Preventive Resettlement of Populations at Risk of Disaster - GFDRR

institutions such as the Guillermo Toriello Foundation
and the UN Human Settlements Programme.
In the short term, an effort was made to hire the population
that was to be resettled to do the construction. To
that end, the Technical Training Institute (INTECAP)
provided courses in bricklaying, carpentry, plumbing,
electricity, and other skills.
At the same time, employment and income generation
programs were developed to stimulate the economic revitalization
of the families, based on their skills, potential
and social characteristics, and according to the new
environment and their new responsibilities. An inventory
was compiled of their resources and skills; studies
were conducted of existing demand for employment in
the public and private sectors; the community was offered
training; and sources of loans for families were
identified. The productive projects chosen were consistent
with the Strategic Plan for the Lake Atitlán Basin
and the Municipal Development Plan.
Throughout the process, consideration was given to the
importance of the municipal government in local economic
development. For that reason, the Guillermo Toriello
Foundation focused on strengthening municipal
institutions in areas such as overall and land-use planning,
and economic development.
The integrated model, which is still being developed,
has already yielded encouraging outcomes and continues
to attract more government and NGO programs.
Subsequently, a school was built, along with a health
center and community center, which also serves as the
headquarters for the Council of Elders, the Community
Council, and the offices for women, elderly and youth.
There is also a press and culture center, a natural medicine
clinic and a risk-management office (El Periódico,
2010).
21. State of the Process
At the moment of finalizing this study, the project had
not been evaluated. However, data show that the first
families were resettled in January 2007, and about 700
families were resettled by January 2010. As to be expected,
those families that have not yet benefited are impatient
and pessimistic; there have been cases where families,
faced with the long wait, have considered returning
to where they lived before.
22. Lessons Learned
Although there were no an evaluation available at the
moment of finalizing the study, several lessons related
to the responses during the emergency and the reconstruction
and resettlement process could be drawn.
22.1 During Emergency Response
and Reconstruction
The disaster and the emergency response highlighted
the following:
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The extreme vulnerability to natural disasters of
the housing, transportation, roads and educational
infrastructure;
The environmentally precarious nature of the
country, exacerbated by deforestation and inappropriate
land use, which significantly increased
the vulnerability;
The minimal importance attached by local and
municipal authorities to risk management and
emergency response;
CONRED’s limited regional presence: At the
time of the disaster, it had only eight departmental
units. Now, each of the 22 departments has
CONRED units.
CONRED and the National Emergencies Fund
(Fondo Nacional de Emergencias) lacked human,
technical and financial resources of CONRED
and the National Emergencies Fund (Fondo Nacional
de Emergencias);
The weaknesses of the existing housing institutions.
The massive loss of houses was the greatest
challenge the Government faced. That weakness
created a gap between planning and implementation,
which led many of the institutions to improvise;
The lack of government-owned machinery and
supplies;
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