Collective Actions for Urban Resilience

Collective Actions for Resilient Urban
Areas

Islamic Relief Worldwide - Bangladesh
House No: 10, Road No: 10, Block-K, Baridhara,
Dhaka-1212
Web: www.islamicrelief.com

April 2012

Documentation and Compilation
M. Mizanur Rahman
Programme Officer (Monitoring, Evaluation and Research)
Islamic Relief Worldwide-Bangladesh

Mohammad Simon Rahman
Programme Officer (Media, Communication and Advocacy)

Research Associate
Tania Sufi and Nushrat Rahman Chowdhury
Intern

Concept, Supervision and Coordination
Syed Shahnawaz Ali
Programme Manager

Javed Ameer
Head of Programmes

Photo
Shumon Ahmed & IRW-B Sylhet Team

Contact
Islamic Relief Worldwide - Bangladesh
House No: 10, Road No: 10, Block-K, Baridhara,
Dhaka-1212
Web: www.islamicrelief.com

This document has been prepared under the 6th DIPECHO Action Plan for South Asia implemented by
Islamic Relief Worldwide-Bangladesh working under the NARRI consortium. Islamic Relief Worldwide-
Bangladesh preserves the copyright of this but it can be quoted or printed with proper acknowledgement. It
has been produced with financial assistance from European Commission Humanitarian Aid and Civil
Protection (ECHO). The views expressed herein should not be taken, in any way, to reflect the official
opinion of the European Commission Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection (ECHO).

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Contents

1. Introduction ................................................................................................................. 3

2. Intrinsic Risks, Immediate Measures .......................................................................... 4

3. Major Urban Hazards in Bangladesh .......................................................................... 4

4. Urban Characteristics Making DRR Difficult ............................................................. 6

5. Exploring Community Strengths in Reducing Risks .................................................. 8

6. Need for Comprehensive Approach with Mass Awareness ........................................ 9

7. Urban Safety Interventions of IRW in Sylhet ........................................................... 10

8. IRW‟s Community Based Approach for Urban Safety ............................................. 11

9. Roles of Different Community Groups in Sylhet:..................................................... 12

10. Linkage and Coordination among Various Groups:.................................................. 16

11. Major Activities Promoting Urban Safety................................................................. 17

12. Conclusion: ................................................................................................................ 19

Annexure-01: .................................................................................................................... 20

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Collective Actions for Resilient Urban Areas

1. Introduction
Urbanization is believed to be both – a cause and effect of economic growth, employment
generation and overall development of any country. It is here to stay. The present paper
does not get into the merits or demerits of the phenomenon but, assuming it is here to
stay, looks at the various aspects of how do we build a disaster preparedness into it for an
overall risk reduction in urban areas. In 1981, Amartya Sen described cities as places of
refuge from famine where food stores, economic opportunity and political accountability
provided a buffer from environmental change. Expansion of urban population and urban
construction have been so alarming that urban safety has become a crucial issue now-a-
days, especially in developing countries like Bangladesh where rate of population growth
(particularly in urban areas) is high, huge amount of money is being invested in planning
and development of infrastructure, however the route taken for greater urbanization has
been contentious and arguments can be proffered for and against it. The urban areas of
developing countries have 80 per cent of world‟s urban population and in the Asian
context, around 40 per cent of the total population lives in the urban areas. For better
income opportunity, after-effects of disasters in the rural area, better education and health
facilities and so many other factors attract people to the cities. With this pace of
increasing population, urban vulnerabilities are also increasing rapidly.

Reducing the urban risk which is never a one sided approach, has come centre stage of
development in many developing countries including Bangladesh. The Hyogo
Framework for Action 2005-2015 considers that both communities and local authorities
should be empowered to manage and reduce disaster risk by having access to the
necessary information, resources and authority to implement action. The challenge of
involving local authority in Bangladesh is different regarding urban risk though it is
considered as one of the global leaders in disaster management and risk reduction. Local
authorities have been administering cyclone, flood, and river erosion for years but have
little experience to handle earthquake, fire, water logging since these are comparatively
new hazard. Reducing and managing urban risk is rarified further due to other factors like
very few capacity building initiatives, disintegrated policies, long-drawn-out decision-
making process and financial constraint. Most of the community people of urban areas
are also not familiar with urban risk. Especially the newly migrated people do not realize
their own vulnerability. A holistic approach involving both the local authority and the
community people is needed to make linkage and carry on outgrowth. Considering that
urban risk reduction has to take a comprehensive and collaborative approach, Islamic
Relief Worldwide (IRW-B) has come up with an approach where the communities have
been empowered with a very good knowledge level on Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR),
skill of response in case of emergency, and coordination with different relevant bodies to
assess and minimize their risks.

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2. Intrinsic Risks, Immediate Measures
According to the Global Climate
Risk Index 2010, an average of
8,241 people died each year in
244 cases of extreme weather
conditions in Bangladesh, with
the damage amounting to over $2
billion a year and a GDP loss of
1.81%, during 1990-2008 (The
Daily Star, October 7). Day by
day, disasters are going to be the
main agents of human crises and
also threat to economy
worldwide. In 2010 only, 385 natural disasters killed more than 297,000 people
worldwide, affected over 217 million others and caused $123.9 billion damages. 131
countries were hit by these natural disasters, though only 10 accounted for 120 of the 385
disasters (31.2%) (ADSR: 2010).

In line with these, our vulnerability to different hazards is also increasing. Frequent
earthquakes in India, China and Japan, flood in Pakistan, Sri Lanka and India, drought in
China, series of storms in the Philippines have added a new dimension to thinking for
disaster risk reduction in the Asia-Pacific region (Rahman, 2011). Again, frequent
earthquakes, tsunami and other urban hazards in this region have made Bangladesh
concentrate not only on the common rural hazards but also on the urban ones. Besides
this, there are a number of reasons for which the country has now moved to focus on
urban risk reduction in a comprehensive way.

3. Major Urban Hazards in Bangladesh
Bangladesh is one of the most vulnerable countries in the world due to its geological
location and being prone to major urban hazards that include earthquake, flood, tsunami
and fire etc. Many cities in Bangladesh are increasingly becoming the concentration of its
major functions with huge amount of physical, economic, social, political and cultural
assets. These areas are characterized by high density of population, which results in higher
exposures to risks. The combination of high vulnerability and exposure is posing higher
degree of risk in all these urban areas.

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Among the urban hazards,
earthquake, fire and water-logging
are more common when the first one
can have a macro-level impact and
the later two can be liable for their
micro-level impact. The adjoining
figure shows the earthquake zones of
Bangladesh with Basic Seismic
Coefficients.

3.1 Earthquake

Earthquake is an everpresent dormant
and absolutely unpredictable hazard
that can hit with destructive alacrity.
There is no early warning and it
hardly provides you with any time to
prepare and respond immediately.
Moreover, we are making ourselves
more vulnerable to earthquake
through our expanded and unplanned
urbanisation despite being aware of its ferocity. (Rahman, 2012). Even though it may
lasts only for couple of minutes, the damages it causes are huge.

“According to a recent survey around 250,000 buildings in the three major cities of
Bangladesh; Dhaka, Chittagong and Sylhet are extremely vulnerable to earthquakes.
Some 142,000 among 180,000 buildings in Chittagong; 24,000 out of 52,000 in Sylhet;
and 78,000 out of 326,000 buildings in Dhaka were detected as risky” (Source CDMP
Report). Bangladesh has already experienced several small earthquakes in the recent
years. The frequencies are increasing every year, so the chance of facing a big earthquake
is very likely in the coming days. We can take the example of Dhaka, the capital of the
country with more than ten million people where maximum of the buildings are located.
This city is predicted to be badly affected if an earthquake of more than 7 magnitude hits
the city.

Table 1: List of Major Earthquakes Affecting Bangladesh
Date Magnitude/ Damages during the earthquake
scale
1918, 7.6 Srimangal Earthquake had epicenter at Srimangal, Maulvi
18 July Bazar (close to Sylhet). Intense damage occurred in
Srimangal, but in Dhaka only minor effects were observed.
1930, 2 July 7.1 Dhubri Earthquake caused major damage in the eastern
parts of Rangpur district.
1997, 6.0 It caused minor damage around Chittagong town.
22

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November
1999, 5.2 Severely felt around Maheshkhali island and the adjoining
22 July Sea. Houses cracked and in some cases collapsed.
2003, 5.1 Occurred at Kolabunia union of Barkal upazila, Rangamati
27 July district.
2011, 6.4 It shook a large part of the country. Epicenter was at India-
February 4th Myanmar border region, 291km from Sylhet, 392km from
port city Chittagong, and 453km from capital Dhaka. The
ground shook for a "lengthy" period.

3.2 Fire

Fire is a frequently occurring hazard in the urban areas of the country due to an
increasing number of people getting involved in the economic, industrial and other
activities. Big cities in Bangladesh including Dhaka, Chittagong and Sylhet are prone to
this hazard also because of rapid and unplanned urbanization and the absence of adequate
safety measures. The fast increasing population in combustible shanties further
contributes to the increasing risk of fire. Best of intentions and emergency plans of the
Government combined with a weak political will for disaster preparedness and lack of
resources further increases the risk of large-scale fires.

Safety and Rights Society‟s annual study published in national and local daily
newspapers reported death of 383 workers in 270 workplace accidents in 2010 compared
with 265 deaths in 227 workplaces the year before. Not only in the workplaces but also
the urban slums have become crucial places where density of population is very high but
safety measure for fire is almost nil. So, with increasing urbanization, incidents of fire
and risks of fire are increasing in the country.

3.3 Urban flooding

Even a mild rainfall (time and again) creates water logging and affects the life and works
of people in the cities. A lack of good and efficient drainage system results in rainwater
submerging the roads in low lying areas. Unplanned urbanization and ever-increasing
demographic pressure on the cities are mainly responsible for this.

4. Urban Characteristics Making DRR Difficult
Working in urban areas for Disaster Risk Reduction is not an easy task for a number of
complex and diverse factors of urban areas in Bangladesh. These major cities are fast
becoming the center of new vulnerabilities adding risks of earthquake, flood, fire, road
accidents and health hazards. In case of Bangladesh, rapid urban growth has come with
many challenges to city authorities and other stakeholders. These underlying urban risk
factors have already made implementation of urban safety more critical than any other
built environment.

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Some of the common factors are summarized below:

4.1 Ever increasing population

About 40% of Bangladeshis live in urban areas and the population growth in Bangladesh
is happening at a very rapid pace reported to be 2.85 (Source World bank report 2010).
By 2040, the total population of Bangladesh will hit 230 million mark, where 52% will
live in urban areas. It is projected that by 2020, population of Dhaka city alone will grow
to 20 million making it the world‟s third largest city. The density of Dhaka has
alarmingly reached to 27.700 people per square kilometer. According to Bangladesh
Bureau of Statistics, annually 300,000 to 400,000 people, mostly from rural areas
continue to be added to the total population of Dhaka city. Natural disasters and lack of
income opportunity in the rural areas contribute largely to increase in urban population.
Lack of resources available in cities has forced majority of population to live in high risk
marginal and squatter settlements without access to basic services.

4.2 Unplanned urbanisation

Rapid and unplanned urban growth in Bangladesh is feeding into the growth of slums
with low or no access to basic services ultimately reinforcing poverty. The urbanization
does not take into account any protection measures for population against any hazard or
disaster. The developers are cashing in on every bit of available vacant land for building
new high-rise buildings by subverting the urban planning systems and procedures. They
are shortsighted and are only geared towards optimization of land which results specially
in roads being kept very narrow in most parts of the cities. This has made it tougher for
the emergency responders to approach the affected areas in past few incidents of fire
outbreaks. In most part of the cities, old buildings and the weak infrastructure pose a
constant threat to human life in hazards such as fires, earthquakes and floods.

4.3 Urban DRR – a conflicting priority

Diverse societal structure, opportunist political system, lack of administrative capacities,
very poor resource generation capabilities, archaic urban planning and development
legislation etc. collectively contributes to making cities of Bangladesh more vulnerable to
disaster risks. Appropriate governance and decision making system is the core of risk
reduction in urban areas but this does not exist adequately in the present system. DRR
invariably takes the back seat to other needs which may be considered more pressing or
populist for the politicians and easier to address by administrators, in the country.
Lacking sound knowledge on preparedness contributes to unsound planning for
emergency response and humanitarian assistance in times of disasters.

4.4 Lack of knowledge and capacity

Urban safety is a complicated issue. Accidents like a fire outbreak occurs more frequently
but have had minimum impact on human life grossly as flood or cyclone do. Meanwhile,
an earthquake might create a macro level impact, but such an earthquake would occur

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very rarely. As a result, the urban population has not developed any coping mechanism
against these hazards.

The process of disaster risk reduction inclusive project planning and execution remains a
major weakness. Most of the administrators do not have any past experience of handling
urban hazards, particularly earthquake, to bank upon. There are also not many dedicated
programmes in urban areas of Bangladesh, and it will require sizeable time, investment
and political will to integrate disaster risk reduction within ongoing city operations and
planning.

4.5 Human mobility and lack of cohesion

With an ever-fluid and migrant population comprising the urban masses with no fixed
area most of the times committing to and undertaking awareness raising initiatives
becomes very difficult. Lack of trust, and cut-throat commercialization also keeps people
away from each other and thus, they cannot plan and/or undertake any collaborative
efforts for risk reduction. Risk reduction there is least of their priority.

4.6 Social challenges

The people in some of the major cities including Sylhet are very religious. Many of them
have a strong belief that Sylhet will not be affected by any major disaster because it is the
holy land consisting of the shrines of many a religious saints like Hazrat Shah Jalal (RA)
and Hazrat Shah Paran (RA). This also contributes to lack of interest for any disaster
preparedness.

In 1987, the Great Indian Earthquake occurred and took life of 545 people. More than
100 years has been passed. The present generations have not yet experienced any massive
tremor and seen the destruction of earthquake. This is one of the underlying facts which
is keeping the community people aloof from taking preparedness.

Due to prevailing social norms women in some of the major cities are not permitted to
move freely and thus, restricted from getting involved in public events which is a much
essential component for mass awareness-raising. Most of the targeted population in urban
areas are rich and mostly exhibit reluctance to spend time for community based activities;
failing to realize that the people blessed with more resources actually are more at risk of
losing it all to any hazard or disaster and need to take a more proactive approach and role
in disaster preparedness.

5. Exploring Community Strengths in Reducing Risks
Taking into consideration the role that the communities can play in reducing the
underlying risk factors of the major hazards and the people are at the core of the disaster
risk reduction at different levels, some countries have already been working with the
communities in order to decrease the loss from small- and medium-scale disasters. Some

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successes have already been achieved by Duryog Nivaran, a network of organizations
and individuals who used this community focused approach in South Asia including
Bangladesh.

These success stories apparently indicate the abilities of local communities and
encourage different bodies to work with the communities for urban disaster risk
reduction. Though, there are many challenges in working with urban communities, there
are also some positives aspects that increase the chances of success for the community
based approach. Specifically, there are some potential strengths for which community
based approach can be adopted in the urban areas. Such as,

1. The community knows its risks
better than the external people and
authorities. They also have
indigenous knowledge and local
experience to cope with local
disasters that are less known to
outsiders.
2. Higher population helps to find
community members who have the
scope and enthusiasm to help and
volunteer for such initiatives.
3. It is easy to get access to the
government/ non-government service providers in the urban areas.
4. The literacy rate is higher in the urban areas and thus dissemination of information for
awareness building across the community is comparatively easier in the urban areas.
5. The quality and availability of transport system and other necessary services are
better in urban areas compared to rural.
6. A larger number of students come to urban school compared to rural areas. One
training session can educate many students from just one school, so the dissemination
of the message across the target community can be faster.
Since the urban areas are the nerve centers of the country, it is easy to approach
development or emergency specialists. So the preparations of training sessions are more
feasible and emergency responses can be faster. Now, for urban risk reduction,
capitalizing on all these things is very crucial. We need to explore more and more
potential strengths in the communities and after doing that we need to encourage and
facilitate them on how they can use their strengths to reduce their own vulnerabilities to
hazards.

6. Need for Comprehensive Approach with Mass
Awareness

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The expanding scale of urban vulnerability and pressures can one day result in great
tragedy if we ignore it today. It is not an easy task for the government or any other
private organization alone and it calls for a more comprehensive and unified actions from
all the actors. There is an immediate need for a strong and increasing government
commitment towards urban disaster risk reduction initiatives. The government needs to
formulate policy and encourage common people to be more proactive in learning and
taking measures to reduce their vulnerabilities. Mass public awareness is one of the major
pre-requisite when sincerity and transparency of all the concerned people come as second
priority.

The vibrant NGO community has to expand their resources, efforts and proven abilities to
deliver effective risk reduction programmes with a focus on developing innovative ways
to create safer urban environment at community levels. There is no simple, standardized,
widely-accepted approach for an urban community to detect their risks and come up with
a set of measures to minimize disaster risks. In such a situation, the communities need to
find and develop their own approach to examine the problem and/or use information
readily provided to them. There is a strong need for every single member of the
community to increase their level of participation, knowledge and skills required in order
to transform into safe and healthy future generation.

7. Urban Safety Interventions of IRW in Sylhet
Islamic Relief Worldwide started work
on urban risk reduction in Sylhet in
2007. It initially was able to cover 3
wards from Sylhet City Corporation
under the 3rd DIPECHO Action Plan
funded by ECHO. Under the following
three DIPECHO Action Plans, IRW
worked in 06 wards in each of its
project phases. Currently, under the 6th
DIPECHO Action Plan, IRW has
selected the wards 01, 03, 14, 16, 17
and 27, where it is working with the
community for awareness raising on
urban hazards such as earthquake, water-logging and fire outbreak. The major
interventions are training events for preparatory knowledge and emergency response
capacity building, risk and resource mapping, contingency planning and risk reduction
action planning, equipment for stock-building, dissemination of information materials for
awareness raising and advocacy at the policy level through the community. Aiming at
community based approach, the project formed community based organizations at
different levels to ensure community participation and sustainability of the objectives.

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The relationship and the mutual understanding of IRW-B and the community people can
be considered as a huge social capital for the community people and as well as for IRW-
B. This worthy social capital was not built in a day. Certain steps were taken and stages
were gone through to reach to the final phase. The active participation of the community
people has helped IRW-B to come up with unique approaches over there to reduce the
risk of urban hazards and thus to promote urban safety, which has got acceptance and
proved its merit in the community.

8. IRW’s Community Based Approach for Urban Safety
The urban safety approach adopted by Islamic Relief Worldwide (IRW-B) is a harbinger
for rooting its work further into the communities and has set the ground to effectively
address the underlying causes of their vulnerabilities in the urban areas of Bangladesh.
IRW-B is working to foster the existing capacities of the people and promoting self
sufficient communities for urban risk reduction. IRW-B has facilitated the process
through organising strong community groups in the working areas. These groups connect
to individual households and other local communities including civil service providers.
The members of these community groups work very sincerely especially in terms of
learning things, disseminating knowledge, taking actions, coordinating with relevant
bodies and taking all other required measures for urban disaster management. They are
provided with different capacity building trainings and for them to be skilled, equipped
and possess a very strong motivation and dedication to be a bridge between IRW-B and
the masses.

The community based approach of IRW-B has certain stages through which it passes.
The community based approach is segmented into three stages.

8.1 Inception stage

IRW-B started with organizing project inception workshops at different levels of the
community to give an idea of the project objectives to the people and also to show the
community stakeholders‟ roles in it. This stage is all about making people aware of the
tasks what they are going to implement,
making them aware of the issues
relevant to the tasks, sensitizing them
on those and finally mobilizing them so
that they can take the leadership in
reducing their risks of hazards.

8.2 Consolidation stage

After the process of mobilisation,
various community based organizations
(CBOs) are formed at different levels
of the community such as Ward

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Disaster Management Committee (WDMC), Community Volunteers Group (CVG),
School Disaster Management Committee (SDMC), and clusters/mohallah groups. Thus
the ownership is transferred to the community through involving the CBOs at each ward
for conducting ward wise risk, vulnerability and capacity assessment, preparing
contingency plans and developing risk reduction action plans with necessary measures to
reduce their own risks.

In this phase, knowledge and skill is also transferred to the community through different
trainings, such as basic training on DRR, urban risk assessment, first aid, search and
rescue, school safety, fire safety, training of religious leaders, training on safe
construction for engineers, architects, masons, bar binders etc. Equipments are given to
these community groups to ensure effective response from their end during an
emergency.
8.3 Phase-out stage

Throughout the process, a linkage is developed between these community based groups
and the stakeholders and service providers so that once the project phases out, the
coordination between these groups and the stakeholders can carry forward the tasks and
ensure the practice of DRR across the community. In this final phase, the full ownership
and responsibilities are given to the community people or community groups with a
planned division of work and responsibilities to all. For sustainability of the initiatives, it
is ensured that the community will
continue and perform their
responsibilities as they do in the project
period.

9. Roles of Different
Community Groups in
Sylhet
There are some well structured and well
functioning groups formed by IRW-B
in Sylhet. All these groups have some
specific roles and responsibilities for
reducing the disaster risks in that area.
Moreover, there is a strong
collaboration mechanism among these
groups. The figures below show the
formation and coordination mechanism
of different groups over there:

Now let us have a look on the detail of
these groups:

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9.1 Ward Disaster Management Committee (WDMC)

City Corporation Disaster Management Committee (CCDMC) is the lowest tier of
Disaster Management Committee working in an urban setting as per the Standing Order
of Disaster of Bangladesh Government. Under the project, IRW-B replicated the structure
of the CCDMC and formed Ward level Disaster Management Committees in the
respective wards. The view was to introduce the concept and need of a central disaster
management body representing the government and liaising with the relevant government
authorities.

WDMCs comprise influential people from
the community willing to provide volunteer
services and who are well accepted among
other community members. This generally
includes Ward Councilor, teachers,
freedom fighters, engineers, doctors,
service-holders, local club / volunteer
group leaders, religious leaders etc. Playing
a guardianship role in community based
approach for disaster risk reduction, the
WDMC works at the policy level and also
serves as the bridge between the
government stakeholders and the other
community groups working on DRR. The WDMC also supports the community
volunteers and other groups with their social resources to undertake DRR initiatives.

9.2 Community Volunteer Groups (CVG)

The next level of community based group to work alongside WDMC as supporting
structure is the community volunteer group. Both perform separate functions. WDMC
plays more of a guardianship role mostly doing the coordination and advocacy part while
ensuring a close monitoring and guidance, while the volunteers group works at the core
and directly with the community. Community volunteer groups in each ward include
some highly motivated and enthusiastic community members willing to spend most of
their available time for the risk reduction and other developmental activities in the
community.

IRW-B builds their capacities on disaster risk reduction with different trainings and thus
these volunteers are prepared as first level of community responders for future disasters.
These volunteers go door to door and institutions to raise awareness and help them
prepare to reduce the risks. They are the important agents for the continuation of this
community based approach as they arrange regular meetings to chalk out their own plan
for different self-led initiatives for preparing their community for a disaster beyond the
project duration.

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The model attempts to link these
volunteer groups with the already Case 1: Community Initiated Campaign
existing local clubs to promote The community volunteers’ group of Ward#17 in
collective critical consciousness Sylhet City Corporation has been working for raising
that finally leads to local action. community awareness on earthquake safety since the
This is done through introducing group was formed by IRW under the 6th DIPECHO
Action Plan. Recently they arranged a community
the proactive and permanent based awareness program at one of the local schools.
members of local clubs into the The volunteers arranged the programme in
newly formed disaster coordination with a local club Waves Social Welfare
management committees as well Club. Among the activities of the daylong event, they
as community volunteer groups. included an art competition for the school children on
the theme of ‘earthquake safety both at home and
As a result, a resource group is
school’ and also a discussion session on ‘what the
being developed within the local stakeholders can do for ensuring resilience against
established clubs who will take earthquake’.
lead in strengthening community
capacity in terms of DRR both
through their own institutions as
well as with the community based
groups formed through urban
safety initiatives under various
projects.

The transfer of knowledge and
skill also takes place at the same
time as the members of the DRR Mr. Syed Ashfak Ahmed, the honorable Upazila
groups are able to share the Chairman, was invited as the chief guest for the event
awareness and expertise within and 05 Ward Councilors of the City Corporation were
their institutions. On the whole, present during the occasion as special guests.
the issues related to DRR are
strongly interlinked and mainstreamed with their social actions under the agenda of their
individual clubs and institutions.

9.3 Cluster/ Mohallah groups

The cluster or mohallah groups are formed with people from the community who are
directly exposed to the urban risk and are quite unaware of the basic preparedness and
response measures. The volunteer groups with support from the WDMC and other
community stakeholders work directly in these clusters to raise the awareness of the
community members and to ensure that the learning is translated into practice at
household and institutional level. The volunteers or the WDMC members raise the
awareness of these people through different sessions and with different IEC materials,
video shows and other media. The members of cluster group as the end receiver take
household preparedness measure after being aware of these issues. These groups are very
important as they take the learning into practice and translate the awareness into
household level implementation of safety measures.

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Case 2: Community Initiated Mock Drill

The volunteers of Ward no: 17 at Sylhet demonstrated a mock drill in February, 2012. The entire
effort taken up by the community was the result of a collective utilization of social capital in
terms of financial support and coordination.

The responsibility of the entire simulation drill was assigned to the local Fire Service and Civil
Defense (FSCD) by the local community and the process was facilitated by the community
volunteers in coordination with IRW-B who are working in this ward for community-based
disaster risk reduction. The majority of the expenditure was borne by the community stakeholders
themselves. Waves Social Welfare Club, a locally established club that works for different
community welfare objectives and the Surma Super Market businessmen‟s committee jointly
took the cost for the entire programme.

The market is situated in one of the busiest parts of the city. The six-storied building has around
75 shops in its ground floor while there is the office of a Government bank (Sonali Bank) on the
2nd and 3rd floor. The top three floors of the building are used for residential purpose occupied by
35 families (158 people). So the volunteers picked this building as it covered both household
level and institutional level safety through the simulation.

IRW-B provided them with necessary technical supports, especially tagging them with FSCD.
The community volunteers developed their coordination with the local fire service authority
during a training programme on Fire Fighting and Search and Rescue that was arranged by IRW
for its community volunteer groups under the 6th DIPECHO Action Plan. Based on that
coordination, the community volunteers planned out the mock drill at the market level with
support from FSCD. For their long-term working experience on community based DRR, the
volunteers involved IRW-B as well in their plans and IRW ensured their share of contribution
though this was not in their project intervention plans.

After several days of planning, on the eve before the main event, the community volunteers
alongside the members from both Waves Club and the Surma market committee acted out the
entire process of the drill in the building and demonstrated the roles of each for the simulation.
They invited and informed the community people from different level to attend the event and
shared the message as part of their social responsibility and especially the presence of the Mayor
and other important government officials enhanced the significance of the event.

(Please see annexure-1 for selection criteria, group formation and roles and responsibilities of
the different groups)

9.4 School Disaster Management Committee (SDMC)

In the urban risk reduction approach of IRW-B, schools have been given much
importance. IRW-B has formed School Disaster Management Committees (SDMCs) with
students, teachers and guardians. The objective of working with the schools is to prepare
these institutions for potential disasters as schools are densely populated institutions with
On the scheduled day, when the simulation drill, hundreds of people on the road watched on as
children, one of the building got affected by a fire outbreakemergency. As the children false fire
spectators as the most vulnerable groups during an (simulated through smoke and are
efficient learnersthe community volunteers worked in cohesion learning at household The local
alarm) and and good means for dissemination of the with the FSCD staff. and
volunteers group responded first with their protective gears on and tried to minimize the damage
15 | P a ghelped some of the victims evacuate the building. Meanwhile the FSCD team arrived on the
and e
scene and conducted a comprehensive operation to extinguish the fire and then search and rescue
the victims inside. The volunteers helped them out with providing first aid support to the rescued
but injured victims.

community level, IRW-B tries to use
their potential to develop a conscious
future generation. For making the
SDMCs more effective, these have been
linked with the School Management
Committee and the scout groups in the
schools so that they can inter-link their
objectives and DRR can be
mainstreamed into the overall school
agenda round the year.

Along with all these community groups,
IRW-B is working with some other important institutions like hospitals, markets,
construction agencies, religious institutions etc. where there is higher risk of casuality due
to any hazard. IRW-B in coordination with DGHS (govt. department concerned) is
providing trainings to the doctors and nurses on mass casualty management and preparing
them to act on emergency situations as first and effective responders.

IRW-B is also working for the capacity building of the masons, engineers and bar binders
for safer construction. Apart from the community volunteers IRW-B is training the
religious leaders from the target communities who have large acceptance in the
community and can play a vital role in dissemination of DRR knowledge across the
community people. The religious leaders are given the basic DRR knowledge which they
disseminate during their weekly preaching with a guaranteed mass gathering.

Figure: 2

10. Linkage and Coordination among Various Groups:
The project is designed and implemented in a way so that there is constant coordination
and linkage between the community-based groups formed at different levels. Each of the
cluster groups ensures participation from potential members of the community

16 | P a g e

volunteers, thus the active volunteers with leadership qualities are represented in the
WDMC groups in each ward, and thus the linkage and coordination between each of the
tier of the community is ensured throughout the project.

IRW-B is also facilitating the community groups to have a strong coordination with the
local government authorities and other relevant stakeholders especially the members from
the civil society, who have a good name in that area. This coordination and linkage helps
the groups get access to those officials when necessary and thus these linkages promote
the scope of advocacy that the community groups take forward to them on the basis of the
Risk Reduction Action Plan (RRAP) that they developed by themselves.

11. Major Activities Promoting Urban Safety
IRW-B makes different interventions to enhance the capacity and social strength of the
community. Following are the major interventions under the project:

Risk and Resource Mapping and Planning: IRW-B is facilitating the groups to
recognize their own risks and resources and chalk out a risk reduction action plan to
be implemented by their own initiatives. The process is conducted through Urban
Risk Assessment (URA) involving the community members from different levels. For
the institutional level, school safety plan and hospital safety plans are developed.

Awareness Raising: At this stage, basic training on the issue of DRR is conducted
for volunteers and following the training, the volunteer groups are encouraged to
arrange awareness sessions in their mohallahs to make the other community members
aware about household level preparedness.

Emergency Response Skill Transfer: The urban community groups are prepared as
the first responders for an emergency period and different training programs are
arranged for them such as fire fighting, first aid, search and rescue etc. Community
stakeholders like Fire Service and Civil Defence and Bangladesh Red Crescent
Society are involved in these events as facilitators and to create linkage between them
and the community groups for future coordination. IRW-B also arranged training for
the engineers, architects, masons and bar-binders on earthquake resilient construction.

Stock-piling and Equipment for Effective Emergency Response: To ensure
effective response from these first responders from the community in an emergency,
fire safety equipment, search and rescue kits and first aid kits are given to these
community groups under the project and proper demonstration and mock simulation
drills are arranged to test their skills for a real scenario.

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Advocacy Campaign: Through the
community groups, different
advocacy campaigns are initiated
both at local and national level to
ensure infrastructural safety through
ensuring application of the national
building code and to ensure the
ownership and responsibilities of the
community stakeholders in different
DRR initiatives. These advocacy
campaigns are arranged through
seminar, day observance, rally and other community led initiatives. The community
groups are able to involve the national figures like Professor Md. Jafar Iqbal, the SCC
Mayor Badar Uddin Ahmad Kamran etc. Their presence in events mentioned above
help draw the attention of policy makers fruitfully.

Capacity building of masons, engineer, and architects: Under the 6th DIPECHO
Action Plan, IRW has provided trainings to the masons, engineers and architects
through. A group of experts from the Bangladesh University of Engineering and
Technology (BUET) and Institute of Architects in Bangladesh (IAB) facilitated the
trainings after preparing the training module for them. These trainings were arranged
to enhance the capacity of these people for safer building construction. They have
been given certificates signed by the SCC Mayor, which indicates that these people
can construct the buildings complying with the building codes.

Structural Assessment through Resource Mobilization: Recently IRW-B
facilitated a structural risk assessment initiative with the support from BUET in some
important buildings of Sylhet so that these samples can be used for advocacy
purposes and it can be the inspiration and point of motivation for the other people and
for the concerned government bodies

The community as a result of this approach can recognize their own resources and
are making good use of them. The volunteer groups in different wards arrange
different Awareness Campaign in their areas. They use their own human resource
and fund for awareness sessions at school classroom, tea-stall, household,
community based rally, popular theater, signature collection, distribution of IEC
materials and emergency contact numbers etc to meet their action plan for
community awareness-raising on different DRR issues.

18 | P a g e

12. Conclusion

Islamic Relief Worldwide- Bangladesh has made some strong urban community groups
in Sylhet with the purpose to sensitize and prepare the rest of their community members
for future potential disasters. These community groups are working with IRW-B as well
as with the local authority to reduce their vulnerability. Aiming high to reduce and
manage risk the two stakeholders; community people and IRW-B are working side by
side. Already there have been some significant achievements of the community based
DRR approach in Sylhet which can be used as examples for other cities for ensuring
community participation in disaster risk reduction.

The community based approach for ensuring safer urban settlement indicates the urgency
that the cities and local governments should be ready, reduce the risks and become
resilient to potential disasters. Recently the United Nations International Strategy for
Disaster Reduction (UNISDR) has launched its campaign „Making Cities Resilient‟ for
this purpose. Mayors and their local governments are both key targets and drivers of the
campaign. Local Government officials need to be operationally ready to face disasters on
a day-to-day basis and need better policies and tools to effectively deal with them.

The Hyogo Framework for Action 2005-2015: Building the Resilience of Nations and
Communities to Disasters offers solutions for local governments and local actors to
manage and reduce urban risk. Meanwhile, the 2010-2015 World Disaster Reduction
Campaign "Making Cities Resilient" addresses issues of local governance and urban risk
while drawing upon previous ISDR Campaigns on safer schools and hospitals. IRW-B
under its programmatic approach towards urban solution for disaster risk reduction is
contributing to these campaigns and strategies through working directly with the
communities and transferring not only the knowledge and skills, but also building stakes
and long-term ownership of the concept as well.

In doing so, IRW-B is involving communities in disaster risk reduction programs which
is providing a platform for these communities to execute their own risk reduction
measures, and thus create the sense of ownership and increase the possibilities of
sustainability in the future.

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Annexure-01:
1.1 Mohallah Group/Cluster Group

1.1.1 Criteria for Cluster Group Formation
 1 member per household.
 Proactive community representative
 Will have community acceptance
 Leadership quality
 Different community group (At least 50% female, PWD, Religious leader, local
elite, )
 Different age group (Aged, Youth, Children)
 At least 1 Aged (above 60 years) person
 At least 1 Person with Disability (if any)
 Considerable literacy level
 Previous volunteering experience will be given preference
 Skilled people (masons, craftsman, pharmacists, defence, fire service, doctors)

1.1.2 Roles and Responsibilities
 HH preparedness plan development
 Awareness session/meeting participation with maintaining proper documentations
 Attend awareness raising activities (campaign, seminar, day observation)
 Knowledge share within family and neighbours and community level
 Prepare, review and implement action plan at HH and community level
 Represent to next group
 Networking with other Primary group

1.1.3 Committee formation
Total members: 30
 1 president*
 1 vice president
 1 GS*
 1 information secretary
 1 treasurer
 4 executive members
 15 general members

*One female member should hold the position of either President or Secretary.

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1.2 Community Volunteers Group (CVG)

 Actively participate in the awareness sessions
 Conduct awareness sessions with Primary groups
 Maintain proper documents like resolutions, minutes, back account details,
registers etc.
 Attend in capacity development activities (training, workshop)
 Represent and maintain liaison and share progress with WDMC
 Communicate and establish linkage with Primary group and WDMC
 Support formation of SDMC
 Actively participation in URA process and develop RRAPs together with WDMC
 Develop Ward level contingency planning with together with WDMC
 Organize and participate in folk show drama, popular theatre, day observation,
mock drill etc
 Prepare, review and implement action plan at community/ cluster level
 Generate DRR fund
 Coordinate with media group
 Form various taskforces

 1 president*
 1 GS*
 1 treasurer
 0-15 general members

*One female member should hold the position of either President or Secretary.

1.3 Ward Disaster Management Committee (WDMC)

The project encompassed the structure of City Corporation Disaster Management
Committee (CCDMC) and replicated it at the ward level by forming Ward Disaster
Management Committee (WDMC). Each WDMC have a member of maximum 32
members. Around nine members from the CVG group represents in the respective
WDMC.

21 | P a g e

 Arrange regular training and workshops on disaster management and disaster risk
reduction for volunteers, SMC, religious leaders and other stakeholders at Ward
level by keeping the City Corporation informed.
 Hold hazard, vulnerability, capacity and risk analysis at Ward level.
 Contribute forming and managing volunteer team under City Corporation.
 Develop Ward disaster preparedness plan for natural and human induced disasters
e.g. earthquake, fire, flood flash flood and water logging etc.
 Identify community at risk based on age, sex, ethnic community and minority
class, physical fitness, social status, profession and economic condition.
 Review Ward level developmental and other interventions to introduce risk
reduction elements in that.
 Develop linkages with utility services for immediate restoration of lifeline
services and manage available fund for the implementation of risk reduction
action plans.
 Inform the local people about practical measures for the reduction of risk at
household and community levels.
 Determine specific safe centres/shelters/ open place where the people of particular
area will go at the time of disaster.
 Ensure that temporary shelters have supply of safe drinking water and provision
of sanitation and forming shelter management committee consisting of
CVG/WDMC members.
 Prepare relevant preparedness plans for search and rescue, primary relief
operation, and local arrangement for rehabilitation of severely affected families.
 Creating and raising funds for pre and post disaster activities.
 Arranging bi-monthly/quarterly coordination meeting with CCDMC.
 Preparing monthly update on their planning and activities to CCDMC.
 WDMC will develop their own contingency plan at the ward level and revise it
twice a year.

During Disaster
 Operate emergency rescue work with the facilities locally available and/or
provide support services to other rescue teams.
 Coordinate all relief activities (GO-NGO) at Ward level so that relief materials
are distributed impartially.
 Ensure the overall security of women, children and persons with disability during
disaster residing in safe centres/shelters and other places.
 Support to protect environmental degradation.
 Post Disaster Period (The period following the emergency phase)

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 Collect and submit statistics regarding damage and loss due to disaster according
to directives from Disaster Management Bureau.
 Allocate and distribute on the basis of actual needs, the materials received from
local source or Directorate of Relief and Rehabilitation/ other sources for relief
and rehabilitation work according to the directives of DMB/DRR.
 Ensure community people led proper sanitation system with special preference of
women, children, aged people with ensuring safe water.
 Take necessary measures so that people can return to their home after the disaster
is over. In such cases, if there is any dispute regarding the legality of the land, it
should not be an obstacle for them to return to their previous place after the
disaster.
 Arrange counselling for people suffering from psycho-trauma due to disaster,
with the collaborative support of experts and community elites.
 Arrange the health-related personnel to provide appropriate and adequate care to
disaster affected people and if needed, request the District health authority for
assistance.

 1 president*
 1 GS*
 1 treasurer
 0-23 general members

*Ward Councillor is the president and a female member holds the position of either
President or Secretary.

1.4 School Disaster Management Committee (SDMC)

1.4.1 Criteria for SDMC
Each SDMC will have members of 27 members comprising of students, teachers and
SMC members. The structure of the committees and criteria for membership is given
below:
 1 president: Head of SMC
 1 GS: Principle or Head master
 1 joint secretary: Scout teachers or Sports teacher
 3 Executive member: (Teacher and SMC members (1 female)
 General member: 21 (students) 50% female

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In case of high, student form class 7 or 8 will be given preference as these students will
stay for longer period in the schools than students of class 9 or 10. Also students having
experience of scout, BNCC or any other extracurricular activities will be given priority.

 Take part in the capacity building activities (DP/DRR training, school safety
training, Search and Rescue, First Aid and Fire Fighting Training) and
disseminate knowledge in peer groups
 Form various tasks forces like Search and Rescue Task force, First Aid Task
Force, Fire Fighting Task force etc.
 Carry out monthly sharing session at family level
 Carry out school safety audit and contingency plan
 Organize and participate in simulation exercise
 Linkage with other SDMCS through network
 Participate in Inter/intra-school Debate/drawing competitions
 Organize and participate in Mass school based Awareness campaign
 Develop and implement Student led micro project
 Display of evacuation routes in each class

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References:

http://unpan1.un.org/intradoc/groups/public/documents/APCITY/UNPAN009661.pdf

http://www.banglapedia.org/httpdocs/HT/J_0104.HTM

http://www.bdresearch.org/home/attachments/article/613/jp4a5d753b2e7ac.pdf

http://www.bracresearch.org/reports/brac_flood_disaster_exp.pdf

http://www.scribd.com/doc/6143504/Vulnerability-analysis-of-a-community-to-Fire-
Hazard

http://www.adpc.net/audmp/library/safer_cities/5.pdf

http://webmedia.unmc.edu/community/citymatch/PPOR/howto/PPORGeneralDescription
.pdf

http://www.adb.org/poverty/forum/pdf/Yodmani.pdf

http://www.adpc.net/infores/adpc-documents/PovertyPaper.pdf

http://www.unisdr.org/english/campaigns/campaign2010-2015/about/

http://www.thedailystar.net/newDesign/news-details.php?nid=206079

Rahman, M. Mizanur (2012): Understanding Dimensions of Development. Dhaka, A H
Development Publishing House

Bibliography:
http://www.disasterresearch.net/drvc2011/paper/fullpaper_9.pdf

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