occupants. But the Torrington Square flats constructed around a playing field with one solitary main entrance to these flats, was well secured with a distinguish social character. Manning Town flats near Borella of similar construction was allocated to Postal employees.

The later constructions of Soysa Pura at Ratmalana by the Department of Buildings using direct labour was of a different design and was to provide housing for the lower middle class occupants. Park Road flats constructed by the Engineering co-operation are of similar design to the Soysa Pura. Ratmalana and Park Road housing complexes had a very big maintenance problem..

Architect designed middle class flats allowing long unhealthy corridors (creating very dangerous fire risks) were very common in Sri Lanka in 1960's, before the present design revolution. In the early days it was the norm followed by our Architects to allow long corridors to reduce construction cost. But now the design revolution allows having many flats in one single floor with vertical transport/stairs and still controlling the construction cost. Even with walk-up flats of Three (2/3) floors Architects can design to have more than two units per floor as constructed in other countries.

Property laws
Whether we construct town houses, or flats the government should formulate regulations under Condominium Property Laws and appoint a committee (from the occupants) to manage these properties with full time Managers (NHDA can undertake this task) to look after these flats or town houses and attend to the maintenance needs. By using Life Cycle designing methods we may be able to reduce the maintenance cost of these Flats with additional capital cost in construction these units. If we omit this requirement then all these flats or town houses will become eyesores. Ownership rights and management of these flats should be included in their title deeds for the occupants to take charge of the problem. Educating our Sri Lankans at the initial stages will be a problem as happened in many other countries including Singapore, but in time to come with strict guidelines (without any interference from POLITICIANS), I am hopeful that we can transform our people to use these properties as required.

Restriction of unlawful use of common areas must be included in the title deeds, and should be adhered at any cost without allowing "Ganan Karayas" to dominate the common land use. With the technological changes in the world we should provide Ovens and tabletop cookers (white goods) as part of the property to prevent the occupants using kerosene cookers or gas cookers or firewood for cooking like in many other third world countries.

While all these ideas are highlighted in the Sri Lankan dailies, the President has appointed a Task Force to Rebuild the Nation. Most members in this committee are from the business and financial community, the people the President can trust. But, if they are not technically qualified to assess the real damage in technical and cost terms on their own, how can they trust the present cost estimates presented to them for re-building the nation? Rebuilding this devastated country after this massive disaster is a mammoth task where the best suitable people should have been selected for the rebuilding task. I have no doubt that the President should have elected these people with the idea of facilitating the handling of foreign aid. But if the donors are not getting a transparent and accurate picture of the cost of rebuilding then it will the left to the Task Force to convince the donor community. Some Sri Lankan bureaucrats and myopic professionals are famous for their in-competencies and lethargic manner in implementing projects with donor funds in normal times. Can the Task Force defend on some of these incompetent bureaucrats and myopic professionals to provide them with adequate information to complete this program in SIX months as predicted by the President?

The President on her 57th Independence Day message clearly stated that "Three days after the disaster the Government set up a Special Task Force to assess the damage to infrastructure and housing and to plan the strategies for rebuilding. In under a month the reconstruction programme was ready for implementation". This clearly indicates that this information has come from the Task Force. The Task force should have collected this information from departments and ministries. How accurate are these assessments carried out on behalf of the Task Force? Are these strategies covering the unexpected problems that may likely to surface during the rebuilding process? Are the problems likely to surface during the implementation stage is fully covered? The Task Force should have established sub committees with experienced technical professionals to handle the re-building process (from planning stage to construction stage) without any further delay with one task force member heading the sub-committee. If the Task force has already entrusted these tasks to various government departments and ministries, then the task force should appoint technical sub-committees to deal with the respective Ministers and the Departments, otherwise the Task Force may lose control over the whole process on technical grounds.

Big mess
At present, the Sri Lankan construction sector is in a big mess and to get this rebuilding process under full steam the country needs diligent technocrats who are able to take quick decisions to provide the necessary force behind the re-construction process. If the task force is trying to handle this rebuilding process without technical support at the task force level, actual re-building work may face undue delay and the President will be blamed for not meeting her targets. To overcome the difficulty in appointing serving (high ranking) government officials to these sub-committees (as they are responsible for day to day operations and time will be a big question to meet the urgent demands of re-building) the government should look for expatriate Sri Lankans. To overcome this problem - construction of over 150,000 (approximately) houses for the Tsunami victims and other infrastructure projects - the President must seek the help of the expatriate professional community living all over the world to provide their services 10 to 12 hours per day for THREE to SIX months on a voluntary basis to rebuild our destroyed nation. Most expatriates who answered the distress call now are waiting for the President's call to help to re-build the nation. This rebuilding process is very crucial for the victims, the President and her government and inclusion of inefficient people may hinder the President's vision in rebuilding the nation.

It is my professional opinion that the task force should appoint sub-committees for re-construction work, such as Roads, Railways, Bridges, Fisheries structures and Housing etc. and include high calibre efficient professionals from all disciplines (such as Architects, Engineers, Quantity Surveyors, Town Planners, Valuers, Land Surveyors and High Ranking Forces Engineers etc.) to these sub-committees. If Foreign Contractors are getting involved in this rebuilding process the Task Force should make early arrangements through these technical sub-committees to get all Contract Documentation water tight. Otherwise transparency expected by the International Donors may get side tracked.

I have already offered my voluntary services to the President and Mano Tittawela, Chairman of the Rebuilding Committee to help them in this rebuilding process.

I hope I may get a chance to serve my motherland on a voluntary basis at this crucial time either through the government or through any organisation needing the help of a construction professional with 45 years service (33 years outside Sri Lanka) in Engineering, Quantity Surveying and Project Management.

(The writer is a Sri Lankan professional who lives in Sydney, Australia)

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