We are as strong as our weakest link Preparing for disasters

i would like to thank you for giving me

the opportunity to speak to you today at

tedx bloomsbury

you might see a disaster on the news and

wonder what it would be like if it

happened to you

or maybe you’ve lived through a disaster

in fact

because of the pandemic most of us have

lived through a disaster

today i’m going to talk to you about how

disasters

affect people living in informal

settlements in

cities of the global south and what is

being done

to address them i’m also going to tell

you about

what is actually needed to tackle the

root problems

of disasters so

now more than half of the world’s

population

is living in cities and these cities

are densely populated and

in cities of the global south many

people don’t have access

to the basic infrastructure to protect

them from hazards

at the same time climate change

and ecosystem destruction are making

hazards more severe

so what we’re seeing is that disasters

are affecting

more and more people every year

we say that risk is systemic

that is it’s inherent in societies

in the ways we live all together in the

ways we build our cities

in our politics in the inequalities that

exist in society

as the pandemic has shown we as one

community on this planet

are only as strong as our weakest link

so disasters take on different forms

there are the

big disasters that you might see on the

news

like earthquakes or like the explosion

that happened in the port of beirut last

summer

then there are the smaller scale

disasters

these might affect neighborhoods or

parts of cities

and these disasters though are equally

devastating

for those who are affected by them

then we have the everyday disasters that

cumulatively have huge impacts

on people’s health and on their

well-being

like dire disease that affects millions

around the world every day that don’t

have access

to water and sanitation

so there’s things we can do to prepare

for disasters

not only for the rich or exposed global

capital

that may be protected by insurance or by

government bailouts

but also for those least able to

withstand disasters

because it’s only when those who are

most vulnerable

are able to withstand can we say that

resilience is achieved

so resilience or the ability to

bounce back is a term

that’s often criticized for its

neoliberal connotations

if inequality persists and some people

don’t have enough access to food

or money or resources to live well

is bouncing back after disaster enough

surely resilience is about a trajectory

towards a state that is better than what

is now

so there’s a lot that we’re doing in

cities to

prepare for disasters we can build

roads into settlements so that people

can emergency vehicles can access if

there’s a fire

we can cite housing away from areas

where there are frequent flooding

we can tackle air pollution

or try to tackle air pollution we can

make welfare payments for families in

times of crisis

so there are things that can be done and

things that are being done

to tackle disasters but in fact the way

our cities are built

makes tackling these issues in a

socially just manner

more complicated

so consider kampala uganda for example

this east african city is built over a

series of hills

and not only do people live on the hills

but they also live in the low-lying

areas of the city

these areas are affected by floods on

all

for on almost a daily basis during the

rainy season

and this flooding causes really

bad things for people illnesses

skin conditions people’s businesses are

disrupted

for days and they’ve even been

really sad situations of children being

swept away

in the flood waters

so many people might choose to resettle

from these low-lying areas

if they had the financial means to but

in fact

few can afford to and despite the risks

of flooding

the reasons for staying in these central

areas of kampala are compelling

inexpensive access to food if from

markets

running a business is fairly inexpensive

with low

overheads and a lot of footfall

if you need to transport around the city

this is

fairly inexpensive and schools are more

available

and better in the central city

so even if people wanted to resettle to

the outskirts of the city

there are few jobs there access to

come to work in the central city is too

expensive for the transport

so in fact even if people do make the

move

outside many end up having to move back

to the central city later

because it’s just not affordable

so the question then is

what can we do to build resilience

when people already live in areas

exposed to hazards

like in these low-lying areas of kampala

consider was a three parish for example

this is

one of these settlements in these

low-lying areas

the kampala capital city authority has

done a number of things to try to

address the flooding

they’ve built drainage infrastructure in

key transport

areas of the city which has meant the

drainage ditch

at the lowest area of the settlement has

been improved

they’ve also built small drains through

the settlement

that would enable flood waters to move

into the larger drains

and negotiated with homeowners some of

whom have agreed to move their houses

away from the drainage infrastructure

to accommodate these new drains at the

same time

there’s a lot of things being done by

communities

in 183 there are business associations

there are savings groups there are youth

groups

and a lot of these organizations are

involved

in doing things to help improve the

environment in boise iii

things that the municipality is not able

to do

like solid waste collection there’s a

number of groups

who are involved now for example in

making

energy briquettes out of household waste

so solid waste collection not only keeps

the drains clear

when the flood waters come but also

provides income earning opportunities

households also do things to try to

mitigate the flooding problem

putting plinths raised plinth at the

door of their house

or even building the houses on top of

mounds of soil

to keep them away from the flood waters

well it’s possible to make improvements

to

the flooding situation in places like

boise iii

it’s really the deeper issues that need

to be addressed

to actually fix the problem so

access to a good income for example was

a key

election issue in uganda a few months

ago

so as i’ve been saying while we can do

things

to address disasters they’re really only

a band-aid solution

unless we can actually address these

deeper issues

so heat stress is also a major problem

for many people living in informal

settlements

in dhaka bangladesh’s largest city

there are literally millions of people

living in informal settlements

who live in one room houses and many of

these houses

don’t even have a window only a door

and so they can’t have a cross

ventilation

within their house they may have

access to some energy to have a fan

for a few hours a day but really heat

stress

has a major impact on people it affects

their ability to work and to learn

with exhaustion people lose their

stocks if they’re selling vegetables

when it’s really really hot

and people have longer term health

impacts from this problem

so there are some things that can be

done to combat the heat problem

like design solutions within houses

um there’s also interesting examples of

using parametric insurance so when

there’s heat over a number of days

people receive a payout for losses up to

their income

but if you ask people in dhaka

living in these informal settlements

what they really need

they’ll tell you they need a decent

house

because a decent house will enable them

to really live

better and to solve this problem of heat

for example because a decent house

will also have access to water and

energy infrastructure

and for people living in informal

settlements the house

is not only a place to live but it’s

often a place of production

or the storage of goods that one is

selling so the house

is a really key problem to building

resilience to disasters

so what i’m saying is that resilience is

something that is

built up outside of disaster times to

address

normal development issues that need to

be addressed in informal settlements

for example slum dwellers international

or sdi

has been working for many many years in

building

networks first of all of women’s savings

groups

and enumerations of people living in

informal settlements

and these kind of things help to give

people a voice

and being part of decision making in the

city

because they hold information about

their settlement

and who they are and how many people

they are and what conditions they live

in

and this sdi network now covers

32 countries and 478 cities

millions of people and thousands of

informal settlements

so where does this all bring us in

answering the provocations of this tedx

conference

on resilience amidst disruption

is bouncing back enough or should we

adapt together and how do we do that

my answer after working on this topic

for many years

is that building resilience to disasters

is a continuous and iterative process of

actions that are done by

many individuals over a lot of time

and it’s not just a one-off thing

but to really address the deeper issues

that create

vulnerabilities and that lead to

disasters

we need to address those underlying

things that make

people vulnerable such as

tenure insecurity access to a good

income

access to health care and to address

the politics that create these

situations

so well disasters that you may see on

the tv

might seem far away i think what the

pandemic has shown to me and challenges

like climate change

is that actually we are all one

community together

and all affected by each other and

therefore

addressing inequalities is something

that we all have a role to play in in

our daily life

in our work and in our future practice

thank you