Friday, October 30, 2020

Build Back Circular is the newest approach for climate friendly housing recovery

The slogan Build Back Better introduced on 2006, on housing recovery following the Aceh tsunami. However, now the jargon seems insufficient with the current challenges. In every post-disaster reconstruction, the process is always followed by the potential of environmental degradation. From the perspective of the climate crisis, this process is exacerbated by increasing pollution. Therefore, nowadays the approach being offered for housing recovery is Build Back Circular.[i]

Difficulties in implementing Build Back Better 

Under the principle of Build Back Better (BBB), all new house rebuilds, must be safe from disasters. Moreover, it includes efforts to prevent re-creating or exacerbating pre-disaster vulnerabilities in the process of reconstruction. By strategically embracing and optimizing institutional, financial, political, and human opportunities, positive externalities are believed to arise from disasters, which can lead to safer and more resilient communities.[ii]

But, it is difficult for affected people to perceive the goal of BBB. Many experiences show there was communication gap and different expectation inhibit people to understand the essence of BBB. Larger parts of affected communities assumed that BBB means more aesthetically or bigger houses. Learned from Aceh recovery, the builders, which are the government, donor agencies and humanitarian agencies, they mostly used contractors. This situation is understandable since it is exceedingly difficult for people to build their own houses with concrete and brick walls and at the same time, fulfilling quality requirements. In fact, not all contractors have sufficient capacity.

This condition also weakens the community's ability to carry out the so-called owner-driven recovery. From donor driven perspective, the builder provides housing solution. Start from planning, design, constructing and the homeowner will receive a house such as turn-key project. Many builders provide only single design but was expected to fits all. Moreover not only one house design, the construction material are similar for each beneficiary. But, not everyone wants a house with building materials or designs as provided by the aid provider. Because every family tends to choose building materials and designs as they think are suitable and comfortable with.

Owner-driven recovery and Build Back Safer 

Aceh was special case in post-disaster recovery. It was the biggest funding ever committed for the relief effort with total commitment of USD 7.7 billion.[iii] During its peak time there were 124 International NGOs, dozens of United Nations organizations and 430 local NGOs[iv] with more than 5,000 international humanitarian workers.[v] This massive support is heavy with donor driven initiatives.

But on many post-disaster recoveries, 85% recovery done by the homeowners themselves without humanitarian or governmental shelter assistance, with little understanding to build a robust structure. They built houses with their traditional practices which made them still in vulnerable state. To reach and support homeowners in self-recovery processes, there is a need to develop an adequate understanding of how knowledge exchange and adoption in such interactions can be more effective[vi].

Therefore, the concept of Build Back Safer (BBS) was introduced to educate homeowners on rebuilding their houses properly. It is a knowledge transfer process with training, messaging, and technical assistance to ensure informal recovery can also achieve safer recovery.

After the 2009 West Sumatra earthquake, the term BBS, became popular. The community has more role and opportunity in owner-driven setting. Recovery is in accordance with their needs, abilities, and time. The role of the government and humanitarian agencies are to help by providing some amount of funding and technical support. The assistance is to ensure that the house being repaired or built meets the requirements for earthquake safety. Because the amount of funding assistance is only some part of the cost to build a complete house, people need to add from their savings. The result is that people are wiser and eventually maximize with what they have. This includes using reusable of building materials. The more homeowners to reuse the wooden door frames, also doors and windows to their repaired or newly built house, the more environmental-friendly recovery they will get.

Then it is realized that saving the environment is as urgent as self-recovery. If it is not carefully monitored, there will be massive usage of forest products in the form of wood or its processed products. Then illegal logging could occur which can lead to other disasters such as landslides and flash floods.

In previous recoveries some agencies were using fabricated product to form house structures, which those brought from other cities and even other islands. The use of building materials imported from big cities, which are expected to accelerate the reconstruction process, was also not the best option. There are at least two concerns in these initiatives. The more sophisticated the building technology used, then less space for self-recovery will be. The homeowners and local builders with no experience in the technology have to give the job to those who have sufficient experience. These people usually from outside of the affected area, also it might be from other islands. Moreover, transportation of construction material between provinces and even shipment between islands will increase CO2 emissions into the atmosphere.

Realizing a Back Build Circular 

Nowadays BBS concept seems not sufficient anymore. Due to climate crisis we need to press on to achieve lower carbon emission from the recovery process. Build Back Circular (BBC) is a perfect combination of safe self-recovery and rescuing the planet from climate crisis. From the Circular Economy concept, materials are used repeatedly until all functions and values ​​are used up. It is different from the linear concept where material is taken from the earth, produced, used and finally disposed of as waste. The material continues to be recycled until the amount of waste produced is getting smaller.[vii]

The current concept of circular economy shown in the graph below[viii]. The circular economy message is that the inner circles demand less resources and energy and are more economic as well. The time the value in the resources spends within the inner circles should be maximized.[ix]

From the BBC concept, the community is encouraged to retrofit or to repair houses by adding earthquake safe attributes to make it earthquake safe. Building a new house is only an option when retrofitting is not possible. Of course, with maximizing the reuse of building materials, such as wood, bricks and other materials.

The BBC is also pushing for local economic recovery. This is because fewer building materials are used from outside the area, except for those that cannot be produced locally, such as cement and iron. Instead of using masons from other area because they use sophisticated building technology, they use local product so local construction workers have more job opportunities.

For the BBC to be realized, it is necessary to have policies from the Central and Local Governments to promote self-recovery. There is no need to worry if recovery is slow, because basically post-disaster recovery always takes time. The government needs to be present to strengthen community capacity in self-recovery through funding support, reconstruction guidance and monitoring. This approach should also apply to humanitarian agencies who help the affected people. The strategy is to train masons and homeowners as many as possible on how to retrofit and to rebuild safer houses. Humanitarian agencies can be partner with the government by providing technical support due to high need of post-disaster recovery experts.

Strengthen BBC with Supply and Demand approach

Then how to reuse or remanufacture of construction material as many as possible. All stakeholders have to work on supply or demand side. From the demand side, the government need to issue policy on prioritizing local construction material. The policy should also discourage on using building material if its component contains mostly imported from other area. The demand also can be increased through continuous education to homeowners and builders.

One of big issue in the wake of disaster is the debris. Following the earthquake, the homeowner still can collect salvage material to be reused. But if the hazard is flash flood or landslide or liquefaction and even tsunami, debris become more serious problem.

The 2004 tsunami left an estimated 10 million cubic meters of debris in Aceh, most of it washed into the ocean and left Banda Aceh with mountains of debris up to 6 km inland. At first, many survivors simply burned wood and other garbage. But authorities discouraged them from doing that because it polluted the air and could expose them to harmful toxins. Three months after the tsunami, the UNDP started a USD 40.5 million recycling programme that employed 400,000 temporary workers to pluck wood and stone from the rubble and use the materials to rebuild roads and houses and to make furniture. The recycled waste was used to reconstruct 100km of roads and manufacture 12,000 pieces of wooden furniture.[x]

Hence, there are a lot of opportunities on managing debris and turn it to construction material to support recovery. For instance, combining livelihood program with housing reconstruction by provision of funding for construction material workshop. This kind of workshop can recycle building materials. The community can repair or trade used building materials so that they can be reused. This kind of workshop will reduce the production of new building materials which means that it is also more efficient in CO2 emissions. The more building materials provided locally, the more irrelevant the dependence on building materials from outside the area. In the end people can be left in a safe house and the climate can be maintained.


Education to homeowners and local builders also important. They need to salvage the material as soon as possible. From Yogyakarta earthquake 2006, on the first month, some of the survivors cleared their houses from debris and collecting bricks and wooden material which they thought still can be used.[xi] This will be the first message of recovery to the affected people. As they will lead their own recovery, this effort will help the to realize what kind of recovery they might expect. Once the assistance from government or NGO present in their area, they can decide to repair or rebuild their houses according to what they already have or might receive.

Lombok homeowner salvage his house material following the earthquake 2018

Build Back Circular is achievable 

Then at least there are three initiatives to ensure BBC can be implemented. 

Firstly, policy from the government to encourage retrofitting and maximize the usage of reuse material. Provision of funding and training to the local building material workshop to turn debris to construction material. Lastly education to reuse as many as possible the construction material. 

Combination of those three will bring benefit not only to the affected people but also protecting the climate from excessive use on provision of new construction material which have impact on CO2 .  

Arwin Soelaksono



[i] IFRC - Shelter Research Unit. Humanitarian Circular Exchange - Making space for makerspaces in the Circular Economy of post-disaster shelter and reconstruction. Presentation on Climate Red 2020

[ii] Fernandez, Glenn. Ahmed, Iftekhar. “Build back better” approach to disaster recovery: Research trends since 2006. (2019)

[iii] Jock McKeon, “Aceh Reconstruction Expenditure Update June 2007 data” The World Bank, November 2007

[iv] Amir Sodikin quoted John Clark from World Bank, “Sia-sia Rekonstruksi Jika Tanpa Rumah”, Kompas Cyber Media, December 24, 2005

[v] Carsten Völz, "Koordinasi kemanusiaan di Indonesia: dari sudut pandang LSM" Forced Migration Review Edisi Khusus Agustus 2005, Refugee Studies Centre, University of Oxford, pp.26

[vi] Hendriks, Eefje et. al. Knowledge exchange and adoption to enable safer post-disaster self-recovery. Journal of Integrated Disaster Risk Management. 2018.

[vii] Korhonen,Jouni. et. al. Circular Economy: The Concept and its Limitations. Ecological Economics 143 (2018) 37–46

[viii] Mihelcic, J.R. et. al. Sustainability science and engineering: the emergence of a new metadiscipline. Environ. Sci. Technol. 2003 (37), 5314–5324

[ix] Korhonen,Jouni. et. al. Circular Economy: The Concept and its Limitations. Ecological Economics 143 (2018) 37–46

[x] South China Morning Post 21 December 2014. Indonesia's Banda Aceh, 10 years on, is clear of tsunami debris, but environmental hazards may remain. https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/article/1667595/indonesias-banda-aceh-10-years-clear-tsunami-debris-environmental-hazards

[xi] DW. Sebulan Setelah Gempa Yogyakarta. 28 June 2006. https://www.dw.com/id/sebulan-setelah-gempa-yogyakarta/a-2958069

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