Preventive Resettlement of Populations at Risk of Disaster - GFDRR

a reconstruction plan related to the land planning program
approved by the Community Development Council
(Consejo Comunitario de Desarrollo, COCODE) of
Sololá at the beginning of 2005.
Five days after the event, humanitarian aid arrived and,
in an open town hall meeting, the National Fund for
Peace (Fondo Nacional para la Paz, FONAPAZ) was
designated as the body responsible for coordinating national
and international assistance.
The Executive Secretariat of the Office of the President
(Secretaría Ejecutiva de la Presidencia) began building
280 shelters on land donated by the Catholic Church
and social welfare programs were started, mainly to care
for pregnant women, children under five and schoolchildren,
and to promote productive projects. The Executive
Secretariat also supported the Program for the
Prevention and Eradication of Domestic Violence (Programa
de Prevención y Erradicación de la Violencia Intrafamiliar,
PROPEVI), to help families with domestic
violence issues associated with the tragedy and life in
the shelters.
7. An Initial, Inadequately
Planned Resettlement
Attempt
To achieve a rapid response, housing construction began
on the land donated by the Catholic Church. However,
after the construction started, both the authorities
and local inhabitants became concerned that the land
was not suitable for resettlement because of the level of
risk. Those worries prompted CONRED to commission
the study “Assessment of the Risk of Landslides and Detritus
Flow in Santiago Atitlán, Sololá,” which was conducted
by Cordillera S.A. consultants in 2006. The study
found that the reconstruction in Panabaj was on hazardous
land and thus established the criteria that would
govern the location of resettlement sites, as well as the
type of disaster mitigation measures to be implemented.
Out of respect for the traditions and customs of Santiago,
a community assembly was held for the 230 families
placed in shelters in the at-risk zone. At that meeting,
the government, the Reconstruction Commission, municipal
authorities and traditional leaders determined
that the housing construction could not continue and
that new lots should be found in a safe place approved
by CONRED. They estimated that the process would
take from 12-18 months.
8. Reorienting and Planning
the Resettlement Process
Based on the lesson learned from the inappropriate
choice for a resettlement site, and in keeping with the
Central Government’s Reconstruction Management
Office policies, the resettlement effort was redirected to
ensure it would be coordinated with the strategic land
planning program and have the inter-agency cooperation
and transparency needed to restore credibility and
achieve community participation, all within the Reconstruction
with Transformation Framework.
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