chapter 4 - DRK

Strictly under embargo until Wednesday 22 September at 00:01 GMT (02:01 Geneva time)For many cities, including those mentioned in Box 7.2, disasters are not new. They havea record of disasters at different scales. The cases mentioned highlight institutional incapacityto address urbanization issues from different angles. When combined with lack ofaccountability to citizens and little scope for citizen participation, this means little actionto reduce risks in urban areas, especially where low-income groups live. For much urbanexpansion, the ‘solution’ to the lack of institutional capacity to manage land use has beento be outside the legal framework of building codes and land-use regulations, and outsidethe scope of officially recorded and legally sanctioned land transactions. In many cities,some high- and middle-income groups also occupy dangerous land sites but the possibilityto reduce risk and receive emergency assistance and insurance coverage is muchgreater. City and municipal governments can thus be key players in disaster risk creationand amplification or in disaster risk reduction. This has been acknowledged for sometime by the development and disaster response community, and several governments atnational and regional levels have designed structures to support local governments.Box 7.2 Latin American cities expand over high-risk areasMuch of the housing in Caracas, Venezuela,is built on slopes crossed by gorges that leadto the Guaire, the city’s main river. Low-incomegroups have settled on unstable land and ingorges, where their houses often act as barriersto natural water run-off. In December1999, Venezuela experienced one-in-100-yearrainfall and this caused massive landslides andfloods that killed hundreds of people.After the floods in the city of Santa Fe,Argentina, in 2003 and again in 2007, cityauthorities recognized that for the last 50 yearsthere had been no urban land policy and thatpeople settled where and how they could,prioritizing proximity to workplaces or socialnetworks.Managua, Nicaragua, is located on a stripof land where there are 18 active faults and achain of volcanoes. In this city of 1.4 millionpeople, 79 per cent of the houses are of bad ormediocre construction quality and 18 per centneed complete renovation. About 45,000 familieslive in 274 informal settlements, which lackaccess to water, sanitation and electricity. It isestimated that each year in Managua 3,000homes are built without authorization and thuswith no oversight of the quality of construction.During Hurricane Mitch in 1998, the citiesof Tegucigalpa and Comayaguela in Honduraswere seriously affected. Most damage was concentratedaround the four rivers that cross thesecities. Inadequate city infrastructure, especiallywater, sanitation and drainage, lack of zoningcodes, the concentration of services and infrastructurein only a few areas, lack of official preventionand mitigation strategies, together withan inappropriate management of river basinscontributed to the vulnerability of these areas.The local nature of disaster riskIt is at the local level that disasters materialize: lives and livelihoods are lost, houses andinfrastructure damaged and destroyed, health and education compromised. This is alsoWorld Disasters Report 2010 – Focus on urban risk143