Katherine's House

Today we went to a different site about 4km inland. All of us were needed to do the concrete pour to create the flat roof on a house being built for a 28 year old fisherman, his 26 year old wife and 4 year old daughter. The land had been given to the family by other family members so the house was squeezed onto a fairly small plot of land. Being 4km from the sea was not ideal for the fisherman either as he would have to travel to get to work.

This family is just one of thousands affected by the Sri Lankan government's imposition of a no-build zone 100 to 200 metres wide along the coast.

The 100 Metre Rule

The government of Sri Lanka imposed buffer zones of 100 metres from the coastline in the south and 200 metres in the north and east, with no settlement, reconstruction or new development allowed within the zones. The buffer zone became a contentious issue and slowed down the pace of reconstruction in Sri Lanka. When the ruling was first made public, the government said that it would provide alternative land for relocation for all houses destroyed within the zone. Finding suitable land, however, proved to be a tough task on the densely-populated Sri Lankan coast and some of the alternative plots were located up to 10 km from the coast.

Enforcement of the buffer zone policy has been inconsistent - hotels and restaurants have been rebuilt within the zone. We also saw permanent houses which had been built well inside the 100 metre zone, some of these by aid projects which are said to be explicitly barred. The 'Peoples' Planning Report' put out jointly by more than 100 local grassroots organisations said that the tsunami victims were deprived of basic rights by policies that were adopted without consulting them. The report said that the buffer zone ruling had prevented victims from returning to their homes and livelihoods while encouraging large businesses like hotels to be built within the same zone. Victims were ignored in the decision-making process and it was assumed that they would benefit from the 'trickle down' effect of the national reconstruction effort.

There is a lot of information about this very complex issue on the internet if you're interested in exploring it further.

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We had the luxury of a concrete mixer on this job and formed teams on sand, aggregate, water and passing the mixed concrete up to the roof where another team did the pour. The pace was relentless with a mix being poured out onto the ground every 5 minutes or so - the pans of concrete were passed along a human chain and thrown up to a man on a platform who them threw them up to the roof - very messy when dropped! It was very humid and very hot but the roof had to be finished in one go so we just kept going.

katherine's community challenge

The build