Thailand

Thailand: Tsunami-recovery Construction

Through its tsunami-recovery program, Habitat for Humanity Thailand has found many ways to facilitate improved housing on the Andaman coast. They include building and repairing houses, providing engineering and design services to other NGOs and supporting small start-up construction-related businesses.

The first project, at Phrue Tiaou in Phang Nga province, provided 48 square meter duplexes for 60 families who were relocating from the shore for safety. Houses in other communities have been single-family units of 36 square meters, either 4 m x 9 m or 6m x 6m. Most are masonry houses built of conventional blocks or cement/soil blocks. Houses have either concrete tile roofs or reflective sheet metal roofs. In Thachatchai and Ranong, Habitat is also building wooden houses raised on cast concrete pillars in low-lying areas.

The tsunami-recovery program has also built additions of kitchens and toilets for some government-built tsunami housing and finished housing projects that other organizations and individual families had been unable to complete.

Habitat started production facilities for tsunami-affected families to make concrete blocks, cement/soil blocks and vibrated concrete roof tiles. Partner NGO World Concern continues to manage the production as an income-generating project for locals. While they are a new to the area, soil interlocking blocks have proven to be a sound, economical and popular building material that has commercial potential.

The tsunami-recovery program is transitioning to management by the national organization. Most construction projects under the tsunami banner will be completed by the end of September 2006. Work in the tsunami-affected areas will continue under the regular Save & Build program. Close to 800 families have submitted applications to build with Habitat.

A list of project sites and donors is available.

Thailand: Going Forward

There is a great need for Habitat Thailand to continue working among the villages on the Andaman coast. Among the Moken people, the sea gypsies, the income level is very low and housing is poor. Along the coast, most have lived in small, poor houses made of cheap materials: driftwood planks, mangrove trees and bamboo they have collected. Their roofs are often rusted sheets of scrap metal or nipa palm leaves. Many do not have their own toilets.

In many villages, even where there are block houses, the quality of construction and materials is low. Structures are not adequate to withstand storms and earthquakes. Operating from its existing resource center, Habitat will continue the work it has begun in southern Thailand.

HFH Thailand both builds and renovates homes using “Save & Build” and traditional Habitat models. The Udon Thani affiliate pioneered the “Building in Stages” concept in which Habitat homeowner partners start by constructing a two-room “core” house with an open space, built on a cement foundation. Additional rooms and walls are built once a certain amount of the initial mortgage is repaid.

In the regular program, house construction normally takes about 15 days and involves concrete blocks, C-bar roof trusses and roof sheeting. Average monthly repayments are approximately US$18.

Habitat for Humanity Thailand began in l998 in Udon Thani, in northeast Thailand, and has spread its operations to Chiang Mai and Lampang in the north and to Rayong and the Andaman coast in the south.

Thailand: Family Experiences

‘Now We Have a Better House’

“There’s just no comparison between the old house and the new one,” says 57-year-old fisherman Jood Janthima, who lives next to the inlet in Thachatchai at the northernmost tip of Phuket province, Thailand.

Before the tsunami, he and his wife lived in a bamboo house on stilts with walls made of woven palm fronds. A shed made of scrap metal served as a kitchen. Now they have a very solid wooden house on concrete pillars.

Jood and his wife Tiw Chiawchan, 49, lived with their son after the tsunami destroyed the kitchen of their house and damaged the rest of it.

“Now we have a better house,” says Jood. They are glad to be back in their home place, next to Jood’s fishing boat and traps.

“The best thing about the new house is the floor — and the roof,” Jood said. The floor of the old house was rough, uneven planks and the roof was poor. Everything about the new house is smooth, well fitted and pleasing to the eye, he says.

Jood’s boat was “broken beyond repair during the tsunami. It crashed against a wall.” He was fortunate that his son was able to buy a fishing boat that they can share, going out to place and tend their traps at different times of day. Most of the year he can catch enough squid and fish to make 600 baht (US$15) a day before expenses.