Gender sensitive planned rural housing for cyclone affected areas of Bangladesh

Abstract

Bangladesh is located in a disaster-prone region. The Bay of Bengal generates storms which regularly hit the coastal areas of Bangladesh, leaving behind trails of devastations. Though there has been a dramatic decrease in the number of people being killed, all cyclones have caused huge material damages. Past disaster management policies only concentrated upon life saving strategies, but not in a comprehensive manner, that is by incorporating all possible measures such as guided land development, land use planning, disaster resistant housing, cyclone shelter, disaster preparedness, mitigation measures, etc. It must be kept in mind that disaster affects men and women differently. Women, children, aged and the physically challenged are generally more affected than men and are over represented in the number of deaths. The principal aim of this thesis was to prepare a gender sensitive planned rural settlement by examines the existing situation of cyclone affected areas in terms of socioeconomic condition, infrastructure and housing condition. The thesis tried to relate socioeconomic condition, housing condition, settlement pattern, and vulnerability to cyclone. To attain the objectives, three study areas (Sarankhola Upazila, Urir Char Union and Char Madras Union) had been selected in diverse location of the coastal region of Bangladesh so that they can represent the actual coastal characteristic of the country and found that a gender sensitive approach to housing construction may indeed alleviate cyclone damages and loss of lives. Disaster mitigation should be an imperative for sustainable development as well as a topic for gender sensitive strategies. As already evident, cyclone shelter can never be the only solution for disaster risk reduction and management; disaster reduction policies and measures should aim at building disaster resilient communities to withstand natural hazards with aims to reduce the level of risk by ensuring that development efforts do not increase the vulnerability from these hazards. The traditional approach to disaster mitigation is mostly relief and rehabilitation oriented and, almost always, post-disaster measures oriented, but this has to be changed. It was seen that houses made of temporary materials in non-engineered manner, are more prone to damages, whereas some improved technologies may enable houses to withstand the ferocity of cyclones and thus save its inhabitants. This thesis advocates that improved building design and technologies and planned settlements may reduce the impact of cyclone in a significant level for those who are vulnerable in the society, especially women, children, aged and the physically challenged.