Affordable solution for earthquake resistant building construction in Haiti

On January 10, 2010, an earthquake of 7.0 M magnitude struck Haiti, killing more than 230,000 people. At least 300,000 Haitians were injured and around 1.5 million people became homeless. However, in October of 1989, the same magnitude of earthquake in San Francisco killed only 62 people and injured 3,757 people. Why did Haiti suffer so much devastation and lose so many of its innocent citizens? Joyce (2010) states, “…buildings were barely built to engineering standards and were hopelessly fragile in the grip of such a strong quake." There is a higher probability for earthquake occurrences in Haiti because it lies on the earthquake zone just above the fault of North American Plate and the Caribbean Plate.

The potential for a major earthquake at any given time has always been a fact of life in Haiti. One of the major reasons for such an overwhelming loss of life and property there, was due to inappropriate construction, and a lack of earthquake-proof designs. Most of the buildings in Haiti are constructed with whatever materials are available, and as the ground shook, the un-reinforced masonry and insufficiently-constructed frame structures resulted in the collapse of buildings leading to unimaginable fatalities. One of the major reasons for such an overwhelming loss of life and property in Haiti was inappropriate construction, which lacked earthquake proof designs.

There are many reliable high-tech practices such as ground isolation, damping of the seismic forces, retro-fittings, and active controls for seismic resistant construction that are used in developed cities. Unfortunately however, constructing earthquake-proof buildings by these techniques is a challenging task for poor countries like Haiti because not only do they require highly technical and skilled workforce, but they are expensive as well. A poor country such as Haiti has neither sufficient financial resources nor the skilled workforce, and hence cannot benefit from those good practices in spite of the availability of reliable technologies. The selection of affordable and safer construction technology is therefore the only option to overcome these challenges to provide safety to people in poor countries such as Haiti.

The purpose of this research paper is to present some cost effective solutions for constructing seismic resistant houses in developing countries like Haiti. The paper, first, explores and discusses some of the cost-effective housing construction models that are in existence in different parts of the world. Next, the paper identifies techniques and methods for making these buildings earthquake resistant. And, finally, it recommends some affordable construction methods that are earthquake resistant which might be applicable for cheaper and safer construction.