Quick Scan: San Pedro Nonualco
Quick Scan Report: San Pedro Nonualca
Accompanied by: Jorge y Manuel (Fundasal)
Date: 13/03/09
Time: 11:00-12:00
Introduction
San Pedro Nonualca is a municipality in the North part of the La Paz region, a rural area with a population of just over ten thousand. The main town of San Pedro Nonualca contains 2 percent of the area and has 35 percent of the population. The town was heavily damaged by the earthquake on 13 February 2001. Several roads, schools and infrastructure were damaged and 95% of the houses were destroyed.
We gather the information about the earthquake and its responses by observation and having an interview with Eugenio Lindor Ingles, who is a community leader of the urban part of the municipality.
Emergency phase
Within the emergency phase the community received help from all different local and international organizations. Ready made food was brought in from San Salvador, Honduras brought oil and beans, the Catholic Church distributed clothes and blankets etc. Next to the schools, which were used as shelter, most of the people build up a shelter themselves, by using ruble and receiving plastic sheeting. After two weeks the community started to clean the rubble with financial help of the government; 45 dollars a person.
Reconstruction
The reconstruction projects were initiated within the 2nd and 4th month after the disaster. Four institutions mainly worked in the reconstruction: GTZ Germany, Madre Cria El Salvador, GBC Italy and Samaritan Pours UK.
There were two types of responses within the reconstruction of the houses. The first was initiated by the GTZ, who build and paid for about 100 new houses out of 500-600 in total for people with legal land rights. The second was the supply of building materials, accessible to all, legal and illegal landowners. Some of the affected people had enough money to build back their house with their own money.
Observations
As we walk around the urban area of the municipality the roads, made out of natural stones, seem old and a lot of the new houses are decorated with traditional wood carving, under the roofs and window frames. Within the reconstruction there has been a sense of bringing back the old atmosphere within the town. Eugenio tells us that the GTZ introduced workshop in wood carving as an opportunity for new economic input.
Within our observation we see new build brick houses, next to steel sheet vulnerable houses. The reason of these differences is found in the legislation and landownership. People who didn’t have any legal land rights were not able to receive any help from the institutions that supplied the reconstruction.
Before the reconstruction most of the buildings were made of adobe (mud). Some of the buildings around the market place in the city centre have remained standing, but are severely damaged. It seems that some of the buildings that are only partially damaged didn’t receive any reconstruction help at all.
Next to the problem of land ownership, there were some problems with the distribution of materials for the new houses. Political and communal leaders had the task of distributing materials and reconstruction or relief products. Some of the leaders started selling them instead of giving the products for free. Therefore some people had no chance of building a new home and others build three. Within the rural areas some people still live in there temporary steel sheet houses.
Basic services
Eugenio said the reconstruction process was a long process. The first water projects started in 2005. Not every community had access to water in their houses yet. For the more rural communities there are some tab points along the road. At this moment several water and sewer projects are still in the making. These projects are initiated by the local social networks: SDL. These networks focus initiate and get money for different development projects within the municipality. These networks didn’t exist before the earthquake.
Future
The duration of the project is worth the effort, because liveablitiy has improved for most of the inhabitants. The problems they had with the community leaders, who tried to earn money out of the responses, were the instigators to set up the social networks, the networks which initiate different new development projects and create a stronger community. To improve the local economy these networks started festivals where people of the community sell products and food. In conclusion, Eugene would like to see the same incentives (sanitation network for example) in the neighborhood of Guadalupe as he experienced in other neighborhoods.
Potentiality
This location has proven to be very unique in the sense of preserving history, insisghtful contacts of different positions, but is also rural. After the revision we'll put the pros versus the cons.
Accompanied by: Jorge y Manuel (Fundasal)
Date: 13/03/09
Time: 11:00-12:00
Introduction
San Pedro Nonualca is a municipality in the North part of the La Paz region, a rural area with a population of just over ten thousand. The main town of San Pedro Nonualca contains 2 percent of the area and has 35 percent of the population. The town was heavily damaged by the earthquake on 13 February 2001. Several roads, schools and infrastructure were damaged and 95% of the houses were destroyed.
We gather the information about the earthquake and its responses by observation and having an interview with Eugenio Lindor Ingles, who is a community leader of the urban part of the municipality.
Emergency phase
Within the emergency phase the community received help from all different local and international organizations. Ready made food was brought in from San Salvador, Honduras brought oil and beans, the Catholic Church distributed clothes and blankets etc. Next to the schools, which were used as shelter, most of the people build up a shelter themselves, by using ruble and receiving plastic sheeting. After two weeks the community started to clean the rubble with financial help of the government; 45 dollars a person.
Reconstruction
The reconstruction projects were initiated within the 2nd and 4th month after the disaster. Four institutions mainly worked in the reconstruction: GTZ Germany, Madre Cria El Salvador, GBC Italy and Samaritan Pours UK.
There were two types of responses within the reconstruction of the houses. The first was initiated by the GTZ, who build and paid for about 100 new houses out of 500-600 in total for people with legal land rights. The second was the supply of building materials, accessible to all, legal and illegal landowners. Some of the affected people had enough money to build back their house with their own money.
Observations
As we walk around the urban area of the municipality the roads, made out of natural stones, seem old and a lot of the new houses are decorated with traditional wood carving, under the roofs and window frames. Within the reconstruction there has been a sense of bringing back the old atmosphere within the town. Eugenio tells us that the GTZ introduced workshop in wood carving as an opportunity for new economic input.
Within our observation we see new build brick houses, next to steel sheet vulnerable houses. The reason of these differences is found in the legislation and landownership. People who didn’t have any legal land rights were not able to receive any help from the institutions that supplied the reconstruction.
Before the reconstruction most of the buildings were made of adobe (mud). Some of the buildings around the market place in the city centre have remained standing, but are severely damaged. It seems that some of the buildings that are only partially damaged didn’t receive any reconstruction help at all.
Next to the problem of land ownership, there were some problems with the distribution of materials for the new houses. Political and communal leaders had the task of distributing materials and reconstruction or relief products. Some of the leaders started selling them instead of giving the products for free. Therefore some people had no chance of building a new home and others build three. Within the rural areas some people still live in there temporary steel sheet houses.
Basic services
Eugenio said the reconstruction process was a long process. The first water projects started in 2005. Not every community had access to water in their houses yet. For the more rural communities there are some tab points along the road. At this moment several water and sewer projects are still in the making. These projects are initiated by the local social networks: SDL. These networks focus initiate and get money for different development projects within the municipality. These networks didn’t exist before the earthquake.
Future
The duration of the project is worth the effort, because liveablitiy has improved for most of the inhabitants. The problems they had with the community leaders, who tried to earn money out of the responses, were the instigators to set up the social networks, the networks which initiate different new development projects and create a stronger community. To improve the local economy these networks started festivals where people of the community sell products and food. In conclusion, Eugene would like to see the same incentives (sanitation network for example) in the neighborhood of Guadalupe as he experienced in other neighborhoods.
Potentiality
This location has proven to be very unique in the sense of preserving history, insisghtful contacts of different positions, but is also rural. After the revision we'll put the pros versus the cons.
QS: San Pedro Nonualca
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