Such events damage lives and livelihoods,
perpetuating long-term poverty, and ultimately undermine any effort to
improve vulnerable urban settlements that hope to be sustainable.
Long-term reductuion in vulnerability can be achieved with the adoption of
practical and community-centered risk mitigation measures within existing
urban planning practices.
Rapid urbanisation is increasing exerting such a tremendous pressure on land that it is causing communities to squat on environmentally unstable areas such as steep hillsides prone to landslide, by the side of rivers that regularly flood, or on unstable ground that is prone to subsidence. Thus, urban communities are increasingly living in RISKY conditions, being exposed to disaster events such as floods, earthquakes, collapsing building, fires and even the virtual collapse of civic infrastructure services. In most cases, the brunt of such events is borne by the economically weaker sections of the community. There is also the insidious risk, often ignored, of continuing disaster: of communities maintained in poverty by the constant setback of ongoing disasters. Such events damage lives and livelihoods, perpetuating long-term poverty, and ultimately undermine any effort to improve vulnerable urban settlements that hope to be sustainable. Long-term reduction in vulnerability can be achieved with the adoption of practical and community-centered risk mitigation measures within existing urban planning practices.
Yet, the adoption of risk reduction measures is not even considered in local level planing practices. It has traditionally been perceived as separate discipline, usually not associated with mainstream urban planning. To address these issues, the initiative sought to develop, refine and test a methodology, which combined Risk Assessment with Action Planning, in urban communities vulnerable to disasters and environmental degradation. The technique incorporated the identification and rapid implementation of sustainable risk reduction measures that can be incorporated into existing urban practice.
Measures are aimed at improving environmental conditions, strengthening existing community structures and improving shelter and infrastructure. Utilizing the action planning methodology ensures a crucial activity: of involving in the decision making key factors - community, governmental authorities and NGOs - towards the development of truly sustainable measures.
Delhi was chosen as one of the case cities, the other being Ahmedabad, since a considerable proportion of its population lives in marginal settlements with limited infrastructure services. These communities are exposed to grave risks manifested in diseases, loss of livelihood, shelter and sometimes, even life. The project focussed on two such communities in Delhi - one in the old walled city area, and the other, a squatter settlement in the Yamuna riverbed. Both areas represent highly degraded living conditions.
It was intended that simple yet effective risk reduction measures would be introduced with the objective of reducing the vulnerability of the community, and increasing their capacity for varying degrees of protection of their lives and livelihoods.
The project is sponsored by the Department for International Development of the British Government, and is being implemented in Delhi by the Centre for Development and Emergency Planning, Oxford Brookes University, UK, the National Centre for Disaster Management, IIPA, New Delhi and Sustainable Environment and Ecological Development Society (SEEDS), New Delhi . A similar component of the project is being implemented in Ahmadabad in association with the Disaster Mitigation Institute, Ahmadabad.
The Yamuna River -Bed Squatter Settlement in Delhi
Squatters in Delhi are a post-independence phenomenon. Squatting on public land which is devoid of basic infrastructure created problems at the very outset itself - water-logging, poor sanitary conditions, noise pollution, and smelly surrounding. The nature of materials used for building houses and storage of inflammable recycled material have made these settlements extremely sensitive to fire hazards. In the pset 40 years, the squatter population in Delhi has increased 40 times from 12,749 families in 1951 to about 485,000 in 1991: more than 25% of Delhi's total population.