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If something has gone wrong in the world, the

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chances are someone is trying to fix

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it. And here on People Fixing

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the World from the BBC World Service, we

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find the people who are trying to do just

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Welcome

0:42

to People Fixing the World from the BBC World

0:44

Service, a programme that's all about

0:46

positive news. I'm Myra

0:49

Anubi and every week I find out

0:51

about the people and the projects trying

0:53

to make our world a better place. Today,

0:56

we're meeting people whose ideas might

0:58

save lives when earthquakes strike.

1:04

Tonight in Morocco,

1:06

a race against time to find survivors

1:09

of the massive earthquake and to get vital

1:11

aid into remote areas. Earlier

1:15

this month, an earthquake hit Morocco, killing

1:18

at least 3,000 people. In February, another

1:21

even more destructive earthquake hit

1:24

the Turkish-Syrian border, killing nearly 60,000 people

1:28

and leaving more than 1.5 million others homeless.

1:31

I was sleeping when my wife

1:33

suddenly woke me up. The quake was

1:35

very severe, very scary. Our

1:38

team's trying to save them. It's a

1:40

very difficult task for us. We need help.

1:43

Now, earthquakes can strike suddenly and without

1:45

warning. They happen when two blocks

1:47

of the earth slip past each other, releasing

1:50

a powerful wave of energy that shakes

1:52

the ground. In rich countries like Japan

1:54

and the US, they already have sophisticated

1:56

systems to help reduce the impact

1:59

of earthquakes.

1:59

But I wanted to find out about things that

2:02

could help people in less wealthy countries

2:04

tackle one of the planet's deadliest

2:06

natural disasters. And that

2:08

brings me to our first solution today. It's

2:11

an idea that's helping buildings be more stable

2:13

to reduce the number of casualties

2:16

during earthquakes. Our reporter

2:18

Claire Bates joins me now to tell us exactly

2:20

how this works. It's great to see you, Claire. Hi, Myra.

2:23

Now, I was just talking about what happened in Turkey and

2:25

Syria. And aside from the fact that there was this major

2:28

earthquake that hit near very populated

2:30

towns, there were also some big question

2:32

marks about the way a lot of the houses

2:34

were actually built. Yeah, there was

2:37

a lot of anger and controversy in Turkey.

2:39

There have been lots of accusations that some

2:41

building companies cut corners, basically,

2:43

and didn't follow proper regulations. Because

2:46

a lot of those houses just turned into rubble

2:48

when the earthquake hit. But

2:50

this is where our first solution today could

2:52

help. Yes, so the earthquake also

2:54

highlighted a system that's actually really

2:56

effective at keeping buildings standing. Here's

2:59

BBC journalist Tom Bateman reporting in

3:01

the aftermath of the disaster.

3:03

All they know about some of the children

3:06

that are brought in is which pile

3:08

of rubble they were pulled from. And

3:10

that's all the information. And they have to then

3:13

work from there. And

3:15

the problem is that so many kids are

3:17

coming in from all over the region. This

3:19

is one of the hospitals still standing.

3:22

Others in this part of Turkey have been flattened.

3:25

Tom had been visiting Adana City Hospital.

3:28

Now one key reason it survived was it had been

3:31

built with a base isolation system.

3:33

So this is a specially engineered layer

3:35

between the foundation and the structure of the building,

3:38

which helps the building to sort of float

3:40

as the ground shakes beneath it during an earthquake.

3:43

So the building can float or move

3:45

during an earthquake. But what is that layer

3:47

made of? OK, so there's different types. Some

3:50

systems use Teflon and steel. There

3:53

are others that use a very soft rubber. But

3:55

they're all very highly engineered. And

3:57

they're not cheap. They cost between $1 and $2.

4:00

between $500,000 to $1 million per building. Well,

4:04

that sounds like a big investment. I can

4:06

see rich countries like US and Japan that

4:08

we mentioned being able to afford this, but

4:11

not developing countries. Yes, so

4:13

even in Turkey, they've reserved the system

4:15

for essential buildings like that hospital.

4:18

But there is a group of scientists in Switzerland

4:20

who are trying to find a cheaper option. And

4:23

this project started by first looking at

4:25

how a base isolation system works

4:27

at its most basic level. Antonius

4:29

St. Marcus from ETH Zurich University

4:32

was part of the team.

4:34

The idea is relatively simple. So

4:37

one can use a very soft layer

4:40

or a sliding layer or a rolling

4:42

layer between the structure and

4:44

the ground. The idea is that your structure

4:47

will have minimal damage after the aspect because

4:49

it's decoupled from the ground motion.

4:52

His team wanted to make a cheap rolling layer

4:54

that would work like a more expensive system. Remember,

4:57

that's the layer that goes between the foundations

5:00

and the building. So they looked for

5:02

round objects that they could place between

5:04

two concrete plates. So when

5:06

the effect strikes, the ground moves,

5:08

the spheres roll, and the movement

5:11

of the whole buildings is smooth, the

5:13

diameter that we want. It's around 65 to 70 millimeters.

5:19

They found what they needed in an unexpected

5:21

place.

5:23

And the effect

5:26

goes on.

5:34

They realized tennis balls were the perfect

5:36

certain shape to do in the rolling layer, but

5:39

they needed to make a

5:40

few adjustments so they could withstand

5:42

the weight of a building.

5:44

I mean, a conventional tennis ball is very soft, so

5:46

you

5:46

can support the structure with it, even

5:48

if you use many of these balls. So

5:50

we wanted to make these ones stiffer and stronger.

5:53

And the easiest way to do that would be by

5:56

just drilling a small hole in the tennis

5:58

shell and pulling concrete.

5:59

Now again, what

6:02

kind of concrete are you going to use is a big question.

6:05

Honestly, it took us many,

6:07

many, many, many days and we ruined many bowls

6:09

and we ruined many concrete mixes.

6:11

After much trial and error, they developed the

6:13

perfect concrete mix. They

6:15

filled up four tennis balls and left them to

6:18

sit.

6:20

They then placed each one between two concrete

6:23

plates and subjected them to lots

6:25

of different stress tests where they were squeezed

6:27

and shaken.

6:28

The results were very encouraging.

6:30

The behaviour is very close

6:32

to more expensive bearings. They

6:35

found each

6:35

adapted tennis ball could withstand

6:38

up to four tonnes of compression load. That's

6:40

the equivalent of two family sized cars.

6:42

Of course, we have

6:45

limitations, definitely, but

6:47

it makes us feel confident that we can actually use this

6:49

device.

6:50

One can use many of these concrete

6:53

filled tennis balls to

6:55

support the whole structure and basically

6:57

isolate it from earth.

6:59

They realised the rubber casing of the tennis ball

7:02

was particularly good at absorbing stress

7:05

and there was another unexpected benefit.

7:08

Antonius had never played tennis, but his

7:10

tennis loving friend told him he could get

7:12

his hands on plenty of balls

7:13

for free. We didn't know that

7:16

tennis plays used tennis balls only at happenstance.

7:19

So I was around and they were going to

7:21

different tennis clubs and asking for balls. Everyone was

7:24

more than happy to give me a way their way. So

7:28

I ended up gathering hundreds and

7:30

hundreds of waste things balls. I

7:32

still have some of them in the lab. I don't know what to do with them.

7:38

How exciting is this? The fact that

7:40

you can use tennis balls filled

7:42

with cement and make it strong enough to

7:44

be a foundation, but also flexible. Plus,

7:47

it seems like they've created a very cost friendly

7:50

system here. The tennis balls are free

7:52

and the cement is also pretty cheap. Yeah,

7:54

so Antonius said he filled 200 tennis

7:57

balls using just a $10 bag of cement.

8:00

And so because he needs two balls per metre

8:02

of the perimeter of a building, that $10

8:04

will cover a building with a 100 metre

8:06

perimeter. Wow. I mean, I'm guessing there'd

8:08

still be other expenses, for example, the expertise

8:11

used to build this, but it does sound more affordable.

8:14

However, before we get too excited

8:16

here, I know that this idea is still in its testing

8:19

stages, so Claire, when will we see

8:21

this being used in a real building? Well,

8:24

they are in talks with potential partners in Cuba

8:26

and in Turkey, and they say all going well,

8:29

they hope to be trialling it next year or the year

8:31

after that.

8:35

You're listening to People Fixing the World from the BBC

8:37

World Service, and today we're looking at innovative

8:40

ideas to help people prevent the damage

8:42

caused by earthquakes. Now, we've

8:44

just looked at an idea that's hoping to use

8:46

tennis balls to get buildings to withstand

8:49

powerful quakes. But next, we're

8:51

going to look at a different solution altogether.

8:54

It's about how we monitor the movement of the

8:57

Earth before and after these

8:59

disasters. Now, Claire, in richer countries,

9:01

there are whole networks of sensors

9:04

that are tracing every movement the ground

9:06

makes. Right, so these are known as seismic

9:08

networks, and seismic here is anything

9:11

to do with earthquakes. And these networks

9:13

are being used to record the Earth's vibrations,

9:16

map out fault lines where earthquakes are more likely,

9:18

and to monitor aftershock. And fault

9:20

lines are cracks in the Earth's crust created

9:23

by movement of tectonic plates or

9:25

blocks of the Earth. But, Claire, these

9:27

networks can be very expensive, right?

9:30

Yeah, they can cost hundreds of millions

9:32

of dollars. But that's where our

9:34

next solution can help, because you've found

9:36

another project that's doing this differently.

9:39

Yes, there's a project in Haiti which is finding

9:41

a clever way around this.

9:43

On

9:45

the 12th of January 2010, Haiti

9:47

experienced the largest earthquake

9:50

the region had seen in 300 years. It

9:53

killed more than 200,000 people, injured 300,000 more, and left over a million

9:56

people homeless.

10:00

Geophysicist Eric Callay was at

10:02

Purdue University, Indiana when

10:04

he heard the news.

10:07

I got this email, it said magnitude 7.2,

10:09

a point of print, Haiti,

10:12

and I looked at the depths of the earthquake and

10:14

there was a shallow one and I thought instantly,

10:16

well that's going to be a mess.

10:20

Eric was one of the few seismologists

10:23

studying the Northern Caribbean, so

10:25

after the earthquake he became the urine science

10:27

advisor for Haiti, but he was frustrated

10:30

after seeing tens of thousands of dollars spent

10:32

on sophisticated seismic

10:34

stations that soon fell into disrepair.

10:37

There's 30k for one unit

10:39

and you have to maintain it. In Haiti

10:42

there is no electricity. OAM works,

10:44

it will have it maybe two hours a day

10:47

for three days and then nothing for two weeks.

10:49

It's a big effort and certainly too

10:51

much for our Haitian colleagues to

10:53

handle given the resources.

10:56

Eric quit his role and returned to academia,

10:59

but he didn't forget about Haiti. He knew

11:02

the country needed a system to measure seismic

11:04

activity in real time. But how to do

11:06

that in a failing state with

11:09

little infrastructure?

11:10

In 2018 he found his answer.

11:13

He came across a device the size of his hand

11:16

called a Raspberry Shake. It

11:18

connected a basic computer to

11:20

a cheap seismic sensor first developed

11:22

for mining companies. Each

11:25

shake device cost under a thousand dollars,

11:27

but it could still record valuable seismic

11:30

data. It also didn't need much

11:32

maintenance, which gave Eric an idea.

11:34

So kind of get away from the classic

11:38

thinking which is seismology

11:39

is done by seismologists

11:43

for seismologists.

11:44

He decided to give these sensors directly

11:47

to citizens. The devices

11:49

need electricity and to get into their connection

11:51

to work, which is not that common

11:54

in Haiti. So Eric thought people

11:56

who had access to these services at home would

11:58

be quick to fix them if they were

11:59

broke.

12:00

He put the word out about his project and

12:03

found 15 people willing to host a shake for

12:05

free. And his Haitian colleague Steve

12:07

went out to install them.

12:08

We go there and we install

12:11

the box with them and just leave it there.

12:13

And maybe from time to time we will ask

12:15

you to unplug it and replug

12:17

it to reset the system. And that's

12:20

it. But they all say the same

12:22

thing. They are proud to

12:24

contribute to knowledge

12:28

for their country.

12:29

Eric admits the new network is far

12:31

from perfect. For instance, seismic

12:34

sensors are usually buried underground to

12:36

stop vibrations above from obscuring

12:38

the signal. But this would have been impractical

12:41

in Haiti.

12:42

Given the location where we installed

12:45

them, in the living room, in the corner

12:47

of the living room, in a city, most

12:49

of them are located in cities close to

12:53

car and truck traffic and so on.

12:55

The signal is quite noisy. But

12:58

still, a noisy signal compared

13:00

to no signal, I will take the noisy

13:02

signal.

13:03

In 2021, Haiti was

13:05

hit by another major earthquake, this

13:07

time in a less built

13:08

up area. None of the official

13:11

seismic stations worked, but Eric's

13:13

Citizen Network did.

13:15

Yes, we're getting useful data. The

13:18

August 2021 earthquake occurred in

13:20

the middle of the small network that

13:22

we had in southern Haiti. And

13:24

we were able to monitor aftershocks with

13:27

great accuracy in real time.

13:29

The scientists were surprised to find that

13:31

the earthquake took place on a different type of fault

13:34

to the one they were expecting. And this in

13:36

turn has helped them build better models.

13:38

And then that's an information you can provide to

13:40

the relief workers and

13:42

tell them this is what you should expect within a

13:45

month, within three months, within six months.

13:47

And that's an information

13:50

you can add to your planning. There

13:52

are currently 20 Raspberry Shakes in the

13:55

Citizen Seismic Network and Eric

13:57

has secured funding to install more of them when

13:59

it becomes a public service.

13:59

safe enough to travel. So now we

14:02

have something like 6,000 earthquakes

14:04

recorded over the past three

14:06

years.

14:07

At 6,000 earthquakes in Haiti alone,

14:10

the most would have barely

14:10

been felt. And hopefully

14:13

we'll be able to install another 20

14:15

next year. So

14:18

if we end up with 50, that

14:20

would be an accent. This

14:29

is

14:29

where we move on. The system in Haiti is

14:31

helping map long-term risks. But

14:34

sensors can also be used to sound the alarm when

14:36

an earthquake has hit, and the shockwave

14:38

is heading towards you, giving you seconds

14:41

or minutes to prepare. Yeah, so there's

14:43

an app run by the US Geological Survey

14:45

called ShakeAlert, and that does exactly that.

14:47

And the reason you get those spare seconds is because

14:50

the electronic message is travelling faster

14:52

than

14:52

the shockwaves from the earthquake.

14:53

And those seconds can be really

14:56

important. You can grab your kids or find

14:58

a sea shelter. Yeah, and I should say

15:00

it's not just governments doing this. So there's

15:02

a private company called SkyAlert doing the same

15:04

thing in Mexico, and they've actually

15:06

got over 7 million registered users.

15:09

7 million. That's big. Yeah, it is. And

15:11

it became really popular in 2017

15:14

after it alerted people to an earthquake 12 seconds

15:17

before the government system did in Mexico City.

15:20

And they're going to be able to do that. And

15:23

they're going to be able to do that. And they're

15:25

going to be able to do that.

15:26

The company now has around 125

15:29

seismic sensors covering 80% of

15:31

the country.

15:37

For our last solution today, let's

15:40

find out about another project that's trying to

15:42

help with the human side of earthquakes

15:44

by improving what people do when

15:47

the Earth starts to shake.

15:49

When our survival is under threat, our instincts

15:51

take over. We tend to naturally either

15:54

freeze or start running. But these are the

15:56

worst actions to take during an earthquake

15:59

with buildings falling.

15:59

down around you, furniture toppling

16:02

over, windows shattering, the

16:04

last thing you should do is act without

16:06

thinking. Here's where this

16:09

next solution comes in. A university

16:11

in Portugal has created a virtual reality

16:14

game to prepare people for the worst using

16:16

a headset that puts the user in a computer-generated

16:19

earthquake. The idea is that people

16:21

who play it will be mentally prepared

16:24

in case they find themselves facing one in

16:26

the real

16:26

world.

16:27

Claire took me to the BBC's Blue Room,

16:29

a place where they test out new technology

16:32

and the lovely Simon helped me get up and

16:34

running with the VR system.

16:36

You hold it like you would have gone, so

16:38

you've got a trigger there. There we go and then I'm

16:45

gonna tighten it up. How's that? I feel okay?

16:47

Yep. Okay

16:50

so I'm going into a game now. It's

16:53

loading. Oh,

16:54

I can see a bedroom right

16:56

in front of me. This looks like a work desk.

16:59

I can see my laptop.

17:01

It's insane how realistic this

17:03

is.

17:04

So on the laptop there's,

17:06

this is basically what to

17:08

do, the journey. So before the earthquake,

17:11

during the earthquake and after. I can

17:13

also hear a voice through the headset explaining

17:16

what to do. I was told

17:18

to look around the flat and think about

17:20

where I could shelter in case of an earthquake.

17:24

A safe place could be under a piece of furniture

17:27

or against an interior wall away from

17:29

windows. And also I was shown how

17:31

to prepare an emergency bag. I

17:34

need, I have medication, I have my first aid kit,

17:36

I need a water bottle. Fire

17:40

extinguisher as well. It

17:42

also taught me a breathing exercise

17:44

to help me stay calm. After

17:47

all the training it was time to face the

17:49

earthquake.

18:00

The room shaking, the curtains right

18:02

in front of me are on fire. The

18:06

tremors are definitely getting stronger.

18:07

Oh,

18:12

okay, move from my eyes. Um,

18:14

he tends to breathe. How

18:17

much grip?

18:23

The tremors kept coming and going,

18:25

but then eventually, it

18:28

feels like they stopped.

18:31

So part of me wants to move from

18:33

under the table, but the other part of me is

18:36

too scared to do that. The

18:39

key thing in an earthquake is to take cover until

18:42

the tremors stop and then move very

18:44

carefully. I eventually manage

18:46

to find my way out of the apartment. And

18:50

it's really scary. Everything's on the ground.

18:53

There's like this big massive hole right

18:56

above me. There's water spilling

18:59

from one corner, definitely

19:01

a broken pipe. And I can

19:04

hear sounds of fire, these like electric

19:06

cables hanging. I

19:09

found the stairs and escaped

19:10

outside. Oh,

19:13

this is horrible. I can hear

19:15

sirens everywhere. I'm looking all

19:17

around. All my neighbours' houses

19:19

are on fire, lots of wreckage,

19:22

just even from my

19:24

building. So I'm just

19:26

going to make my way to the

19:29

ambulances. And there's

19:32

a group of people gathered at

19:33

the roundabout.

19:38

Claire, just listening back, I mean, you

19:40

know I was very excited to try the experience,

19:43

but then by the end of it, I was

19:45

quite frightened. And it just gives

19:47

you a different perspective of everything. I

19:49

know exactly what you mean because I had to go as well. And

19:52

I was really surprised at how disorientated

19:54

and stressed I felt, considering it was a game. Yeah,

19:56

there are also things that I thought I knew, but

19:58

I didn't. Like, what was it? what to do in

20:00

the moment, but it was quite a learning process

20:03

for me as well. Yeah, so for me I was

20:05

just surprised at how the instincts took over,

20:07

so the first time I tried to actually run through a hole

20:09

in the floor, well I should

20:11

have stayed under the table, but I think as a result

20:14

the lessons really kind of stay with you, so

20:16

now I've really got it drilled into me, take cover,

20:19

take your time and so on. Now

20:21

this game was developed as part of an EU

20:23

programme called Build, which is helping

20:26

improve disaster preparation in Indonesia.

20:28

Yeah, and this specific project was done by

20:30

a team at the Instituto Politetnico

20:33

Porto. Now Antonio Marquez

20:35

is part of the project and he says going

20:37

through those scary emotions is actually

20:39

quite helpful.

20:40

Most trainees have reported their

20:43

experience and their earthquake very

20:45

close to the reality, gives

20:47

them a closer idea of

20:50

how they react, allowing

20:52

them to anticipate mistakes

20:55

and improve their vehicle.

20:56

It certainly helped Nabeeta, a student

20:59

at President University in Jakarta. She

21:01

told me her family had done all the wrong things

21:03

when an earthquake hit her village in North Sumatra

21:06

many years ago. When

21:10

we felt the ground shake, we didn't know what

21:12

to do, because we had never been prepared

21:14

for the situation before. So

21:17

we panicked and we all ran outside

21:19

without bringing anything we might need later. We

21:23

just didn't know what to do. But

21:27

after her training, Nabeeta thinks she'd cope

21:29

much better in a similar disaster. BPR

21:33

has now told me what to do when an earthquake

21:36

happens. For instance,

21:38

we have our important documents and medicines

21:40

in one bag, so we just need to

21:42

grab that bag during a disaster. And

21:45

I know we have to avoid electric wires

21:47

and water to avoid being electrocuted

21:50

and stay clear of glass. We have to avoid

21:52

it. We have to avoid it. We have to avoid

21:54

it. Nabeeta is one of 270 students

21:57

across eight universities in Indonesia.

24:00

you