Integrated Relief and Recover after the 2006 Flood in Surat City

Wed, 25 Jul 2007 22:48:03 +0100

The City of Surat in Gujarat exemplifies the development disaster nexus. An industrial city located on the bank of a
river, with large working class population inhabiting slums, signifies complex vulnerabilities to risk from natural hazards - in this case flooding. Over time, the physical aspects of vulnerability of the city have increased with the growth of its industries. Mega development projects elsewhere, as the release of water from the Ukai dam in the State of Maharashtra showed, add to this. Industrial cities invite labour migration. These individuals often live in poor, marginal, and socially and economically insecure conditions.

The 2006 flood is a demonstration of the inability of a vulnerable city and its population to withstand or protect themselves from flood hazards. The recent flood in Surat also demonstrates the continuity of the dominant approach to deal with disasters. A serious lack of preparedness and prevention measures by the authorities was evident. Surat experiences frequent annual flooding and had a similar flood disaster in 1998, which suggested similar same causes and effects. However, lessons of these incidences have not guided the disaster management authorities, the city administration or the citizens to be better prepared. Similar to other similar crisis situations, relief and recovery agencies are at work in Surat. It is time to question to what extent we are able to look beyond the emergency and pitch the recovery with a long-term vision. Where can the levels of risk and vulnerabilities be reduced? Where can the capacities of the administration and the population be built towards better preparedness and prevention, not only from seasonal floods, but also from more severe incidents such as the 2006 flood? Civil society, including non-governmental organisations, is making substantial efforts to demonstrate more sustainable preparedness-focused approaches to long-term recovery from early stages. However, the efforts of the NGOs face the challenge of reaching the required scales. The bigger actors, in particular the government agencies, need to take the best of such initiatives to adopt a preparedness and risk reduction approach towards recovery. When this happens, the impact of the subsequent flood
events will be significantly less.

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Hard truths and soft solutions: the aid industry’s approach to the emergency in Zimbabwe

Tue, 06 Mar 2007 18:03:44 +0000

Source: SARPN

High-profile relief operations have become the lifeblood of the international aid industry. On the back of mass appeals - fronted by wide-eyed, starving children - aid agencies rally attention and gather funds and roll in food-filled trucks to where the hungry people wait. Again and again we feel that we have made a difference, that the rich world has fulfilled its obligation to the poor, and that the rescue missions have been accomplished. But, in reality, no humanitarian emergency is ever quite so simple in its machinations or its solutions. This paper looks at how the aid industry portrays and responds to emergencies, how it interprets and presents people's lives and needs, and how it devises relief operations that too often fail to address the real and difficult causes. In 2002, aid agencies poured into Zimbabwe to avert a famine triggered by bad weather. But the weather was not the issue, many of those who got food did not need it (any more than usual), and the real needs were not addressed.

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Forum for the Future of Aid - Emergencies

Integrated Relief and Recover after the 2006 Flood in Surat City

Hard truths and soft solutions: the aid industry’s approach to the emergency in Zimbabwe