Quake-proof houses under construction in Bohol

An artist’s impression of Habitat for Humanity houses for quake-prone areas like Bohol.

By Rose De La Cruz/Manila Times

The frame of this house is made of lightweight steel and its walls and flooring are a combination of bamboo mesh and wire mesh with cement overlay.

It is also earthquake proof.

These are the main features of the prototype of a house, Habitat for Humanity Philippines has been teaching people in Bohol province to build.

In October, a 7.2-magnitude tremor left thousands of Boholanos homeless. Many still live in tent cities.

Habitat for Humanity is rushing with the construction of houses for quake victims this year. The houses are being built by their future occupants so that they could better appreciate their homes and take better care of them. Habitat volunteers assist the locals put up the houses, allowing for closer supervision and tighter quality control.

During the building process, Habitat is able to impart the proper values of responsibility and caring to the future home recipients while enlightening them on the urgency of using environmentally friendly technologies, designs and materials.

Habitat has come up with four designs for houses in earthquake-prone areas like Bohol.

The prototypes are gender-sensitive and they have two bedrooms with indicative costs of P70,000 and P75,000 from the ground; P80,000 for the slightly elevated and P10,000 for those with bigger area.

The roofs are not the traditional flat GI sheets, but are slightly inclined downward and the windows are wide pullout bamboo mesh with wire mesh supported by a thin long piece of lumber.

Steel frames are preferred over coco lumber because only 400 feet of steel is required per house, compared to 250 board feet of coco lumber. Besides, the quality and size of coconut trunks is not consistent.

The bamboo for the walls and floors come from bamboo plantations and are cheaper and environmentally friendly, compared with plywood (made from hardwood species). Besides, bamboo does not peel off.

Each house has a floor area of 20 square metres made from lightweight steel framing system, with the flooring made from concrete/purlins with bamboo slats as well as roof with GI and corrugated roofing.

The exterior walls are treated bamboo (sigkat) or cement plastered and the toilet and bath are the pail flush type toilet bowls.

Plumbing is wastewater line and windows are wooden/aluminum or jalousie frame or smoke glass.

In Loon, Bohol, the indicative cost of a house funded by donations from the Union Bank of the Philippines is P120,000 and the half concrete cladding design is P75,000.

In addition, there will be row houses and resettlement houses for the informal settlers.

Funding for the housing comes from local and foreign donors, many of them celebrities who have generously contributed their time, money and connections to raise funds for such an undertaking.

Just recently, Habitat for Humanity Philippines and Union Bank of the Philippines partnered to build houses in Barangay Catagbacan in Loon. The bank donated P10mn to the earthquake victims there.

Habitat for Housing Philippines managing director/CEO Charlie Ayco said: “Habitat brings communities together and brings hope. We can dream that everyone in Bohol has a decent place to live in or we can start building that dream now. We are very grateful that Bohol has not been forgotten despite the other disasters that have come after.”

“Let us rebuild lives in Tacloban, Samar and Cebu but let us also not forget our people in Zamboanga and Bohol,” Ayco added.

The donation will cover 70 families with core housing units made of bamboo and cement — a combination that Habitat developed and which was first used in Cagayan de Oro.