The document discusses challenges faced by humanitarian agencies in providing emergency response in urban areas based on lessons from earthquakes in Haiti and Chile. It notes that uncontrolled urbanization due to migration has created difficulties including political complexity, frequent displacement of vulnerable groups, lack of social cohesion, differing psychological needs, security issues for aid workers, looting, violence and crime. The Haiti and Chile earthquakes demonstrated problems like political leaders interfering with aid distribution for political gain, and widespread looting occurred when law and order broke down. The document argues humanitarian efforts need to better address the needs of the growing urban poor population.

1. CHALLENGES FACED IN EMERGENCY RESPONSE PHASE IN
URBAN AREAS: LESSONS FROM HAITI AND CHILE
By
AshiqueHasanUllah

2. ABSTRACT
The world is now facing a rapid growth of urbanization mainly in Asia, Africa and Latin America.
Now the time has come to give more attention to urban people as the humanitarian agencies
faced lots of difficulties in emergency response phase in urban areas. And some of the difficulties
are very challenging and uncommon compared to rural areas. The uncontrolled urbanization due
to unexpected migration towards urban areas is one of the underlying causes for that. Beside
these lack of good governance and peoples accountability also responsible for stimulating the
migration process towards urban areas. This paper tries to focus the causes of migration. And
how it turns into hazard in urban perspective and create difficulties for the humanitarian agencies
job during emergency response phase. Basing on case study of Haiti and Chile earthquake this
paper highlights the gaps and limitation of the government’s disaster plan and following with
some recommendations.
Key words: Urbanization, Migration, Disaster, humanitarian agencies.

3. Introduction
1.
The 19th and early 20th centuries, urbanization resulted from and contributed to
industrialization. New job opportunities in the cities spurred the mass movement of surplus
population away from the countryside. . Cities generate jobs and income, with good governance
they can deliver education, health care and other services more efficiently than less densely
settled areas simply because of their advantages of scale and proximity. At the same time,
migrants provided cheap, plentiful labor for the emerging factories. The present time world is
undergoing the largest wave of urban growth in the history. In 2008, for the first time in history,
more than half of the world’s population will be living in towns and cities. By 2030 this number will
swell to almost 5 billion, with urban growth concentrated in Africa and Asia. In principle, cities
offer a more favorable setting for the resolution of social and environmental problems than rural
areas. However, the speed and size of the growth are not fixed, and vary widely among regions.
2.
Migration is a significant contributor to urbanization, as people move in search of social
and economic opportunity. According to World Bank’s flagship Development Report 2010, it has
been said that “Half the world’s people now live in cities, a share that will rise to 70 percent by
2050,” said the World Bank report, citing UN Population Fund statistics. “Of urban population
growth (5 million new residents a month), 95 percent will be in the developing world, with small
cities growing fastest”. Environmental degradation and conflict may drive people off the land.
Often people who leave the countryside to find better lives in the city have no choice but to settle
in shantytowns and slums, where they lack access to decent housing and sanitation, health care
and education. The more densely populated and more diverse a community is the more
accentuated characteristics can be associated with urbanism. Urbanism causes decrease in per
capita, and promotes urban violence, political instability, crime and aggressive behavior. Another
major issue being created by this social problem is the breaking of the traditional family structure.
Our cities in especially in 3 rd world countries are not working well. Sanitation, safety,
transportation, housing, education and even electricity are failing. So these urban areas become
more vulnerable to any disaster because of its weak structures and poor service utility. During
peace time because of frequently displacement of people within an urban areas makes job
difficult for the humanitarian agencies to map the vulnerable group of people as a part of urban
risk reduction process. Most humanitarian efforts and aid have been focused on rural

4. development rather than the needs of the urban poor. About 810 million people already live in city
slums, battling overcrowding, insecure tenure, landslides, flooding, poor sanitation, unsafe
housing, inadequate nutrition and poor health. Other than urban earthquake preparedness,
humanitarian agencies have not yet focused on emergency response in urban areas with due
attention. Recent earthquake in Chile and Haiti pointed out the weakness and the new
challenges, faced by the humanitarian agencies during emergency response.
3.
In our country the government of Bangladesh (GOB) has established the National Disaster
Management Council (NDMC) headed by the Prime minister. It manages disasters through its
three agencies: Disaster Management Bureau (DMB), Directorate of Relief and Rehabilitation
(DRR), and Directorate General of Food. As a part of disaster management plan the GOB could
initiate draft disaster management act. And regarding the city or urban areas the GOB mainly
emphasis the earthquake. The research works and contingency plans are developing mainly
based on structural point of view like collapse of building and traffics system, recovery etc. and
less emphasis given on the non structural side. These are like physiological effect of the people,
political complexity, violence and crime, social cohesion, and fluidity of people. So it needs to
develop the urban disaster plan and its legal framework. And professionally act in emergency
response phase to face those challenges which we had learnt from Haiti and Chile earthquake.
4.
This paper mainly looks for the root causes of those challenges which are faced by the
humanitarian agencies during emergency response in urban areas. To focus those in detail this
paper took Haiti and Chile earthquake as a case study and tries to bring out the lessons which
can be pertinent for Dhaka or Chittagong for disaster management. And finally it will sum up with
some way out to develop the legal framework and disaster management plan in urban areas by
GOB with workable recommendations. This paper itself will not discuss the other relevant factor
like the development of the slum communities in the urban areas which might have a definite
contribution with the humanitarian activities in urban areas.
Aim
5.
The aim of this paper is to analyze the root causes of those challenges which are faced by
the humanitarian agencies during emergency response in urban areas. And suggest measures to

5. develop our disaster management plan for smooth emergency response operation in city like
Dhaka and Chittagong.
Urbanization and its Causes
6.
For Urbanization a more technical definition is given by the United Nations as
“Urbanization means movement of people from rural area to urban areas resulting population
growth which is equal to urban migration”. Urbanization may occur for the following reasons.
a.
Economic reasons.
The urban areas offer better wage-labor opportunity
than the rural areas due to the conglomeration of industrial and service sectors (primary
and secondary economic activities). On the other hand the rural economic structure is
waning because of a variety of reasons like: massive river erosion in rural areas (in
Bangladesh), fragmentation of cultivation land, erratic monsoon and failure of crops etc.
b.
Spatial mobility.
When the head of the family is employed in any organization in
the urban area, it is seen in many cases his family accompanies him there. So this results
in movement to urban areas.
c.
Educational reasons.
The premium institutes of higher educations are mainly
located in the urban areas. So education results in migration to urban areas.
d.
Reverse urbanization.
When the cities grow the adjacent rural areas are
gradually embedded in the urban area and form urban agglomerate. In this way though
there is no absolute migration from rural to urban areas still it is a case of urbanization.
e.
Searching for a better life.
The people from rural areas migrated to urban
areas for having a better life and enjoying the urban facilities like better medical care,
sanitation and food supplies, which reduce death rates and cause populations to grow
Hazards in Urban areas
7.
The urbanization is a process and like other process it has got some side effect also. The first
process of urbanization started with industrial revolution and afterwards the rate of urbanization

6. increased beyond its capability to sustained especially in Asia, Africa and followed by Latin America.
And the process turned into uncontrolled urbanization and creates number of hazards. These hazards
can be classified also in the following manner, e.g.
a.
Technological hazards.
The over population in urban areas causes
increasing number of industrial areas and thereby pollute the environment.
b.
Natural hazards.
The sanitation and drainage system are collapsed due to heavy
rainfall and poor network system. Every day as many as 30,000 people die from preventable
water- and hygiene-related diseases and the children are most prone to the water borne
disease.
c.
Human-induced natural hazards. The increased population creates tremendous
pressure on demand and consumption of water. It becomes a challenge to supply drinking
water especially in urban areas. The excessive use of ground water makes the ground water
level lower in every year and creates the possibility of land slide in urban areas.
Social characteristics of urban areas
8.
The industrializations and developments caused gigantic migration from rural areas to
urban areas. In third world countries the absences of good governance in rural areas and the
government urban based development policies driving out the people from rural areas. So the
migrations took place from every corner from the country and accommodate them in urban areas.
As an example like old part of Dhaka city, earlier the local people (called “Dhakia”) mainly lived
there but migration from various corner of the country make the old Dhaka community as a
heterogeneous community. And as a result the community has got some special characteristics
like:
a.
Mixed culture.
The heterogeneous community is consisting of mix culture
which creates lack of understanding and social cohesiveness among the different groups
of people in a community. This community of people lives in a small place but don’t have
the cooperation among them. So during disaster time the urban people are feeling lonely

7. and suffering from depression because of the absence of cooperation among their
community.
b.
Economic inequality.
Economy inequality in urban areas one of the most
common phenomenon especially in 3rd world countries. It has been found that the rich
people being a less number in the community hold the maximum land and properties of
the urban area where as being a larger group the poor and middle income group hold the
fewer amounts of land and properties. The economic status automatically denoted the
specific place for rich and poor people in urban areas. But now a day the rapid migration in
urban areas brings the slums and shanty towns more closely to rich areas.
c.
Political accessibility.
The people living in shanty towns or slums have got
limited access to political arena. This floating people don’t have any representative who
can raise his voice for their demand. Their inaccessibility in political arena and absence of
representative made this group more vulnerable and create more depression and isolated
from the main stream of the urban development.
d.
Aggressive attitude.
Differences in economic status, inaccessibility in political
power as well as urban facilities (utility services like water, electricity and sanitation),
education facility, these creates aggressive attitude among the vulnerable group in a
society. Thereby for the existence of life the poor people who lived in slums or shanty
towns they involve themselves with drug smugglings and trafficking and do crime and
violence in the urban areas.
Complexity of Urban disaster management
9.
At present many of the urban areas are now facing difficulties to ensure the urban facilities
for their overpopulation and create uncontrolled urbanization. The uncontrolled urbanization now
exposed some complexity which may common to urban areas than rural areas. Because of this
complexity the humanitarian agencies faced difficulties especially in urban areas during in
emergency response. These complexities are as follows:

8. a.
Political complexity.
In the urban areas there are numbers of political leaders
and their gangs and added with religion and community organizations etc. This formal and
informal center of powers were tried to influence the humanitarian agencies relief
distributions by trying to co-opt and capitalize on their efforts for their own political
advantage. Sometime it has been found the local political leaders participate in relief
distribution campaign in urban areas rather than remote rural areas to achieve their
political strength among the people. And it disturbs the agencies that responsible for relief
distribution and as well the general people who all are waiting long time for arrival of the
political leader in distribution point.
b.
Frequent Displacement in Urban areas.
For the survival, the people
who all are living in slums or shanty towns they frequently migrated themselves within the
periphery of the same urban areas. But it creates difficulties for the humanitarian agencies
for their estimation and analyses of damage assessment of a particular place identifying
the vulnerable groups in the society. The frequent displacement of vulnerable groups each
and every year makes difficult to make a sound disaster management plan as well as
during in emergency response phase it makes a crisis in urban areas.
c.
Social cohesion.
The urban areas have got heterogeneous community in the
urban areas and this community has got lack of cohesiveness and co-operation among
them. Even they have lack of trust and hostile attitude some times. So this community
creates more obstacles during disaster management. Their demands are varied among
the same community because of their mixed culture and different lifestyle. The
humanitarian agencies may face lot of difficulties to fulfill their all demands.
d.
Psychological perceptive.
In the rural areas the community is almost
same in pattern, regarding their culture, food pattern and their belief. In the rural areas the
living community’s culture generally represents their local culture. For that reason In
particular rural area the living community represents similar kind of psychological
expression. In case of urban areas, people having different type of cultures and life
patterns. It has been found in a particular urban area there may be a number of people or
communities from different rural areas having different type of cultures. So it’s generated

9. different type of demands and psychological effects. During disaster these different types
of people from different cultures may expose different type of psychological expression or
post disaster traumas which may affect the disaster management of the urban areas.
e.
Security of the Humanitarian agencies.
The
security part of
the
humanitarian agencies is more difficult especially while they are relief distributing in slums
or the shanty towns. Because people from this locality are more violent and crime ridden
than rural areas. The recent looting and violence in Haiti and Chile after the earthquake
are the best example of that.
f.
Looting after earthquake.
situation
Looting was the common and worst
in urban areas after any disaster specially earthquake and national power grid
failure for long time. This looting was the most uncommon and criminal attitude of a
society. Social psychologists accept that looting is criminal behavior, and that it is natural
when the forces of law and order disappear. They distinguish different types of looting,
including:
(1)
Looting of goods needed for survival
(2)
Opportunistic theft of good such as TV sets
(3)
Collective action, conditioned by the political environment
Picture: Looting in Haiti after earthquake

10. Dr. Jason Nier, an expert in social psychology and professor at Connecticut College,
explains this behavior with a theory he calls the "psychology of looting”. This theory is
based in the part of the phenomenon of “Group Dynamics”. People will do things as part of
a group that they would never deem appropriate on their own, for example stealing and
breaking into store and private homes.
g.
Violence and crime.
Rapid migration towards urban areas turned the
urbanization as an uncontrolled process and breeds violence and crime in urban areas.
h.
Uncontrolled layout of urban areas.
It happened mainly in the urban areas of
the developing countries those got huge unplanned infrastructure. And that become huge
debris in case of earthquake. The land use in urban areas causes filling up the low land
which is used as surface water reservoirs. The unplanned streets, roads and insufficient of
airports also cause a major obstacle in emergency phase especially during earthquake
disaster.
i.
Absence of good governance and Public accountability.
The absence of
good governance and public accountability can’t ensure a sustainable urban society and
sound disaster management plan. The unsustainable urban society doesn’t have the
capability to reduce the vulnerability and thereby causes huge damage of lives and
properties during disaster.
Lessons from Haiti and Chile Earthquake
10.
There is saying “Wise man learnt from others mistake”. So each and every disaster on this
earth is a scope for others to learn the lessons out of the mistakes which are cause for the
disaster. The recent earthquake in Haiti and Chile shows us many challenges which were faced
by the humanitarian agencies during emergency phase.
a.
Haiti Earthquake. On January 12 2010, just before 17:00, an earthquake of
magnitude 7.3 on the Richter scale shook Haiti for 35 seconds. It was the most powerful
earthquake to hit the country in 200 years. Around 1.5 million people, representing 15% of
the population, have been directly affected. Over 220,000 people lost their lives and over

11. 300,000 were injured. There has been massive infrastructure destruction. Some 105,000
homes have been completely destroyed and more than 208,000 damaged. Over 1,300
educational establishments, and over 50 hospitals and health centers, have collapsed or
are unusable. Part of the country’s main port is not operational. The President’s Palace,
Parliament, the Law Courts, and most of the Ministry and public administration buildings
have been destroyed. After the earthquake in Haiti the following problems were arises
which made the humanitarian agencies job more difficult in emergency phase.
(1)
Political complexity.
The recent earthquake in Haiti’s capital city Port au
Prince, the humanitarian agencies faced difficulties while distributing the relief
material to the victims. In the city there were numbers of political leaders and their
gangs and added with churches and community organizations etc. This formal and
informal center of powers were tried to influence the humanitarian agencies relief
distributions by trying to co-opt and capitalize on their efforts for their own political
advantage.
(2)
Law and Order.
The structure of government and law and order all but
disappeared in the days following the quake. But on the ground some Haitians were
trying to fill the power vacuum and implement their own self-help operation,
encouraged
by
the
city's
Radio
Metropole,
which
urged
residents:
"Organiseneighbourhood committees to avoid chaos and prevent people looting
shops and houses”. The humanitaraian agencies couldn’t distributed relief many
parts of the city due to security reason as the Haitian law and order force were
totally diapperad few days. And frastrated Haitian people are involve with looting
and criminals activities in almost everywhere.
(3)
Lack of water supply.
Before earthquake, most of the people of Haiti’s
capital city of Port Au prince was mainly depended on water from a huge
underground natural reservoir delivered by truckers. But many of the drivers
became scared to deliver supplies after a number of them were attacked as they
drove into the city after earthquake. The shortage of water remains the gravest
problem. So when the system collapse due to disaster it becomes more difficult for

12. Picture: Water crisis in Haiti after earthquake
the humanitarian agencies to supply this huge amount of potable water to the
affected people of Haiti’s capital city of Port Au prince.
(4)
Fluidity.
The migrated population in Haitian capital city of Port au Prince
was not stable in any time. The humanitarian agency workers who works under
Oxfam said that “When we tried to identify ‘beneficiaries’ in shanty towns after
flooding in a previous Haitian disaster, the faces were different the next time
we went back to hand out emergency relief ".Thereby during emergency
response phase the humanitarian agencies faced difficulties distributing the relief
materials.
(5)
Good governance and public accountability.
The
country
was
experiencing political stability in a fragile socio-political context. The President did
not have a parliamentary majority. The Assembly and one third of the Senate were
due to be renewed on February 28, 2010. Parties’ political bases were weak. The
Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) was considered by the majority of MPs and

13. political parties to be aligned with the Executive. Civil society was fragmented and
its impact on the political scene weak. The constitutional institutions of 1987 had
never been fully implemented. As a result the other government institutions were
not workable before the earthquake. The environmental laws are not formed up and
implemented. They don’t have any disaster management plan to face the disaster
by themselves
b.
Chile Earthquake.
On 27 February 2010, at approximately 3.35 a.m. local
time, an earthquake of magnitude 8.8 struck the country of Chile. As a consequence, the
tsunami which was generated affected a coastal strip of more than 500 kilometers. There
have been more than 128 aftershocks causing extensive damages throughout the region.
Reports indicate over 700 deaths. Approximately 1.5 million people have been affected
and thousands have lost their homes and livelihoods.
(1)
Earthquake exposed chasm in Chile. Overall
damage
comparison
to
Magnitude and intensity the Chile has suffered less than Haiti. But considering the
damage of Concepción, the 2nd largest city of Chile itself alone exposed the chasm
in their urban areas. After the earthquake the Chilean Government was late to send
the relief material in affected areas in time which lead the general mass to loot the
essential items from the supermarkets and which is being made by the Chilean
media as a “looting” in Concepción and other cities. The speed with which the
government sent troops to occupy Concepción and recovery the looting items
contrasts with the repeated delays in sending material aid. In the face of
widespread discontent, the massive use of troops in conjunction with a hysterical
media campaign against “looters” was aimed at suppressing social unrest and
polarizing public opinion against the very victims of the earthquake.
(2)
The social fault lines.
The social fault line exposed by the earthquake
have been deepened by decades of “free market” policies, first introduced by the
Pinochet dictatorship and continued by subsequent regimes, which have
exacerbated the chasm separating Chile’s elite from the majority of the population.
Notwithstanding the talk in the US media of rigorous building codes, regulations

14. designed to protect against earthquakes were enforced selectively and on a class
basis, i.e., for the homes and businesses of the wealthy, not for the dwellings and
neighborhoods of the working class and the poor. The shoddily built homes of the
poor collapsed or were washed out to sea, while those of the rich withstood the
impact of the quake.
(3)
Good governance and public accountability.
Poll
taken
by
the
Santiago daily el Mercuriorevealed growing anger among the population. Sixty
percent of Chileans were critical of the government’s response. Sixty-six percent
blame construction companies for shoddy building practices. Despite an intensive
media campaign to demonize so-called “looters,” 26 percent of the respondents
thought they were justified, given the circumstances. Throughout the week the
capitalist media, inside and outside Chile, gave exaggerated accounts of looting
and vandalism, condemning in most cases the acts of desperate and hungry
working class families.
The way out
11.
The emergency response in urban areas is critical in nature comparison to rural areas.
The migration caused over population in the cities. As an example in Dhaka city every year 5
lakhs new arrival added with the urban population and going back rate is very less than the
arrival rate. This migration process made the city growing in an unplanned way. As a result the
whole city almost becomes a vulnerable place for all. In many ways the cities are self-feeding
monsters, perpetuating their own growth in some selected areas by devouring the country's
resources. Dhaka perhaps controls about 70% of the country's money supply. Of the country's
capital investment, more than 60 percent is invested in Dhaka and Chittagong. Most of the other
cities and the vast rural landscape remain brazenly neglected.The present urban conditions can
easily breed frustration, which may spawn social violence and during disaster it may have horrific
impact on overall disaster management system. It is crystal clear to all that unplanned migration
causes the uncontrolled urbanization. And the uncontrolled urbanization process causes for the
other related matters like socio-economy problem, creation of unhygienic slum and shanty town
and it damage entire urban system. And for the solution we have to stop the unexpected

15. migration towards urban areas or cities. The government must change its development policies
and to strengthen the local government system to stop the migration.
a.
Gaps in Planning, policy and legal framework.
The challenges which
are faced by the humanitarian agencies in Haiti and Chile during emergency response is
the output of an uncontrolled urbanization and lack of good governance. In Dhaka we may
face the same challenges unless we are changing the following gaps of the government
policies, planning and strong the legal framework for that.
(1)
Development policies.
Shockingly, the past governments in the last
two decades hardly took any measures to create growth centers beyond the city limits. In
many ways the cities are self-feeding monsters, perpetuating their own growth in some
selected areas by devouring the country's resources. Dhaka perhaps controls about 70%
of the country's money supply. Of the country's capital investment, more than 60 percent is
invested in Dhaka and Chittagong. Most of the other cities and the vast rural landscape
remain brazenly neglected. This discrimination, even after construction of the Jamuna
Bridge, connecting Dhaka and Chittagong with North Bengal, continues to create a great
imbalance in income generation of the districts. This sort of pathetic neglect has given rise
to tensions and mounting discontent that tend to be devil the good works done in some
selected areas. All told, this unrelenting exodus to cities can hardly be stopped, even by
draconian
measures,
because
of
the
condition
of
the
rural
surrounding
remain much neglected. Dr. SarwarJahan, professor and head of Urban Research
Planning department (URP), Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology
(BUET)T, in a recent interview with ProthomAlo, stressed the need for stopping migration
to Dhaka city to save the city from the all-pervading squalor and chaos. This can only be
realized by implementing the proposed "one house, one farm" policy in rural Bangladesh.
(2)
Strengthen the Local constitution system.
The GOB (Government of
Bangladesh) should strengthen the local constitution system to introduce the good
governance system in rural areas. The upazilla chairman must have given the full
authority and executive power to develop his areas. He must be sanctioned a good
amount of money from development fund for his locality. This will create more job

16. opportunity and sustainable rural environment. And it will have a great impact to
stop the migration towards urban areas.
(3)
Controlled Urbanization.
When the migration Process is under
controlled it allows the government to go for a planned urban city. But it needs the
coordinated function among all relevant ministries or the agencies of the
government who all are responsible for the city development. But at present the
special agencies for urban development, which are involved in Dhaka, are the
RajdhaniUnnayanKartripakhya (RAJUK), the Dhaka Water and Sewerage Authority
(DWASA), the Dhaka Electric Supply Authority (DESA), the Dhaka Metropolitan
police (DMP), and the Cantonment Board (CB) at present they don't maintain this
coordination among them. So it will be more difficult during disaster to have this
coordination among them. The RajdhaniUnnayanKartripakhya (RAJUK) for Dhaka
city is working for the development and planning. But it couldn't play a significant
role because of corruption and negligence in management. Singapore's vaunted
cleanliness was achieved by effective administrative action. To discard a cigarette
stub or chewing gum on the street is to invite a heavy fine. We have the law but we
don’t maintain it.
(4)
Political Stability.
A democratic political environment, which can
accelerate the development of the urban area itself, must be established by the
government. The good governance and people accountability makes all the
government tools active and responsible for their duties. The government should
have the better coordination among all the NGOs and other humanitarian agencies
regarding disaster management issue. Government should ensure that no political
interference should hamper the humanitarian agencies activities during emergency
response phase in urban areas.
(5)
Decentralization of DM Control and Structures.
The disaster
management system mainly control by National Disaster Management Council
(NDMC) headed by prime minister with supporting of Disaster Management Bureau
(DMB). Its all supporting elements and governing body members maximum are

17. positioned in capital city Dhaka. Other than the AFD which included its 3 defense
forces which are deployed in various locations in the country having a decentralized
system among them in terms of men and equipments. If the earthquake occurs in
Dhaka city the whole disaster management system will be crushed as all
government's controlling system are located in same place. As an example in
Pakistan earthquake in October 8, 2005 in Pakistani administered Kashmir (Pak)
cause a huge damage of life and properties. The government official who all are
responsible for disaster management couldn't not found because many of them
dead or injured. In the same province 10,000 military personal were dead even
though it didn't affect that much for the defense force. Within the short period of
time the military personal from other garrison took over the control and
responsibility of that affected places. So the government should decentralize the
control and supporting elements of disaster management system taking a note that
the Dhaka and other cities are located in earthquake zone.
(6)
The coordination between policies and ministries.
The Dhaka city is
mainly depended on ground water and it the level of water is decreasing in every
year. The water policy of GOB has forbidden to use ground water and advised to
depend on surface water but in urban areas it doesn't followed by the government
others agencies who all are responsible for supplying water. On the other hand the
real estate companies are filled up all available surface water reservoirs and low
lands on the name of city development. And thereby there will be a huge scarcity of
drinking water before any disaster occurred or during emergency response phase
as well. So Government should coordinate among its all agencies and ministry to
maintain its policies.
b.
Co-ordination
between
Government
and
Humanitarian
agencies.
The
government needs coordination with NGO's to select the places and relief items for
distribution in emergency phase in urban areas. When the roads and airports of Haiti's
capital port Au Prince was destroyed the humanitarian agencies and UN agencies they
started airdrop the relief material in several places. But it couldn't satisfy the local people
demand as it was unplanned. So the NGO's need a contingency plan inter link with

18. government in urban areas for dropping the relief materials as per the pre designated
responsible areas beforehand.
c.
Co-ordination between Military and Humanitarian agencies.
Military
institutions place a high value on command and control, top-down hierarchical
organization structures and clear lines of authority, discipline and accountability. They
place great value on logistics and substantial resources are dedicated to the acquisition of
assets and training of personnel to ensure that they can function independently under the
most adverse circumstances. The military's approach to problem solving is generally
directive and coercive. Humanitarian organizations are less hierarchical and more
participatory in their style of decision making and operations than the military. They pay
more attention to the process by which they accomplish operations, partly because they
attach more importance to long-term impacts, but have fewer back-up resources and
engage in less contingency planning to ensure that short-term objectives can be met
quickly. Thus the military short-term, non-participatory approach is often a source of
operation tension with the civilian agencies engaged in similar activities informed by
consideration of development. So overcome this problem the government should arrange
some mob demo in urban areas or arrange seminar to understand and find out a better
solution for joint operational method during in emergency phase.
d.
Due attention to enhance the social cohesiveness.
The heterogeneous
communities in urban areas should share their views and ideas and enhance the
cooperation among them. This can be done through government agencies like social
welfare ministry, local NGO's. The print and electronic media can play a vital role on that
issue. The members of civil society can play their important role for enhancing the unity
among the heterogeneous communities.
e.
The need for network for urban disaster management in emergency phase.
The Dhaka city is a place for a poor and rich people. This city is mixed of different classes
of people basing on their culture and economic status. During disaster it has been found
people in urban areas having less cooperation than in rural areas. And this lack of
cooperation and cohesiveness create more difficulties during disaster. To minimize this

19. problem the urban area like Dhaka city need a social network, which will connect them in a
same line? This can be done in following ways(1)
The education policy must be changed and it has to be same nature for all
class of people.
(2)
Form the primary level the children must have learnt the need of cooperation
and cohesiveness during disaster.
(3)
The community must have arranged a programme where they can share and
changed their views.
(4)
The religion center and respected person in a society like Imam, Priest, other
religion and Political leaders or teachers must play a role to make a network among
all people to understand the necessity of unity.
(5)
The modern technology like local radio in urban areas can plays a vital role
to arrange the disaster related interviews of people from different classes and
occupation. Arrange cultural programme of different groups of the people living in
the same urban society. This local radio can also play a vital role to united all the
people of different classes during disaster and give necessary advice regarding
don’t and do’s. As an example when the structure of the Haitian Government and
law and order in Haiti all but disappeared in the days following the quake. But on
the ground some Haitian were trying to fill the power vacuum and implement their
own self-help operation, encouraged by the city’s radio METROPOLE, which urged
residence:” Organize neighborhood committees to avoid chaos and prevent people
looting shops and houses”.
(6)
Print and electronic media can play a vital role in the same way

20. (7)
The communication sector like land phone or cell phone company can
enhance the awareness among the urban people regarding their own responsibility
as well as their rights from the government.
Conclusion
12.
The Urbanization process is rapidly increasing due to industrialization revaluation. But it
turned the process as an uncontrolled because of wrong development policies of the
government. As a result it creates lot of difficulties in urban areas and during disaster it becomes
the major obstacle for the humanitarian agencies. The challenges which are faced by the
humanitarian agencies during emergency response phase in urban areas these are not common
in rural areas. And migration is one of the root causes of these difficulties. The absence of rural
development causes people to move in urban areas. The local government system yet to strong
enough for carrying out development process with poor allocation of rural development budget.
13
The GOB has formulated a workable plan for disaster management from national level to
local government level up to union. But this plan needs massive coordination among government
different ministries as well as with NGOs and humanitarian agencies. Besides that government
needs to strong his local constitution to enhance the capability of local government which
includes the urban areas also. The lessons from recent earthquake in Haiti and Chile gave us the
real picture of a disaster in urban areas, where the humanitarian agencies faced number of
challenges in emergency response phase. This can lesson learnt for us as we have almost same
scenario in city like Dhaka and Chittagong. So minimize the difficulties for the humanitarian
agencies as well as for the people, the government policies have to be corrected and massive
coordination has to be done within government’s different ministries as well as with the NGO’s.
The help of social elements and modern technology should be applied to create an urban
network for enhancing cooperation and cohesiveness among the different groups of people.

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