Chapter 7: Building in Leh

 The ‘Learning in Leh’ workshop (19th July – 2nd August 2011) was just the beginning of a process which we hope will make a real difference to the Government Girls School in Leh.

The toilets in the girls school are in a desperate and dangerous condition following last year’s heavy rainfall and floods.

Existing Toilet Block

With the short term project (a bench) completed during the workshop, attention is now turning to the realisation of the medium term project (toilets).

We have funding in place (thanks to the Walter Guinness Foundation) to start construction of a new toilet block, based on the designs developed by the workshop participants, but we need additional funding to help us complete it.

Visit the Building in Leh Blog to see how the construction progresses: buildinginleh.wordpress.com

To help support ASF-UK to build the toilets visit www.justgiving.com/toiletsinleh/

Children’s Stories

School children reflect on the 2010 floods

A team from Multistory, which includes two teachers from the UK, has been running a workshop at the girls school this week. Their Small Change: Building resilient communities project, supported by SEEDS India, is about education as the catalyst for positive change, and teaching methods which can reduce people’s vulnerability to future risks.

 www.multistory.org.uk

One year on, Ladakh remembers

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Chapter 6: Back in Ladakh!

Learning in Leh Workshop Poster (Image c SEEDS/Sarika Gulati)

We’ve been planning an Architecture Sans Frontieres-UK workshop in Ladakh for nearly a year now. Today Lucy Schofield and I landed in Leh to start the ground work for the workshop. The two other workshop facilitators – Sarah Ernst & Lucy Thomas – will be arriving soon.

Following on from the 2010 floods, the workshop will promote appropriate building technologies and processes for safer and more sustainable construction in Ladakh. We’ll be based at the government girls school in central Leh from 19th July to 2nd August.

The workshop will look at practical ways of improving the safety, sustainability and the suitability of learning environment provided by the school buildings.

You can follow the workshop progress by visiting the workshop blog:

Learninginleh.wordpress.com

WWF Lonely Planet Award

A shortened version of this diary was awarded first prize in the WWF Ecotrail Travelogue Competition.

It’s published p.51-52 in this month’s Lonely Planet India Magazine.

CNN-IBN Award for the Ladakh team

SEEDS India & Ladakh Ecological Development Group have been awarded CNN-IBN Public Service Indian of the year award 2010 ’for building environment friendly, flood and quake resistant housing involving community participation and local materials in Leh’.

Chapter 5: The role of green technology

 Down to earth (18^th August -28^th August)

It is already getting cold, two blankets are no longer enough to keep me warm at night. Outside the short summer tourist season, this is a land that few outsiders would dare to experience, recording some of the coldest temperatures on Earth outside Siberia. In the coming months, a house in Ladakh will not just be a shelter but a protection, and suitable buildings will be necessary for survival.

Over the centuries, Ladakh’s inhabitants have successfully countered this extreme winter climate by using thick mud brick walls to trap the sun’s heat during the day and release it evenly through the night.

Mud construction: Leh Palace and Munshi House

For thousands of years, people the world over have been using mud to build thermally comfortable and sustainable housing. Half the world’s population is thought to live or work in buildings constructed from mud. It is a simple low cost construction technology, but can also be a highly sophisticated and resilient building material. Examples can be found in both the world’s newest contemporary architecture and its oldest surviving buildings.

Mud has significant practical and environmental advantages over other construction materials for use in Ladakh. But in this post flood context, and amidst changing Himalayan weather patterns, is a material suited to dry desert conditions still appropriate? Is it safe? Concerns are raised at every shelter group meeting I attend.

SEEDS propose continued use of mud construction for the shelters, but with modifications to address these safety concerns.  By adding cement, and then compression via a manual or motorized press, the strength and water resistance of the mud blocks can be improved.

This stabilised compressed earth block (SCEB) technology is being developed by architects and organisations worldwide. SEEDS have used SCEBs in projects in other parts of India, and they are not entirely new to Ladakh either. We meet Sonam Wangchuk, founder of NGO SECMOL, who shares his experience of using SCEBs here and in Nepal.  

After some tests, the production of the stabilised blocks gets underway for the prototype.

Compressed stabilised earth blocks for the shelter prototype

Land of the sun (18^th -28^th August) 

I join the LEDeG team on part of a fundraising cycle ride up the world’s highest road. At the top, we relax in the sun and throw some snowballs, before putting our brakes to the test on a hair raising trip back down.

Summer snow on the world's highest road

This is the land of extremes. Ladakh might be one of the coldest inhabited places on Earth, but its clear high altitude skies provide over 300 days of sunshine per year. I might be cold at night, but we can sit outside to eat lunch, wearing just a T-shirt.

Over the centuries the buildings here have captured and stored the sun’s energy enabling their inhabitants to survive in this hostile environment.  For the last two decades, several organisations have been working in Ladakh to promote and develop new solar technologies which go much further to harness the sun’s potential.

We visit LEDeG’s newly constructed passive solar demo building, and an award winning school near Leh designed by international architects Arup Associates. Both use large south facing double glazed windows for direct solar heating of day use spaces, and Trombe (or solar) walls for heating bedrooms. These glazed trombe walls help to capture and store the sun’s energy during the day for release during the night.

I work for several days with a solar engineer from GERES on the development of the shelter designs. We incorporate direct gain and a solar wall into the proposal using GERES’s technical knowledge, as well as their experience on cost, material availability and cultural acceptability.

Combined with modifications to the traditional construction, such as the use of cavity walls and insulation, these measures will help to achieve more comfortable living conditions in one of the most extreme inhabited places on Earth.

Fragile Ecosystem (28^th August – 14^th September)

Early one morning I climb up to Leh’s monastery for a pre-work breakfast with some colleagues. As we ascend through the litter filled streets and abandoned mud brick houses of the old town, we get a good view of Leh from above. The concrete hotels and housing stretching out into the far distance are visual evidence of the rapid social and environmental change which swept the town (and region) when Ladakh’s isolation was broken a few decades ago.

Breakfast view from Leh's monastery

Expansion to cope with the influx of tourists, and economic migration from the villages, saw traditional buildings and construction techniques abandoned in favour of concrete construction. Centuries of cultural and aesthetic values were wiped out.

These imported building technologies, unsuited to the extreme climate and environmental conditions here, and used without proper knowledge or training, have increased vulnerability to natural and manmade disasters. Post flood the consequences of this are clear. Poorly engineered concrete structures are at much greater risk of collapse in floods and earthquakes than traditional forms of construction.

Ladakh is in seismic zone IV so earthquakes are a real threat here. I work with the SEEDS structural engineer to incorporate flood and earthquake resistant features into the shelter design including plinth and lintel seismic bands, corner reinforcement, and secure tying of the roof.

Post disaster there is an opportunity to raise awareness amongst the local community of the importance of safe building technologies in mitigating future risk. The SEEDS-LEDeG shelters are an opportunity to promote risk reduction features and the merits of traditional materials, as well as the potential of passive solar technology for improving living conditions in a balanced and sustainable way.

Photos: Katherine Johnson

Chapter 4: Coordinating the relief and rehabilitation effort

Switching places (14^th-18^th August)

We return from our field trip to find the mass evacuation of tourists in full swing. Consulate officials have flown in to compile lists of their missing citizens and assist the remainder to leave. Three flights a day carry stranded tourists back to Delhi, and I have to say goodbye to some good friends. In their place the town is filling with people in brightly coloured T-shirts announcing the arrival of familiar names like Médecins Sans Frontières, Oxfam, and Save the Children.

Representatives from Sphere India, a national coalition of humanitarian agencies, have flown in to coordinate relief efforts between the NGOs. They set up a facilitation centre at the LEDeG campus in the heart of Leh and start the task of getting more than 30 organizations and 200 individuals to work together in a very short space of time.

Sphere form various groups to collect information and facilitate a collaborative response on key areas of need – shelter, livelihoods and food, education, sanitation and health, and psycho-social support. Familiar faces from these groups now replace departed backpackers in Leh’s remaining restaurants and internet cafes. Powered by generators, satellites and torches, they work into the night for the relief and rehabilitation effort.

Two mornings the traffic in town is stopped by convoys carrying Rahul Gandhi and the Prime Minister. Bollywood superstar Aamir Khan, who made Ladakh famous in his recent ‘3 Idiots’ mega-hit movie, flies in to visit the flooded school which featured in the film. As we wait with the amassing media in the school car park, I am interviewed by an Indian TV news channel. Sujoy, on a photojournalist assignment for SEEDS, has to defend himself from the fiercely competitive Indian Paparazzi.

Meanwhile bodies continue to be pulled from the rubble, and the official death toll is rising.

Local NGOs (16^th August)

Since the 1970s, when Ladakh opened up to western influences, local NGOs have been working to promote balanced and regionally appropriate development models which build on traditional Ladakhi structures. Their knowledge and experience of the people and local area is a great resource for the newly arrived NGOs.

In recognition of this, SEEDS decide to collaborate with LEDeG (Ladakh Ecological Development Group), who have been working in Ladakh for several decades, to produce a joint shelter reconstruction strategy. By pooling our knowledge, resources and skills we should be able to provide a more comprehensive shelter strategy with a better understanding of the specifics of the place, and the intricacies of the culture and its traditions.

The SEEDS team set up a temporary office at the LEDeG campus, where I am loaned a laptop. Leh is still without power (I have a challenging journey home when I forget my torch one moonless night), and there are long queues for very slow internet connections. But being based in Leh, rather than remotely, gives us an invaluable opportunity to meet and work directly with LEDeG, other local NGOs, and the wider community.

Developing the SEEDS-LEDeG strategy (17^th-18^th August)

The white and green tents scattering the hillsides around Leh are a constant reminder of the challenges we face. More than a thousand families are living in army relief camps and they won’t survive the extreme winter temperatures under canvas. Climatic constraints will make construction impossible beyond October, but supply of labour and material resources will limit construction in the meantime.

In light of this, we decide to focus on providing a one room shelter of 20sqm which can be expanded to form a larger house after the winter. Each shelter can be constructed for under 200,000 rupees and will meet the Sphere shelter standards of a minimum of 3.5m2 per person. The government announce a flood compensation package of 200,000 rupees per damaged house and 100,000 rupees for each partially damaged house. This will help with expansion.

Towards a consensus (18^th-23^rd August)

As we work to refine and develop the shelter design and strategy with LEDeG, I attend several of the regular shelter meetings organized and facilitated by Sphere. A diverse range of aid agencies with different background and knowledge bases come together at these meetings. They include technical, social, environmental, disability and trader groups, which range from local to international in focus.

New parties and ideas emerge at each meeting. We work hard to build consensus amongst the agencies on what we consider to be the following important principles for shelter provision in Ladakh:

* Community participation

* Building back better for safe, hazard resistant construction

* Being locally sustainable and energy efficient

* Being culturally relevant

I help to compile a shelter strategy document on this basis for presentation to the government on behalf of the NGO coordination committee.

Chapter 3: Learning from Ladakh

A chance meeting (10^th August)

The SEEDS team found us in the Choglumsar rubble just after they landed from Delhi. They have come to Leh to help develop a post disaster shelter rehabilitation strategy. A few weeks earlier Rupert and I had attended a two week Architecture Sans Frontieres / SEEDS workshop in Uttarakhand on disaster mitigation and response. Our new skills were about to be put to use much sooner than any of us had imagined.

In the field (11^th August)

We depart with the SEEDS team on a two day field visit to Saspol village, where we can start our investigations without disturbing immediate relief efforts. The team will document reasons for building failure and study and the local domestic architecture. The team also includes a freelance photographer who will reveal the impact of the disaster to the wider world.

Constructing emergency bridges on the road to Kargil

On the way we find the Indian army in large numbers, building emergency bridges and clearing the road, restoring connections with the rest of India. Helicopters fill the skies lifting the injured to safety and dropping much needed supplies. We soon have to abandon our jeep when we come to a destroyed bridge, and from here the army transfers us by army truck between river crossings. An hour’s drive takes nearly four.

The SEEDS team catching a lift in an army truck

My family and friends in the UK are worried: have I considered the risk of disease, do I have enough drinking water, will there be more torrential rain? That night I dream that I am drowning, and then that I am searching for bodies underneath the water. I wake up several times in a cold sweat.

Traditional buildings (12^th August)

SEEDS take a holistic approach to shelter rehabilitation, bringing together an understanding of safety, comfort, environmental sustainability and local socio-cultural factors. Past disasters show that shelter rehabilitation schemes which haven’t addressed these factors have been left unoccupied, or have disrupted social interactions and activity patterns and harmed communities.

A traditional Ladakhi house

Traditional houses in Ladakh have evolved over centuries to suit the local environment, culture and lifestyles. A thorough understanding of the traditional house is going to be a key starting point to a successful shelter initiative.

We identify a suitable case study house in the village, and I set to work on drawing plans, sections and elevations. Together with an interpreter, we uncover from the owner the activity patterns and reasons for spatial arrangements and other design features. We find, for example, that an east facing entrance is considered auspicious. 

Sketching in a traditional Ladakhi house

Shelter Strategy (13^th-14^th August)

Back in Leh, Mihir (the SEEDS structural engineer) and I spend the day writing up a report on our findings and thinking about a possible shelter proposal for inclusion in the SEEDS shelter strategy report. We work by torch and candle light late into the night, and then over the weekend.

Most of the SEEDS team return to Delhi to continue their work from the SEEDS office. They ask me to stay on as an intern to work on the shelter design and construction in the field in Ladakh. I change the date of my return flight to the UK so that I can stay until September 20^th.

People around me are falling ill with stomach complaints; two of my friends have to go to hospital, one on her arrival back in the UK, the other here in Leh. All have been working in the mud.

Photos: Sebastiaan de Groot

Chapter 2: Unrecognisable Leh

Our return  (8th August)

It was impossible to prepare ourselves for what we would find in Leh. We were met with stories of dead bodies, people screaming, flattened buildings, and panicked running to find high ground in the middle of the night.

Devastation in Leh

An exhausted and tearful friend had been terrified that we weren’t going to return from our trek. In the UK, my family had started a desperate search for me on the internet and reported my disappearance to the British Embassy.

Leh, Ladakh’s only big town, was a different place now: covered with plees for volunteers, shops closed, long queues for food and money, phone lines and power supply gone. Disaster had struck and backpackers wandered the streets in disbelief, helplessly searching for bottled drinking water and missing friends.

Relief work and the horrors of Choglamsar (9th & 10th August)

 

The morning after our return to Leh, we enlisted to help with the relief work, joining teams of backpackers and locals working tirelessly to clear the town’s hospital of mud. As we shovelled out buckets full of sludge, we uncovered x-ray machines, scanners, and other medical instruments.

The following day we were sent to Choglamsar, where the devastation was on an unimaginable scale. Whole stretches of the village had simply vanished, the remainder had been mangled under the immense force of a tide of mud and rock. Cars had been tossed around like toys.

In disbelief at Choglumsar

The human side of the disaster was even more harrowing. Teams of sniffer dogs clustered together in the rubble while lines of soldiers passed by with blanket covered stretchers. The stench of rotting food (and flesh?) made it necessary to wear masks.

News Reports

A woman trying to dig in the mud with her hands was inconsolable. A pile of rubble, fallen telephone wires, and a crushed car, had only a few days earlier been her shop. We worked to clear the house of a widow and her children, and the restaurant of a frail old man. Their stories were miracles of survival.

As we walked back through the streets we were overwhelmed with smiles and offers of thanks. Despite the magnitude of the disaster, the wonderfully warm and kind nature of the Ladakhi people remains strong.

Photos: Katherine Johnson