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Retrofitting houses to mitigate potential earthquake in West Bandung
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A workshop with stakeholders, attended by Erdiriyo, assistant deputy for Inclusive Finance and Sharia Finance at the Coordinating Ministry for the Economy. ADRA Indonesia presented a survey on 1,000 masonry houses. (Courtesy of ADRA Indonesia)
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n July 26, ADRA Indonesia and the West Bandung Disaster Mitigation Agency (BPDP) held a stakeholder workshop to discuss the findings of a survey on non-engineered houses and the progress of promoting retrofitting in West Bandung. The workshop was attended by village heads and delegates from six sub-districts of West Bandung.
ADRA Indonesia has conducted a survey on 1,000 houses located on the Lembang fault and found that 70 percent of houses would be heavily damaged, 46 percent moderately damaged and 4 percent slightly damaged if an earthquake along the Lembang fault occured with an intensity of VI-VII Modified Mercalli Intensity (MMI). This number of damaged houses is higher than in the emergency scenario stated in the West Java Contingency Plan 2019, which forecast 70 percent of 320,000 houses would be heavily damage and 30 percent slightly damaged.
Since April, ADRA Indonesia has trained more than 20 builders in West Java and they have retrofitted 23 houses as demonstration houses. Currently, people in Jambudipa, Cikahuripan and Cihanjuang Rahayu Villages are interested to strengthening their houses.
D. Karlo Purba, program director of ADRA Indonesia said that "Earthquakes don’t kill or injure people, but collapsed buildings do because they are unable to withstand the seismic activity. Therefore, we should retrofit our buildings, especially non-engineered masonry houses that are not compliant with building codes." He added, "Over the past five years, together with the late Dr. Teddy Boen, ADRA Indonesia, has been promoting retrofitting by reinforcing walls with ferrocement. The reinforced walls become the structure that making the building stronger and it is economically affordable and simple. We have retrofitted nearly 3,000 houses and trained thousands of local builders in East Nusa Tenggara, Central Sulawesi, West Sulawesi and West Java."
The research conducted by RISE and ADRA Indonesia, also in early 2024 in West Bandung, shows that 97 percent of villagers were aware of the threats of the Lembang fault, 97 percent were interested in retrofitting their masonry houses and 87 percent were interested in accessing loans for retrofitting. Bank Jawa Barat (BJB) and several financial institutions, such as PNM, have expressed their commitment to supporting the program, thanks to encouragement of Erdiriyo Deputy Assistance Inclusive Finance and Sharia Finance of Coordinating Ministry for the Economy. However, the low income and existing loans of people has prevented them to access loans.
One of the village heads stated that "we need a policy breakthrough as an umbrella for the village government to access various sources of funds, so the people can start retrofitting”. Meidi, the chief executive of the West Bandung BPDP, emphasized the importance of this policy breakthrough, adding, "We have to start now with what people have by encouraging people to save or create a cooperation to proceed this retrofitting while we look for policy breakthroughs."
ADRA Indonesia reiterated its commitment to future partnerships, including to updating the contingency plan to anticipate the crisis following a Lembang earthquake and technical support to increase the number of trained local builders, as the people will definitely need trained builders if they have the funds to retrofit their houses.
