chapter 4 - DRK

Strictly under embargo until Wednesday 22 September at 00:01 GMT (02:01 Geneva time)CHAPTER 7addition to key roles in pre-disaster damage limitation they also have an important rolein post-disaster response and rebuilding.The concentration of people and enterprises in cities is often seen as increasing risk andexposure but it also means economies of scale and proximity for most forms of infrastructure,including roads, electricity, water and sanitation, and services such as publictransport, communications, education, healthcare or good waste collection systems– all of which can contribute greatly to the reduction of risk. In a well-governed city,much of the disaster risk in terms of death and serious injury is enormously reducedby good-quality buildings and infrastructure. If these interventions do not preventdisasters, they can dramatically cut the death and injury tolls and should limit theeconomic impacts. This applies not just in cases of extreme weather or earthquakesbut also for industrial accidents and fires. In the past, fires devastated many of theworld’s wealthiest cities. Indeed, the city of Venice pushed its glass-making industriesto a separate island, Murano, in the 13th century to reduce the risk of fire. In morerecent times, fire risk reduction was built into building regulations and controls overenterprises and into rapid response capacity from emergency services. Unfortunately,such risk reduction is not present for most cities in low- and middle-income nations,or at least for their low-income districts.Chapter 1 described the web of institutions that help reduce or remove disaster risk inurban areas. In addition, a combination of land-use planning and management and theapplication of building standards should ensure that this continues even in a rapidlyexpanding city. In disaster situations, it may be easier to offer emergency assistanceand care to concentrated populations because the health infrastructure, road networks,airports, ports and communications systems are all in place. However, in most cities inlow- and middle-income nations, a high proportion of the population is not served byany of the risk reduction measures noted above. If cities are not well governed and thuspay little or no attention to the measures that reduce disaster risk, the consequencesof a disaster can be drastic. The recent earthquake that devastated Port-au-Prince andits surrounds in Haiti is an example of how dangerous a city can be if it is externallydependent and poorly governed with little institutional capacity, no emergency plansand little capacity or will to address the structural causes of vulnerability.A mismatch between the city’s population growth and the capacity to keep down risks,support good-quality housing and provide infrastructure and services is often blamedon population growth or on ‘uncontrolled urbanization’. Usually though, it is an institutionalfailure to keep up with economic developments which attract migrants. Muchof what contributes to reducing disaster risk is the same as what is needed to satisfyeveryday needs.However, even in well-governed cities, it is a challenge to get disaster risk reductionembedded in all the relevant sectors and agencies, as Box 7.1 on Durban shows. Here,140