Development of the river-side urban poor settlement towards flood resilience: roles of different actors

Abstract

The concept of resilience against natural hazards supports such kind of development which can withstand against any kind of natural hazard. In this regard, the current research looks into a river-side settlement of urban poor where its inhabitants are accommodating themselves in a vulnerable location through modifying their built-environment. The main objectives of this research are: to conduct a detail investigation regarding development of the settlement towards flood resilience and to identify roles of different actors in the process of development. South Rishipara, a slum of Bhairab Municipality of Kishoreganj District is selected to conduct this research. Among various qualitative participatory approaches, the Participatory Urban Appraisal (PUA) method is chosen to conduct this research. In addition, a questionnaire survey was conducted to get quantitative data. The recent development of South Rishipara includes increased elevation of land, flood protection wall, reclaimed land from the river, underground drainage system, new layout of plots and better houses. The major site modifications became possible because of a donor funded GO-NGO partnership project. About 66.7% of respondents identified themselves as severely affected due to flood before the development. It means they had to evacuate during the flooding period and take shelter to somewhere else. In the post-development situation, not a single respondent identified him/ her in that condition. More than half of the respondents identified themselves at resilience level three; it means they are not expecting to be victim of severe flooding within 10 years. Local people identify CARE, a NGO as the most contributing actor. The second is Bhairab Municipality. The USAID (donor agency) and local people equally share the third position in the rank of contributors. ‘Coordination and cooperation among GO and NGO’ and ‘awareness about the flood vulnerability among actors’ are perceived as the key factors for built environment development by the local people. The protection wall and underground drainage system are two important physical components of the project which are provided to have anticipated adaptation. It was beyond the capacity of local people to have this kind of structural solution without external assistance. The structural components of flood control encouraged the local people to invest more for housing as responsive adaptation. As a whole, the success came because of the enhancement of capacities or filling the capacity gaps.