Greenland
The sins of the past
The Danish Government and the Home Rule Government of Greenland have granted funds for extraordinary refurbishment of housing stock and institutional buildings in Greenland. It is a condition of the grant that the refurbishment be environmentally friendly. Some of the money will therefore be devoted to energy-saving measures. Such measures will not only benefit the Arctic environment but will also result in lower heating bills for the people of Greenland. Another condition is that the refurbishment programme be followed by planned maintenance.
The reason why buildings in Greenland are in such a miserable condition today is an ugly mixture of the ravages of wind and weather, shoddy building, tough use, a style of building that often takes no account of local Greenlandic conditions, and - last but not least - poor maintenance.
In this chapter we look at maintenance. Many of the buildings are in such an awful condition that it is not enough just to earmark some of the rent for general maintenance. Extraordinary action is needed.
The all too clear evidence of the sins of the past has given rise to gigantic task that consists of two elements: refurbishment of housing stock and institutional buildings; and planning future refurbishment.
New Times - New needsBut what will refurbishment mean in practice? And is it always right to refurbish a building?
Let us take an example: If part of the school in Uummannaq is a wooden hut from 1945 that is obviously in great need of renovation, it should obviously not be reinstated in its original form. It would be simple common sense to demolish the building and replace it with a modern one - mainly because school life has changed fundamentally since 1945. There is no need for small classrooms connected by a long corridor. Life in today's schools is entirely different, so this refurbishment project involves far more than just tightening windows and repairing doors. As with the schools, so also with nursing homes, local government offices, and kindergartens. New times bring new needs.
One of the main problems is therefore to find out from which sources the money for the obviously essential projects is going to come.
Mapping the need for refurbishmentPrior to the agreement between the Danish Government and the Greenlandic Cabinet (see box), a mapping exercise was carried out to determine the need for refurbishment. This task was taken care of by a Coordinating Committee with participants from the Danish Government, the Home Rule Government and Greenland's National Association of Local Authorities (KANUKOKA). The Committee's final report includes the statement that:
"(…) there is no doubt that more thermal energy than necessary is used in large parts of Greenland's building stock."
About 85% of all energy consumption in Greenland is used for heating homes and institutions. In this area there will be great possibilities for improving energy efficiency. Bringing the thermal insulation of buildings up to present-day standards will reduce the cost of heating buildings. This will benefit both the people of Greenland and the Arctic environment.
INIHow could such a situation have arisen? Why have the buildings not been repaired and refurbished year by year? Have funds not been set aside for such maintenance as in any normal housing association? The answer to these questions can be seen in the joint declaration between the Danish Government and the Greenlandic Cabinet: "The housing stock has suffered from poor maintenance. One of the reasons for this is that new building has been given priority over maintenance because of the very big need for housing." Let us look at that again. Greenland's politicians have decided to build housing because of a big, acute need for homes. Money has therefore not been available for the necessary maintenance of the existing housing stock. INI (Inissiaatileqatigiiffik Ini), a limited company responsible for managing the publicly owned housing stock, agrees with this evaluation. Construction Manager Jesper Johannesen puts it like this: "The reason for this situation is insufficient planned and systematic maintenance over the years. And no money was set aside for this before 1995. In that year, INI took over the management and operation of most of the rental housing stock. For this housing, money is set aside for planned maintenance and is now being used for preventive maintenance work.
Extract from "Declaration between the (Danish) Government and the Greenlandic Cabinet on Extraordinary Building Refurbishment": (…) there is a considerable, extraordinary need for refurbishment in Greenland, due in part to building damage and lack of maintenance.(…) On that basis agreement has been reached on the following:
The agreement between the Danish Government and the Home Rule Government was thus signed long ago. Binding contracts to a total value of DKK 674 million were prepared for the years 2000 and 2001. Of these, contracts amounting to DKK 106 million are described as "environmentally friendly and improving energy efficiency". Although there are as yet no builders and carpenters to be seen at work on scaffolding, the refurbishment projects have been agreed, grants made for them, and the projects are now being planned. |
Greenland's housing legislation states that money must be set aside for maintenance and for refurbishment when the time comes for that. Despite this, the necessary refurbishment has fallen further and further behind, which is the reason for the agreement signed by Mogens Lykketoft and Jonathan Motzfeldt (see box).
In Sisimiut, a pilot refurbishment project covering two blocks of flats has been completed. "It has nothing at all to do with refurbishment," says Ole Rud, Director of the Employers' Association of Greenland (Kalaallit Nunaanni Sulisitsisut Peqatigiifiiat). "These are high-quality improvements. Money for this is simply not available."
There is much to indicate that from now on the grants will be used for two things: the building envelope (facade cladding with insulation) and wet rooms. The outer body of houses must be sealed tight, and the bathrooms must be sealed using modern wetroom treatment. This is all that can be done for the money available.
This is at any rate the conclusion reached by a three-man committee, the Building & Construction Committee, appointed by the Greenlandic Cabinet. The tough job facing the Committee was to decide what could actually be called refurbishment and what the Danish Government and the Home Rule Government had granted money for. The group of investigators consists of three very experienced people. One of them has worked in the central administration since Greenland's Technical Organisation (GTO) reigned supreme in the building and construction sector; one has been an employee of the Employers' Association of Greenland for many years, and the third is a representative of one of the firms of consulting engineers that have always been needed on building projects in Greenland.
In the autumn of 2001, the Building & Construction Committee presented a draft circular. The circular has been thoroughly discussed with INI. It proposes deciding between refurbishment and rebuilding. If this is not done, it will never be possible to get rid of the existing backlog of refurbishment work.
Return of refurbishmentBuildings do not last for ever. The big question is whether today's situation will return halfway through the projected lifespan of the present housing. Ever since 1994, legislation has laid down that rents must be composed in such a way that each dwelling is checked, maintenance plans are drawn up and money is set aside every single year.
However the dwellings have never been completely registered, so no one knows the full extent of Greenland's housing stock, and a report on the condition of all dwellings in Greenland that had been prepared as long ago as 1986 had been shelved. A plan could therefore not be drawn up for maintenance because no one had actually been out and looked at the dwellings at that time.
Ole Rud is optimistic. He says, "Together with the sector programme we have now got the housing stock registered, and the management at INI is completely au fait with the situation, so I think things will be OK in the future and that we will be able to get rents fixed in accordance with the legislation and money regularly being set aside for annual maintenance."