2023-09-23 15:48:14
Adobe was the cause of all evil. It is the diagnosis propagated by the media during the last two weeks, after the earth roared with all its force in the south of Morocco.
According to this thesis, the high degree of destruction in the Atlas mountain areas, south of Marrakech, is explained because the majority of buildings were made of adobe, a traditional material and less resistant than other more modern ones such as concrete.
The great magnitude of the earthquake caused all types of buildings to collapse, including concrete.
Although it is true that construction with earth is vulnerable to earthquakes, it cannot be blamed for the disaster. “Earth constructions can offer seismic resistance to earthquakes based on ancestral techniques and also with the incorporation of new strategies that have already been tested in other contexts,” says Montserrat Bosch, technical architect and professor at the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC). ), in statements to La Vanguardia.
Adobe has been used as a construction material for centuries. “The Alhambra has endured thousands of years,” argues Bosch. An example that serves to show the good results of rammed earth and adobe, elements that are also present in many buildings on the Iberian Peninsula.
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What makes Morocco different from all those places? Fundamentally, they have not suffered an earthquake of magnitude 6.8 on the Richter scale, the most intense in the last 100 years in the Maghreb country. “If the earthquake had occurred somewhere else, the consequences would probably have been similar,” says Bosch, recalling the 5.1 magnitude Lorca earthquake in 2011.
Therefore, according to the technical architect, the buildings in Morocco did not collapse because they were built with traditional materials, but rather she maintains that “the problem was the intensity of the earthquake.”
Bosch, together with Joan Ramon Rosell – a colleague at the Escola Politècnica Superior d’Edificació de Barcelona (EPSEB, dependent on the UPC) – asks not to make “hasty judgments”. “We have seen earth buildings that were being rehabilitated with concrete and precisely that part has collapsed,” Bosch exemplifies. “Zero vulnerability does not exist, everything started to squeak for us when the images that came out behind the journalist were collapsed concrete buildings,” he adds.
The expert confesses that, although she and her colleagues are clear about their hypotheses, they cannot judge everything that happened “without making a precise evaluation of the state of the buildings and their previous situation” to know what happened and how to prevent new disasters. Therefore, when the humanitarian emergency is channeled, Bosch and her team hope to soon travel to Morocco as they have done in the past.
In previous expeditions they confirmed that adobe is an abundant material throughout Morocco, both in rural and urban areas. And they corroborated that construction with earth constitutes an “millennial”, “sustainable” architecture, and “the only one that many people can afford.” An architecture that, Bosch laments, “has no one to defend it,” despite the fact that half of the world’s population resides in earthen buildings. “We are not trying to fight against concrete, it is a lost battle,” he adds.
The magnitude of the earthquake had a lot to do with the high level of destruction in the Maghreb country, although it is also true that seismic regulations did not help. It dates back to 2001, although many buildings do not comply. The result: thousands of people died buried. The latest balance provided by the Moroccan authorities puts the death toll at 3,000 and more than 5,500 injured.
While Morocco continues to mourn, reconstruction efforts continue. This week, the Government approved a five-year, almost €11 billion plan to restore regions damaged by the earthquake. The item will benefit 4.2 million inhabitants. Projects are planned to rebuild homes and restore damaged infrastructure, as well as boost socioeconomic development and promote employment. It is also intended to create a platform for essential reserves to face possible new natural disasters.
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