The Role of the Private Sector in Housing Supply and Environment Friendly Construction Practices on the Case Study of Post-War Reconstruction Techniques in Bosnia and Herzegovina

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The Role of the Private Sector in Housing Supply
and Environment Friendly Construction Practices
in regard to the Post-War Reconstruction
Strategy adopted by the IC in Bosnia and
Herzegovina
IMG, Otto-Roman Barnert, Reconstruction Expert
and current Head of the IMG Field Office
Zenica Recommendations based on the Achievements
and Shortfalls of the Post-war Reconstruction
Activities
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About IMG (www.img.ba)

• IMG (International Management Group) is an
  intra-Governmental Organization with a Steering
  Board made up of members of the IC (International
  Community) active in BiH, initially assessing the
  overall war-damage and later playing an important
  role in coordinating all reconstruction
  activities and recording these into a unique
  database, known as PIMS (Project Implementation
  Monitoring System)
• While IMG today is also involved in additional
  technical activities in BiH, such as technical
  monitoring of the implementation process and
  Capacity Building of some of the Government
  Institutions, this paper focuses on the obtained
  experience in monitoring the reconstruction
  activities

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The IMG Housing Standards

• Following the requirement to provide a timely
  reconstruction assistance during and after the
  war, it soon became evident that the
  reconstruction assistance granted to BiH was not
  implemented in a unified way, paving the way for
  the adoption of the IMG Housing Standards for the
  reconstruction of privately and socially owned
  housing units
• This simplified housing standard, adopted by all
  IC members, facilitated a unified damage
  assessment system which could be used to
  calculate the required reconstruction costs to
  achieve these minimum housing standards by
  assessing damage of the 4 main construction
  elements Roof, External Walls, Doors Windows
  and Internal Elements with its technical
  infrastructure.

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Sample Contents of these Standards

• IMG Standards

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Current Situation

• The reconstruction activities in post-war BiH
  have focused on maximizing the supply of housing
  space for returning refugees and displaced
  persons to their pre-war homes, with limited
  available funding of the IC, which led to a
  general decline in the applied technical
  standards.
• To-date some 105,000 housing units have been
  repaired/reconstructed from an estimated 450,000
  war-damaged units through grants of the IC. BiH
  had before the war some 1,300,000 housing units
  for a population of 4,4 mill.persons.
• The high reconstruction demand with limited
  available funding per housing unit has caused a
  general decline in the achieved quality of living
  standards, sometimes emphasized by the use of
  inferior building materials and construction
  details

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Adopted Construction Practices have led to

• no external thermal insulation or plaster
  finishing although temp. usually drop in winter
  to 15 deg. below freezing
• external walls made either with materials which
  are under dimensioned, or of inadequate
  materials, r.c.columns and lintels remain exposed
• chimneys made of inadequate materials and
  insufficiently dimensioned
• no consideration of the type of heating system
• no consideration of adequate sewage facilities
• no consideration for sewage treatment or garbage
  disposal systems

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Noted Shortfalls

• the increased reconstruction effort with above
  stated deficiencies have however not managed to
  solve the housing needs of the post war BiH, as
• the pre-war population can be described as having
  been rural with approx. 70 of the population
  living outside of towns
• the war reversed this situation, partly because
  many of the pre-war urban people fled leaving
  their apartments empty for incoming rural people
  to occupy them, often beyond their planned
  capacity
• as the pre-war occupants return in large numbers,
  the illegal occupants have to vacate the
  apartments and return to their pre-war rural
  homes, many of which will still be damaged as
  only about 30 have been repaired (as previously
  mentioned )

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Noted Shortfalls - continued

• the social structure of families have also
  changed during the last 8 years, so there are now
  numerous young families requiring new
  accommodation which neither the public
  institutions nor the private market are supplying
  
• people who have lived for the past 8 years in an
  urban manner will have got accustomed to the
  advantages of towns and therefore be reluctant to
  return to a rural type of life, hence given the
  choice would prefer to remain in the towns
• houses in rural areas were in many cases without
  electricity or a sophisticated water installation
  so that sewage and garbage disposal was not
  considered adequately
• the IC decided to fix the mostly rurally
  located war-damaged houses against supporting
  the development of the towns as ownership rights
  of existent apartments could not be solved.

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Recommending a change of Strategy

• Stop providing grants for the reconstruction of
  privately owned war-damaged houses but instead
  facilitate loan packages, to
• construct new houses and apartment blocks with
  improved standards
• improve the building physics of the incomplete
  housing units
• install environmental friendly heating systems to
  reduce deforestation
• incorporate use of alternative energy into house
  designs, e.g. glazed verandas, etc.
• Establishing production plants of environmental
  friendly building materials to avoid aid
  dependency, in making e.g.
• construction and insulation systems and/or
  materials as mentioned under examples

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Goal and Objective

• Provide sufficient user friendly and affordable
  housing space in towns
• Improvement of the technical standards by
  introducing affordable and environmental friendly
  construction techniques and practices
• Reduction in annual heating costs by optimizing
  insulation and heating systems and use of passive
  solar energy
• Improving the environment by introducing sewage
  collection and treatment, as well as garbage
  management

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A Possible Way Forward

• The use of environmental friendly construction
  techniques and practices will largely depend on
  the information made available to the civil
  society as well as their representatives, which
  could be achieved by
• conducting media campaigns throughout BiH by
  internationally recognized organizations and
  experts to address
• Local Architects, Designers and Contractors,
  Building Material Producers and Suppliers
• Local authorities and other Law makers
• Raise public awareness in Schools and
  Universities
• A change in the reconstruction strategies of the
  IC working in BiH

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Recommendation to the IC (International
Community)

• change approach towards the support of
  reconstruction in BiH
• instead of grants provide interest free loans to
  individuals who intend to provide for their own
  housing needs
• low interest rate loans to commercial developers
  (which should keep the housing unit price low) if
  tightly monitored by international experts
• IC to carry the interest rates and guarantee
  loans
• provide technical expertise and assistance as
  required
• monitor implementation and provide on demand
  corrective measures
• provide training at all levels as and when
  required

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Recommendation to the Private Sector

• venture into the development of the urban housing
  stock throughout BiH
• establish links to internationally recognized
  companies in dealing with
• housing development
• sewage / garbage collection and disposal /
  treatment
• economical and ecological central heating systems
  
• energy networking
• establish links to companies established and
  experienced in producing environmental friendly
  building materials to enter into joint-ventures
• re-vamp existing desolate factories to produce
  environment friendly products for the local
  construction market

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Examples of Construction Systems/Materials which
could be produced within BiH

• 3D building system which incorporates insulation
  material into external walls for new construction
  to reduce import requirement of bricks
• insulation material of old glass for existing
  houses currently without plaster from collected
  old glass within and outside BiH
• coating timber roof structures with inflammable
  coating made of used nappies collected from
  within and outside BiH
• making briquettes locally from saw dust collected
  from the numerous saw mills within BiH
• making solar panels with locally available
  resources such as silicium

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Recommendation to the BiH Authorities

• facilitate all of the above mentioned
  recommendations by
• incorporate the use of environmental friendly
  construction techniques, garbage management and
  sewage disposal into the local building
  regulations
• provide incentives to individuals who show
  interest in improving the standard of their
  houses by facilitating tax reduction measures
• provide incentives to private investors to
  develop new housing space
• provide low interest rated loans to the private
  building industry
• as an environmental friendly attitude towards
  development is in all our interests, raising
  public awareness to be incorporated into the
  national curriculum

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Main Contacts within IMG