Massive Indigenous Housing Recovery Platform In Afghanistan After The 2022 Earthquake

The magnitude-6.2 earthquake struck the remote south-eastern region of Afghanistan on June 22, 2022. With over 1,000 casualties and more than 50,000 damaged or destroyed homes, this disaster affected the lives of tens of thousands of people. This politically fragile region is controlled by the Taliban and is under consistent threat by actors, such as ISIS. The de facto authority and the United Nations agencies were limited, but even under so many challenges, it managed to provide a critical first response and recovery for the damaged housing stock. Much of the region’s housing construction consisted of indigenous architecture using compressed clay. Each housing compound, which hosted several households, had impressive clay walls that reached heights exceeding five meters. The compound area fluctuated from 1,000 to 3,000 square meters. Along the inside face of the perimeter walls were small clay houses with timber roofs. Engineering investigations into local construction revealed that if these walls are built correctly, they will exhibit a stable rocking motion that absorbs earthquake energy. The local clay used in construction was mixed in small natural aggregate, and the test revealed that the clay possesses good plasticity and cohesion. The program also extracted the best construction practices from local elders and converted them into key messages for the U.N. Cluster System. Thousands of local masons and homeowners were trained according to these key messages. The repair program included a direct cash infusion platform for homeowners and an organized quality control system for the repair of damaged houses. By using this process, the program managed to repair more than 10,000 homes in a few months by using indigenous but safe construction. This program affected not only the immediate housing needs of local residences but will continue to improve the safety of future generations of housing stock by implementing the best practices by using locally available materials and labor.