Improvised Rapid All-Weather shelter (IRAS)

THE UN HAVE DUBBED IT ‘OPERATION WINTER RACE' – AAI HAVE RESPONDED WITH AN IMMEDIATE PROGRAM FOR DISTRIBUTING EMERGENCY SHELTERS TO THOUSANDS OF EARTHQUAKE AFFECTED PEOPLE LIVING IN INADEQUATE SHELTERS

The Assessment of Needs:

With the first falls of snow and night time temperatures dropping below zero. current makeshift shelters used by displaced families in the mountainous regions of earthquake affected Pakistan will provide insufficient protection against the extreme cold. Particularly for the young, elderly and infirmed. It is also expected that with the onset of heavy snowfalls current temporary and insufficiently constructed shelters will be unsuitable to protect against snow and cold weather. Accordingly, the UN and the Pakistan Relief Commission, in conjunction with international agencies, have launched Operation ‘Winter Race' to redress this critical humanitarian need and integrate emergency shelter into early recovery plans.

AAI have been operating in the remote and mountainous areas of Azad Jammu and Kashmir east of Bagh. This area abuts the much disputed Line of Control. The population in this region is approximately 122,000 consisting of 19,000 families in 100 villages. 15,000 homes were severely affected by the earthquake. Many of the areas in this region have been targeted as a high priority for assistance. The criteria for urgent assistance; villages located above altitudes of 5000 feet, previous homes of mud and stone construction (which collapsed easily in the earthquake), and communities of the extremely poor with groups of highly vulnerable people.

AAI's initial relief work consisted of emergency medical search and recovery of the severely injured and ill and operating mobile medical outreach clinics. AAI members assessed most of the villages within this area of operations (AO) by either going in on foot, mules, helicopters or vehicles when there was road assess. AAI have now focused their medical efforts on strengthening and revitalising the existing primary health care infrastructure. AAI are supplying medical drugs and equipment to existing clinics and working along side and retraining existing health care workers who survived the earthquake and those who are willing to return to work.

Having assessed that hypothermia and illnesses due to inadequate shelter will have the major impacts on health over the winter, AAI saw the need to become involved in the provision of emergency shelter. The AAI team were fortunate enough to come across the IRAS designers, who up until then had not much interest in their innovative and very practical design. AAI's senior members saw immediately the benefits of such a project and agreed to fully support and implement the IRAS program. In less than three days AAI began rolling out the first IRAS's which have been much welcomed by the first groups of beneficiaries receiving them. It is truly a pleasure to see families happily moving into such safe and comfortable structures.

AAI have an in-depth understanding of the problems and issues faced by the communities in our AO. Detailed needs assessments of villages have been undertaken and highly vulnerable groups have been identified. These people will be the first targeted for any further relief activities.

AAI's response to the urgent needs

Locally designed, by a group of architects and engineers who wanted to assist with the relief effort, they feverously began researching and testing temporary shelters that could quickly and cheaply be built for immediate distribution to the homeless in Northern Pakistan. What they have developed is the Improvised All-Weather Rapid Shelter (IRAS) that meets all requirements of not only suitable emergency shelter but that of integration of emergency shelter into longer life structures.

The designers looked at the basic guidelines of temporary shelter and established that shelters should be, quick and easy to build by community members, be safe against extreme weather and further earthquakes that are common in this region, be inexpensive (costing about the same price as a non-winterised tent), easily transported to remote mountainous villages by foot, constructed of locally and culturally familiar materials and methods of construction, and built requiring no special tools or equipment.

The materials used include empty cement bags, filled with soil on site to construct the walls. These replace brick and stone. Barded wire is used as a binder instead of cement and gives the structure a monolithic design and contributes to earthquake resistance. The roof is made of only 5 sheets of CGI sheets requiring no internal supports due to the barrel vault roof design.

Coordination of the IRAS program with other interested parties.

Since the building of the first IRAS in Bagh, a number of groups have expressed interest in the design and have asked AAI to assist them with the construction and distribution in their own AO's. One of AAI's main goals is to promote the IRAS design so that other organisations doing emergency shelter will consider using the IRAS which will save on resources and cost, which most other designs are unable to compete with.

Project Description.

After the most vulnerable families have been confirmed, the AAI shelter team will then go to each village cluster that will receive shelter materials for the IRAS. The most vulnerable family within that cluster will then have the shelter built by the AAI team. All community members who will receive the IRAS materials are required to participate and learn how to construct the IRAS. They will then be given their own shelter materials to build their shelters themselves. AAI will provide technical support to those individuals that need further advice. AAI teams will then go to each shelter and monitor that they have been built in accordance with the design requirements.

The IRAS is a transitional shelter and can last between one to five years depending on how well owners project the structure by using plastic sheeting or mud render. Therefore the cost of the design will go to providing a permanent outbuilding for animals or as a store in the future when communities move into their permanent structures.

The unit cost inclusive is approx $250. The major cost is the CGI sheets which have increased in value by up to 50% due to the supply demand. Remember other organisations solutions require double the amount of CGI sheet than is being proposed by the IRAS design. Therefore many other shelter kits are more expensive than the IRAS. There are also no tools or equipment that has to be provided to construct the IRAS, also reducing the costs of design.

Structural description and specifications of the IRAS

Floor area 72 sq feet (8' x 9')
End/side wall height 3 ½' and 6'
CGI sheets 5 (12' x 3-6')
Locally available metal door 3' x 5'
Barded wire Half roll

The IRAS Team

Designers
Mr Umer Iqbal
Engineer
+ 92 (0) 300 855 0997
ui@oiltools.com.pk

Mr Hammad Husain
Architect
+ 92 (0) 300 855 9321
hammad@hammadhusain.com

AAI Implementation Team - Pakistan
+ 92 (0) 333 214 9986 / 0301 532 4414
ftyler@aai.org.au / mpreston@aai.org.au

Characteristics

•  Cost Effective
•  Approximately $250 per unit
•  Resource Effective
•  5 x 24 Gauge CGI sheet
•  Empty Cement bags
•  Barbed wire
•  Earthquake-resistant
•  Suitable for harsh elements and good thermal properties
•  Easy and quick to construct (family can build in 2-3 days)
•  Construction materials light and easy to transport to remote areas
•  Floor space compliant with SPHERE guidelines for 5 people

IRAS Design Team Dimensions

Mr Umer Iqbal Floor area 72 sq feet (8' x 9')
Engineer End/side wall height 3 ½' and 6'
+ 92 (0) 300 855 0997 CGI sheets 24 G (12' x 44') x 5
ui@oiltools.com.pk Locally available metal door 3' x 5'

Barded wire half roll

Mr Hammad Husain
Architect
+ 92 (0) 300 855 9321
hammad@hammadhusain.com

Earth bags are filled with dirt from the site and have a layer of barbed wire between rows. This gives the structure its monolithic strength and adds to earthquake resistance

Note that there is no requirement for supports to hold up the roof.

IRAS provides displaced families with a large, warm and comfortable shelter.

There is no comparison between tentage and other shelters when compared to IRAS.

AAI AND IMPROVED RAPID ALL-WEATHER SHELERS (IRAS) DEMONSTATE THE EASE OF CONSTRUCTION OF THE SHELTER TO COMMUNITIES IN BAGH DISTRICT, AZAD JAMMU & KASHMIR

Window and ventilation openings are built into the walls by removing bags during construction. The CEO of AAI, Mr Marc Preston demonstrated that these shelters are easy to build and was one of the AAI team members who took part in the constriction him self.

For further information please contact;

Mr Umar Iqbal
IRAS Systems
0300 855 0997

Marc Preston
CEO
AAI
0301 532 4414