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| Constructing safe school buildings |
By Prakash Ranjan, Dy. Manager, SEEDS |
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| SEEDS has commenced implementation of a project aimed at facilitating development of safe school environments, through structural and non-structural measures, in the seven states of Delhi, Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh, Orissa, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand. The project involves training and implementation of structural safety measures in schools. As a structural engineer I have been entrusted with the work of conducting trainings of trainers on structural safety concepts. Structural assessment of school buildings in the seven states has also been carried out as part of the project. |
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In the first phase of the project training of trainers program was conducted wherein basic concepts of safe structures were presented to the trainees. The trainees consisted of field practitioners who would later be required to conduct programs to raising awareness on structural safety issues in the schools in various states of the country. Basic structural types, their behavior due to impact of hazards like earthquakes, cyclones, floods etc and techniques of strengthening of structures to resist impacts of various hazards were discussed. In order to understand the need for specific structural strengthening interventions, vulnerabilities of buildings required to be overcome to resist impacts of various hazards was explained in detail. In the second phase of the project actual implementation of retrofitting measures will also be done to actually demonstrate the retrofitting techniques.
The project provided an opportunity to witness a variety of construction techniques and understand problems faced by school authorities in different parts of the country due to inappropriate location or structure of the school. Although it is generally assumed that concrete is the most commonly used building material in rural and urban areas of the country, it was found that construction techniques and materials used for construction of schools varied widely across various states. A marked regional impact on construction techniques and materials was noticed in the states. For example school structures in Rajasthan consisted of load bearing brick masonry walls with the roof constructed using stone slabs on steel beams. Schools in Uttarakhand consisted of rubble masonry walls and tiled roof structures. Since both the states are vulnerable to earthquakes specific interventions are required to strengthen these buildings against earthquakes. In the state of Bihar although the school structures consisted of properly designed concrete buildings, the location of the schools on unsafe sites like river banks made them vulnerable to flooding during monsoons. A limitation of space available for building was perhaps responsible for locating the schools in such areas. An additional aspect that was noticed was that unlike other states the school buildings in Bihar also need to serve as safe shelter during the annual incidents of flooding in flood prone areas. In the event of these buildings getting flooded, the terraces of these buildings are used as refuge areas during floods. The use of the school building as a safe shelter makes it all the more important to ensure structural safety of the buildings. All the above mentioned issues were highlighted in the training of trainers workshops conducted in each of the states after assessment of school buildings. It is now intended to use information gathered in the first phase of the project in the second phase wherein actual retrofitting interventions will be implemented on the basis of identified vulnerabilities.
The overall experience of working on the project was quite satisfactory as it provided us with an opportunity to study construction techniques used for school buildings in various parts of the country and has also provided us with an opportunity to raise awareness on safe construction of schools. However, it is realized that still a lot needs to be done to raise awareness on safe structures.
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| Protecting the Lives of Little Ones |
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Schools play an important role in the lives of the community as centres of education and can also play a central role in disaster risk reduction cycle from preparedness, to response, to recovery. Safe schools are also necessary to protect lives of children who form part of the most vulnerable sections of the community.
In an attempt to develop awareness of school safety techniques, a project for retrofitting of school buildings in Himachal Pradesh, Gujarat and Assam was implemented with funding from Temasek foundation and Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.
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The project also involved Training of Masons in the three states and Training of Teachers and Students on Life Saving Skills.
Though the project implementation was seemed to be a cakewalk considering the vulnerability of the selected states we were soon disillusioned by the challenges that came up once we started the implementation. The biggest one was the resistance by school authorities who failed to perceive immediate benefits of the project and were reluctant to allow construction work since it could cause temporary disturbance to the running of the classes and might lead to defacing of school building. However, we overcame this challenge by convincing the school authorities of the significance and need for seismic retrofitting of school buildings and made implementation plans with them to ensure minimum disturbance to academic activities. Once this hurdle was crossed the work proceeded smoothly and school authorities also came up with their own list of improvements for the school structure. The end result was that the school buildings, in addition to being made earthquake safe, also received a facelift which drew generous appreciation from the school authorities.
The success of the project is reflected in the fact that by the time the project was completed awareness on the significance of retrofitting had been created and local resources, in the form of trained masons, for implementation of such schemes had been generated.
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Protecting lives of little ones
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