contacts

reason of selection

The Technology Demonstration Unit

at Rahana Village

Name of the project
The Shelter Project

Case Study
The Technology Demonstration Unit at Rahana Village

Type of project
Construction of Community Centre cum Technology Demonstration Unit

Role played by UNDP
As facilitator for gathering the funds, as designers of the building (after consultation with the community), as trainers to the masons and as supervisors of the construction activity (as and when required by the community or masons).

Background
The Rahana village in the Balikuda block of the Jagatsinghpur district was one of the worst hit in 1999 Super cyclone and 2001 flood. These two successive disasters had ruined the economy of the village making them more vulnerable to the natural hazards. The need for a cyclone cum flood shelter was felt by the villagers, but due to scarcity of funds it could not be materialised.

As a part of the cyclone reconstruction and village development activity, Rahana was selected jointly by district administration and UNDP for the construction of a community centre, which would serve as a cyclone cum flood shelter in the time of emergency. The funding for the project was done by SDC (Swiss agency for Development and Cooperation).

The community centre was designed to serve multiple functions. It firstly had to act as a focal point for multiple village activities such as an anganwadi (pre-school) in the morning, as class rooms for training and education and, gathering hall for village and self help group meetings in normal times and as safe shelters in disaster situations. Secondly, from the UNDP point of view, it would serve as a technology demonstration units (TDU) on appropriate building technologies that they were promoting. The idea was that once the villagers saw their community centre being constructed in new technologies, they would develop faith enough to use them in the construction of their own houses. Thirdly, it served as an opportunity for the newly trained masons to learn hands-on the techniques of construction they were being taught by the UNVs. This worked well for UNDP too, as they got a ready team of artisans for the construction activity, and by the end of the construction they had a fully trained work force, which they could link with their other projects. Moreover it became a good experience in community participation, as they were involved in all stages of decision-making including selection of site, design of buildings and implementation.

The planning and design of the structure started in May 2001. By this time UNDP was already well entrenched in this district . People had already begun to acknowledge and accept the UNDP technologies. The actual construction started in Feb 2002.