Preventive Resettlement of Populations at Risk of Disaster - GFDRR

est floor into rural land that was used for farming and
livestock, and finally into an informal urban development
area.
Regarding hazards, the studies found unstable areas
producing landslides, erosion, and several houses about
to collapse. The principal trigger was human activity related
to excavation for housing and road construction,
inappropriate landfills, discharge of wastewater and deforestation.
It was found that the first emergency relief was used in
1997, to resettle about 100 households. However, the
effort was not sustainable because some households
returned to the at-risk area due to authorities’ lack of
control of the area.
When the findings were compared with the land use
specified in the POT, it was concluded that the Nueva
Esperanza area was once part of the principal ecological
structure of the Capital District and subject to land-use
restrictions for the following reasons:
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54 percent of the area (28.4 ha) with 289 lots was
located inside the PEDEN;
17 percent (9 ha), 756 lots, was in high-risk zones;
6 percent (3 ha), 126 lots, was encroaching on
the seepage areas alongside the creek’s buffer
zone (ronda hídrica) and the land reserved for
environmental management and conservation in
the La Güaira creek.
2. Rehabilitation, Reconstruction
and Sustainable Development
Plan
The above-mentioned restrictions and the risk to which
the population was exposed led the District Planning
Department (Planeación Distrital) to design an integrated
rehabilitation, reconstruction and sustainable
development plan in 2005. It included actions to be carried
out over a 10-year period, within a comprehensive
framework, starting in 2005. The plan incorporated
three strategies: (a) environmental and territorial recovery,
(b) community organization and participation
strengthen, and (c) resettlement of population at-risk.
To develop it, consultations were held with local authorities,
oversight bodies, the Office of the Comptroller
General - Personería y Contraloría) and communities.
DPAE declared the at-risk areas to be protected and established
the following actions to implement the strategies
mentioned above:
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To prevent the construction of new houses
by denying applications for building permits
(through the local mayor’s office), and carrying
out civil or landscape works;
To acquire all the lots so the District had fee
simple (dominium plenum) for the land, and the
Environment Secretariat could implement the
environmental management plan to rehabilitate
the land, vegetation cover and Güaira creek;
To resettle the entire population;
To incorporate the entire area into the PEDEN.
Table 5.3 lists the different entities involved in implementing
the strategies.
3. Resettlement Program
3.1 Resettlement Planning Studies
To prepare the resettlement program, the following
were conducted: A census, socio-economic study, land
tenure study (to determine the ownership status), and
property appraisals. The following describes their scope
and findings.
Census of lots, houses and population
Once DPAE declared the area as protected land and at
high risk, and determined the need to resettle the population,
it conducted a census of 1,450 existing lots (with
structures already built, being constructed and vacant),
the population and houses. The data were then linked to
the SIRE database and sent to the CVP, the entity managing
the resettlements.
Also, the District Planning Secretariat took aerial photographs
which were used to demarcate the area of intervention
and the population to be resettled.
68 Preventive Resettlement of Populations at Risk of Disaster: Experiences from Latin America