Workshop on Owner Driven Reconstruction and Rehabilitation for Kosi Flood affected Regions Workshop on Owner Driven Reconstruction and Rehabilitation for Kosi Flood Affected Regions Patna, Bihar, December 2008 Organised by Government of Bihar Department of Planning and Development Supported by Owner Driven Reconstruction (ODR) Collaborative December 18 – 19, 2008 Report Compilation: Amitabh Sharma Neeraj Labh (Initiatives in Development Studies, Patna, Bihar)
Transcript
Workshop on Owner Driven Reconstruction and Rehabilitation for Kosi Flood affected Regions
Workshop on Owner Driven Reconstruction and Rehabilitation
for Kosi Flood Affected Regions
Patna, Bihar, December 2008
Organised by Government of Bihar
Department of Planning and Development
Supported by Owner Driven Reconstruction (ODR) Collaborative
December 18 – 19, 2008
Report Compilation: Amitabh Sharma
Neeraj Labh (Initiatives in Development Studies, Patna, Bihar)
Workshop on Owner Driven Reconstruction and Rehabilitation for Kosi Flood affected Regions
Workshop on Owner Driven Reconstruction and Rehabilitation for Kosi Flood affected Regions 1
Owner Driven Reconstruction and Rehabilitation for Kosi Flood Affected Regions
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The Kosi floods of 2008 have thrown up the mammoth task of rebuilding the lives of affected communities. Houses, schools, roads, hospitals all were damaged as the Kosi adopted a new course following a breach in the embankment at the 12th Km from Kosi barrage. The total population of 33, 45,545 living in 993 villages of 412 Panchayats of 35 blocks of 5 districts was affected. A total of 3, 40,742 houses were damaged. It is evident that a destruction of this scale requires the state to initiate measures to put a rehabilitation and reconstruction plan in place, mobilise the required resources and facilitate the implementation of the rehabilitation and reconstruction process. The challenge for reconstruction of this scale is to achieve balance between the competing domains of speed, cost and quality of construction in a manner that enables quick delivery of flood safe and earthquake safe houses, uses a number of local material and technology options, and does not encourage exclusive use of any one material construction as well as supports the affected families upgrade their existing housing and living standards. Delivery of these objectives requires policy guidelines and packages rooted not only in the regions strength and limitation but ideally should corroborate relevant experiences from post disaster reconstruction elsewhere. Essential for this is building an informative platform to facilitate articulation of rehabilitation and reconstruction experiences on critical issues gained through reconstruction programmes in other disasters. The recognition and acknowledgement by the Bihar state officials of owner driven reconstruction as a preferred approach makes it obligatory to familiarize policy makers and implementers with critical operational issues, challenges and pre-requisites for owner driven reconstruction approach so that these are eventually holistically addressed by the policy framework of the state government. A two day workshop was organised at Patna with the intended purpose to facilitate such experience sharing. Though the broad contours of the state policy have been established which favour solutions that are not in conflict with forces of nature, strengthen local coping mechanisms through appropriate disaster preparedness measures, take a holistic view of problems, build an environment to harness collective efforts and strive to introduce appropriate reforms in government policies and programmes; the specifics of the state policy are yet to take a firm shape. On the other hand there is a shared clarity across various levels of the state machinery that to meet the shelter needs of this scale a solution has to base itself in a sound appraisal of regional reality ranging from understanding the available indigenous knowledge and skills, usage and availability of various building material, bringing in desired safety features in traditional building practices and concomitantly creating regulatory framework for stakeholder participation and enforcement of non-negotiable safety and quality standards. As these guiding principles for policy specifics are in strong alignment with principles, values and mechanisms of owner driven reconstruction, there is a manifest readiness across
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the government machinery to adopt owner driven reconstruction approach. Thus in light of the Government of Bihar’s choice of an owner driven approach, the workshop aimed to enable the formulation of policy guidelines and packages by underlining why it was perhaps the most viable approach, what needs to be done to make it effective in terms of cost, speed, quality, safety, equity and aspirations of affected communities and how to build back better by adding value through provisioning of household services and creating opportunities for dovetailing disaster response with long term development initiatives. Pre-requisites for effective ODR were delineated through various presentations and discussion. ODR requires more of government as it has to evolve policy, technical guidelines and packages for housing assistance and is expected to create enabling mechanisms for material and technical support, financial disbursement, regular monitoring and course correction. Also, since damage and loss assessment informs planning and monitoring housing assistance, the imperative is to devote adequate time in preparing for it and ensuring that it adapts to the local reality, includes fewer categories, is technically specific, not prone to varying interpretations and is widely publicized. Policy guidelines should be informed by experiences of government housing programme (such as Indira Awas Yojana). All materials including bamboo can be built safely, with prescribed standards, and walling and roofing options must be provided in the policy guidelines, with non-negotiable safety features – especially loft, plinth and joineries. Financial disbursal systems should be premised on principles of equity, timely availability of resources accompanied by beneficiary tracking system to monitor its usage. Needless to add a sound material and technical support mechanism is mandatory for facilitating execution of owner drive reconstruction. For undertaking this decentralized hubs need to be established for training, material and financial disbursals, cluster facilitation and as production centres. A special purpose vehicle needs to be instituted for better coordination and to ensure sustained focus on rehabilitation as well as its emerging issues. The workshop led to few key decisions such as both, the embanked area and the area affected in 2008 need to be planned together; safe community structure to be built in each hamlet; community buildings to be equipped with drinking water facilities; emphasis on collective efforts - of Government, people, NGOs and corporate sector; implementation strategies to be decentralized to the extent possible and ensuring safe buildings by establishing appropriate techno-legal regime (plans, bye-laws, building codes, etc.) Regional planning, land use planning, settlement planning will be assessed and undertaken so as to not only capture the landscape of Kosi region on a single canvas but also to inform the planning process. The policy will address issues of fragmented land holdings, demarcation of plots lost due to floods, and the issue of missing revenue records. For upgrading the lives of the affected communities the shelter package envisages provisioning of household services to meet the sanitation, lighting and drinking water needs keeping in mind the ecological imperatives of the region alongwith issues of access, control, affordability, viability and sustainability.
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Workshop on Owner Driven Reconstruction and Rehabilitation for Kosi Flood Affected Regions
I. INTRODUCTION
With the near completion of an effectively governed and managed rescue and relief operations, the Government of Bihar plans to rehabilitate the families in Kosi flood affected regions. While the contours of the rehabilitation policy have been recently defined in the Policy Document on Kosi Reconstruction, the government is currently in the process of finalising various rehabilitation policy packages. To inform this process, a workshop on ‘Owner-Driven Reconstruction Approaches - Learning, Issues and Challenges’ was held on December 18 and 19, 2008 at Hotel Maurya in Patna.
The workshop was organised by Government of Bihar with assistance from the Owner Driven Reconstruction (ODR) Collaborative. The collaborative comprises of United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), Abhiyan (a network of 14 grassroots NGO's that was founded as a response to the devastating cyclone that hit Kutch, Gujarat in May 1998), Asian Coalition for Housing Rights (ACHR), Sustainable Environment and Ecological Development Society (SEEDS), Hunnarshala Foundation, Unnati and World Habitat Centre, Switzerland.
Objectives of the Workshop: The workshop aimed at enabling the formulation of the Government’s Policy Guidelines and Packages by: • Bringing in a select sharing of relevant National and South Asian
experiences in post-disaster reconstruction which create an informative platform for the Government of Bihar’s imminent reconstruction programme
• Holistically addressing some of the critical operational issues, challenges and requirements of implementing an owner-driven reconstruction approach for/in the Kosi Flood Affected Regions.
Structure and Sessions of the Workshop: The workshop included presentations and discussions on the following aspects of reconstruction processes in light of the Government of Bihar’s choice of an owner-driven approach. They were as follows:
1. “Implementing an Owner-Driven Reconstruction (ODR)
Programme”: Three topics were covered under this theme which were as follows: a. Overview of Post-Disaster Reconstruction Approaches in the
past 15 years b. State Instituted Support Mechanisms for ODR
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c. Technology and Design Considerations for effective ODR cost, speed, quality, safety, equity and aspirations of affected communities.
2. “Build Back Better”: Three topics were covered under this theme which were as follows: a. Potential and challenges in introducing Household Services –
sanitation, energy and access to safe drinking water b. Habitat and Settlement Planning in the context of existing land
use and water logged areas c. Role of stakeholders in reconstruction of Shelter, Community
and Public Infrastructure Inaugural Address Shri Nitish Kumar, the Hon’ble Chief Minister, in his inaugural speech made the following points:
Though earthquakes are occasional, floods affect Bihar on a recurrent basis almost every year causing huge damage to life and property. 28 districts of the state are prone to floods. However, people of districts like Madhubani and Darbhanga who are more often hit by floods have evolved means of coping with floods. But this time the floods struck in areas which had been relatively flood protected with people having no experience in dealing with floods. This accounted for the huge suffering of the people. Otherwise the 2007 floods were one of the worst in the history of Bihar affecting 2.5 crores population spread over 22 districts.
There is a need to appreciate the role of political context of Nepal and the past history of negligence in the maintenance of barrage in understanding the floods this year.
The state government did the maximum possible it could creating history of sorts by evacuating almost 10 lakh marooned people (the largest ever rescue operation in Asia) and extending relief support to 4.5 lakh people in mega relief camps.
It would be vainglorious to assume that there would be no embankment breaches in the future as mankind can never absolutely triumph over the processes of nature. What we can do is to be better prepared to mitigate the impact of such disasters in the future.
The pre-occupation with the current floods should not make one lose sight of the plight of those within the Kosi embankment. They need to be necessarily included in the planned rehabilitation package.
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There is a need to provide building material choices and bamboo being one of the material choices was welcome given its indigenity to the Kosi region, its inherent strength and prevalence of local skills in working with it.
Community centres at the tola level (hamlet level) and not at the revenue village level need to be constructed on elevated ground where people can take shelter during floods. Such centres should also have provision for toilets and drinking water. Along with community centres elevated platforms also need to be developed where cattle can take shelter.
The State Government has the resources to undertake reconstruction of schools and hospitals. However, NGOs and private parties are welcome to assist in the construction of houses, community centres and village infrastructure.
The Government would soon make a law making it mandatory for builders to construct earthquake proof houses in the state. The provisions of the proposed law would apply in the construction of the new buildings. Opinion from experts would be solicited regarding the applicability of the proposed law to old buildings.
Though the the Kosi Floods were declared as a National Calamity, the state’s request for financial assistance was not yet fulfilled. Here the media has an important role to play in highlighting the resource needs. The ambit of the Calamity Relief Fund also needs to be enlarged to have provision for rehabilitation as well.
Shri Nitish Kumar, the Honorable Chief Minister, mentioned that the Government will take forward the outcome of the workshop recommendations by formulating appropriate policy packages and, hence, set the tone for the deliberations in the workshop.
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II. Key Points of Discussion
Keynote Address: Dr. A.S. Arya, National Seismic Advisor to Government of India, in his keynote address delineated the multi hazard context of Bihar (floods, earthquake and high wind velocity) and the opportunity that the post Kosi floods reconstruction drive had to offer in mitigating the impact of these disasters in the future. However, in order to optimise on this opportunity, it was necessary that certain approaches, strategies and standards stemming from the experience of previous disasters were adhered to. His foremost emphasis in any recontruction initiative was on ensuring flood and earthquake resistance through enforcement
of safety standards as stipulated in Indian Standard Codes and Guidelines for the different disaster contexts and the contingent material and construction technology choices. While emphasising the need for a holistic approach that comprehensively addressed the needs of the beneficiaries and not just their housing, he suggested two broad reconstruction approaches that could be adopted in a complementary way.
1. Owner Driven Reconstruction (say about 80% of total)
2. Public Private Partnership Program (PPPP) (remaining 20%)
In according primacy to owner driven reconstruction, the following factors have an important role to play: 1. It ensures that the design of the houses are determined by the
owners themselves, as per their needs and preferences 2. Also ensures that instead of being uniform, the houses
reconstructed are of different patterns as found in case of organic evolution of the common villages
3. Approach ensures `Technology Transfer’ to the community and subsequently the sustainability of program.
However, for an owner driven approach to succeed an appropriate regulatory and facilitative framework had to be in place and in the formulation and execution of such a framework the governance institutions of the state had the most important role to play. The key components of such a framework should be • Ensuring Flood & Earthquake Resistance • Offering Choice of Building Materials & Construction Technologies. • Collecting available Technical know how • Development of Appropriate guidelines • Appropriate Awareness Creation to enable informed choices and
control over the construction process
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• Capacity building for carrying out the works • Control and assurance of required quality of construction • Facilitation of the constructions through
materials banks In order to illustrate the significance of these components, he drew extensively upon the experiences of his close association with the mammoth post earthquake reconstruction exercise undertaken in Gujarat and universally rated as one of the more successful cases of owner driven reconstruction. Dr. Arya concluded his presentation on a very positive note by stating “What Gujarat could achieve, Bihar can surely do it better”.
1. Implementing an Owner-Driven Reconstruction (ODR) Programme
a. Overview of Post-Disaster Reconstruction Approaches in the Past 15 Years The overview of post disaster reconstruction approaches implemented in India and South Asia drew upon the following experiences:
• Maharashtra Emergency Earthquake Rehabilitation Program (MEERP): Latur Earthquake, 1993
• South Asia Tsunami Reconstruction Program (India, Sri Lanka and Maldives, 2004)
• South Asia Earthquake (Pakistan and J & K, India, 2005)
Disaggregating the overall reconstruction approach into its key components, Mr. Vatsa dwelt upon what each component entailed in the event of the various reconstruction experiences and what lessons were to be learnt against each. Key Lessons for ODR approach in light of various reconstruction experiences were articulated as follows:
• Experiential evidence gives an edge to ODR over other reconstruction approaches for the following reasons:
o More efficient utilisation of resources through removal of intermediaries
o Easier to manage and ensuring greater transparency and accountability
o Facilitates use of households’ own savings / borrowings for improving the housing asset
o Promotes the fastest recovery • Damage and loss assessment should be adequately planned for, be
adaptible to the local context, be specific and as uncomplicated as
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possible and preferrably complemented with household and community level surveys for wider social acceptance.
• Policy for housing assistance with equity as the
guiding principle should be premised on provisioning of minimum cost rather than replacement cost and should be restricted to two packages linked to the categories of reconstruction and repair.
• In financing reconstruction there is an entire
spectrum of options to be tapped ranging from international agencies to specially instituted mechanisms like multi-donor trust funds and special funds to ingenuous approaches like budgetary reallocation which however calls for political support.
• Development and application of hazard resistant technical
guidelines coupled with an adequately capacitated technical resource pool with provision for monitoring quality including independent technical audit are standards to be observed in any ODR initiative.
• Special agencies, with an appropriate balance of technical expertise
and project management skills, should be set up for policy formulation, implementation, coordination and monitoring and be adequately empowered to make effective policy decisions, ensure compliance with the same and effectively coordinate among different line departments/agencies. Such agencies should be allowed a measure of flexibility in recruitment and outsourcing of certain services
• Participation and communication are strategic imperatives in ODR
and specialised agencies and innovative mechanisms should be instituted to address these issues. Special measures should be in place for ensuring the participation of the socially excluded (women, disabled, widows, stigmatised caste groups etc.).
• NGOs’ and Private Sector Support should be
clearly defined and preferably limited to community infrastructure, civic facilities, livelihoods, etc. If allowed into reconstruction of houses their conformity with technical design and standards set by the Government needs to be ensured through a strong coordination and regulatory structure.
• It is important to have a monitoring and
evaluation team as an integral part of the project management team. Impact of the programme needs to be monitored on a concurrent basis. Beneficiaries’ database needs to be established and made accessible
to all. Periodic evaluation needs to be carried out as it provides opportunities for mid-course corrections.
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b. State Instituted Support Mechanisms for Owner-Driven
Reconstruction Programme In order to allow the shelter policy to come up with clear policy positions on state instituted support mechanisms, pooling of experiences from previous disasters highlighting the critical elements of support mechanisms and assistance could serve as guiding principles. Sharing of strategies and processes adopted for robust enabling mechanisms, monitoring systems and addressing capacity building needs and experiences acquired in the course of implementation of rehabilitation efforts in various Indian states are vital for the development of sound and robust state instituted support mechanisms in Bihar. Enabling Mechanisms – The Gujarat Experience The Gujarat experience clearly reveals the policy choices and policy implications that confront the adoption of owner driven reconstruction approach especially with regard to the enabling mechanisms required for successful implementation and execution of owner driven reconstruction. It also highlights the critical areas where state support is necessary, the steps necessary for the delivery of such services and learnings that got triggered subsequent to post earthquake measures. Multiplicity of construction approaches adopted in Gujarat lends itself to better understanding of their attendant strengths and challenges with a view to integrate critical learnings in post-floods shelter policy in Bihar. The massive rebuilding required after the Gujarat Earthquake firmly established the need to have an agency committed to carrying out key functions central to rehabilitation measures. The implementation of the massive reconstruction and rehabilitation program, coordination with state government, Government of India, potential donors (bilateral, multilaterals and International NGOs) and international community, quick policy making, resource mobilisation & financial management, monitoring and quality inspection and capacity building for long term disaster management emerged as key functions and their fulfillment established the necessity of having a committed agency to carry out these. Gujarat State Disaster Management Authority was set up to perform the above mentioned key tasks. The ODR approach needs more commitment and resources from government when compared with other options. The cash assistance has to be accompanied by a strong beneficiary tracking system geared to ensure that money is spent for house construction. Systems need to be developed to provide technical and material support and for engaging participation of owners in planning and implementation processes. For effective participation of owners knowledge, technology and skill upgradation process have to be put in place. ODR requiresils strong and sustained commitment of manpower for technical guidance, financial disbursement and program monitoring which entails more administrative expenditure, back office work and ingenuity in handling political challenges.
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The ODR approach requires creation of a strong enabling mechanism to ensure material availability, appropriate financial disbursement systems, technical guidance and support, capacity building, deployment of human resources, quality audit and processes oriented to build information and knowledge base of owners. There is the need to inform and educate the owners about hazard resistant construction and technology. Confidence building measures are required to propel people into self-reliant reconstruction. Material banks have to be set up to ensure timely access of owners to building materials. Tax exemption possibilities for locally produced material need to be explored. This was successfully tried out in Kutch and helped in controlling cost escalation and generating local employment. Financial assistance should be based on principles of equity. Financial support systems need to create disbursal processes which ensure prompt disbursement in instalments to maintain cash flow and accompanied by quantity and quality checks to establish that assistance is being used for the purpose it is meant for and in a manner that does not compromise house safety. However, determining the number and quantum of instalments should be guided by administrative capacity considerations and the need to minimize the possibility of leakages and corruption. In The support system should also flag the commitment of government to facilitate loans for those who wanted to add to government assistance as this will allow them to build bigger and better houses.
To enable effective and efficient ODR, an appraisal of human resource requirement followed by their deployment is crucial. To ensure a stringent adherence to quality standards a well thought out quality audit process needs to be put in place. It should include continuous monitoring for timely inspection and disbursement through technical teams placed with the district and block administration, including third party audit.
Enabling mechanisms should also be accompanied by development of technical guidelines and training efforts for district administration, technical teams, and local committees. Technical guidelines should be prepared for using locally available materials, for construction and retrofitting and for all type of constructions. Not only engineers and masons trained on these guidelines but a large scale dissemination of the guidelines needs to be undertaken.
Gujarat experience has distinctly established that not all NGOs have the capacity to build habitations and houses and there is a need for assessing the capacity of the NGOs before they are permitted to work. NGOs’ lack of clarity at entry leaves them wanting in terms of having an appropriate exit strategy. Coordination and monitoring mechanisms are required so as to appraise not only their capacity but to ensure that their efforts dovetail properly in the larger rehabilitation process. While equity issues have to be regulated through instituting transparency and accountability mechanisms, the regulatory framework should also
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devise ways to avoid duplication and wastage and look into issues of exit strategy.
Grievance redressal is the key to building ownership over the construction process of the house owners. Legal literacy camps should be mounted to educate people about their entitlements and special committees need to be set up for grievance redressal at the village and district level. Shelter Monitoring Mechanisms – The Tamilnadu Experience Post tsunami rehabilitation projects were implemented under the rehabilitation framework put in place by the Government of Tamil Nadu. GOTN initiated a number of steps and held wide stakeholder consultations for formulating comprehensive guidelines for reconstruction and eventually established strict building standards as well as supervisory mechanisms to ensure compliance.
The Government framework defines the partnership formats for NGOs ensuring principles of equity, non-discrimination, safety and minimum quality standards. The Government took up responsibilities of providing land, basic services, setting up of quality standards and allotment of housing to beneficiary families, while NGO partners reconstructed houses and infrastructure as per the MoU adhering to the Government guidelines. The complex nature of legal regulations regarding coastal areas such as CRZ, application of special building codes, etc. was required to be understood well for effective programme implementation. Primarily the District Collector coordinated tsunami rehabilitation works in each district.
Tamilnadu experience shows that PPP, especially NGO coordination, is an extremely sensitive and delicate activity and requires coordination mechanism involving regular coordination meetings, timely sorting out of issues, NGO coordination centre preferably under the control of NGO representatives themselves and methods to encourage NGOs to set up rehabilitation and resource centre. Though village bodies (panchayats) were quite sensitive to quality issues, the tsunami experience once again underlines the need for independent monitoring mechanism like third party audit and the necessity for technical support system for NGO’s and district administration.
Though Tamilnadu housing substantively addressed equity, gender, insurance, cultural, risk reduction and environmental issues, the execution of the large scale reconstruction largely through contractors confronted severe deficits in material and labour availability. Sudden upsurge in demand of building material resulted in huge cost escalations requiring revision in estimates and thereby delaying the execution of construction process. It also revealed the criticality of settlement planning as wherever this was taken into account it resulted in better settlement and wherever it was ignored it became an issue. Moreover, the approach has led to enhanced dependency of
Mr. C. V. Sankar, IAS, GoTN
Figure 1
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beneficiaries on NGOs and state. Quality monitoring also emerged as an issue with abysmal beneficiary engagement in the process. Also, the presence of large number of players and the attendant donor pressure impeded quality monitoring resulting in quality compromise.
Tsunami experience has reaffirmed the need for building technical / Implementation systems which has the capacity to deliver houses of better standards along with more appropriate and new sanitation systems. Overcoming operation and maintenance challenges requires committed funds, personnel and systems to address O&M issues in a systemic fashion. There is also a need to undertake post-disaster planning aimed at promoting sustainable practices. Risk reduction should not only be part of the housing policy aimed at promoting preparedness in face of future risks but should also be firmly embedded in development activities. It is also crucial to develop partnerships, share knowledge and expertise among all stakeholders such as the Government, International Agencies and Organizations, International NGOs, local NGOs and Communities to reduce risks.
Capacity Building – The Pakistan Experience Post earthquake reconstruction experience in Pakistan has reinforced and validated the core principles of ODR approach. Broadly speaking the ODR approach consists of three components; housing grants for reconstruction or rehabilitation; technical assistance and capacity-building of all affected stakeholders. The guiding framework for rural housing in Pakistan involved allowing owners to manage the rebuilding of their own houses and at the same time equipping them with proper understanding of earthquake resistant building techniques. The emphasis was to rebuild in-situ wherever possible with familiar methods and easily accessible materials in a manner that incorporated
earthquake resistant elements in the traditional and currently used building techniques. Uniform assistance packages were offered to all affected households. The payments were made in instalments and were linked to compliance with earthquake resistant standards. Technical assistance covered a wide range of issues providing earthquake-resistant housing solutions, facilitating access to building materials market and resolving land and property related issues. Facilitating access to building materials involved not only establishing links with private sector but putting in place measures to ensure timely supply in wake of increased demand and setting up of local building material centres in strategic
locations. Relocation was made voluntary and steps were taken to ensure that the vulnerable and disadvantaged groups received their entitlements.
The training objectives were to build capacities of stakeholders in social mobilisation, safe building practices, in incorporating earthquake-resistant elements and materials into local housing types, and in monitoring functions. Training curricula and material (posters, guidelines and manuals) were developed for carrying out capacitation
Mr. Amod Dixit, NSET, Nepal
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measures. A cascading training strategy was adopted which envisaged creation of a strong technical group devoted to continuous knowledge and capacity enhancement of team of trainers so that they could in turn train technical field teams and social mobilisers. Social mobilisers trained in social mobilisation skills and in general technical knowhow functioned as information workers addressing information and knowledge needs of common people so that they could demand for services, monitor house construction and ensure safe house construction. On the other hand technical field teams trained and created a pool of capable masons.
The capacity building measures generated a mass of relevant guidelines and manuals along with curricula and courses for various trainings. The trainings were not confined to technical aspects only but also build capacity in social mobilisation, damage and vulnerability assessment, customizing relevant technical knowhow for common people as to enable him to monitor construction process and ensure construction of safe houses.
State Instituted Support Mechanisms – Learnings from South Asian
Experience
• The ODR approach needs more commitment and resources from government when compared with other options. This, as rehabilitation experiences firmly esatablish, requires creation of an agency especially committed to carrying out key functions central to rehabilitation measures. Apart from cash assistance, systems need to be developed to provide policy, administrative, managerial, technical, material and capacity building support for engaging participation of owners in planning and implementation processes.
• Focussed IEC activies is another imperative for ODR to inform and educate the owners about hazard resistant construction and technology and build up their confidence for self-reliant reconstruction.
• Setting up of material banks and allowing tax exemptions on building material enable timely access of owners to building materials and contain cost escalation.
• Financial assistance should be based on principles of equity and should be backed up by adequate safeguards for checking leakage and corruption.
• While minimum cost rather than replacement cost should be the basis of compensation package, support system should also flag the commitment of government to facilitate loans for those who want to add to government assistance as this will allow them to build bigger and better houses.
• Development and application of hazard resistant technical guidelines coupled with an adequately capacitated technical resource pool with provision for monitoring quality including independent technical audit are standards to be observed in any post disaster reconstruction initiative.
• Regulatory mechanisms are required so as to appraise not only the capacity of NGOs but also to ensure that their efforts dovetail properly in the larger rehabilitation process and principles of equity are not violated.
• With grievance redressal as the key to ownership, legal literacy camps should be mounted to educate people about their entitlements
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and special committees need to be set up for grievance redressal at the village and district level.
• Settlement planning is of critical significance. Wherever taken into account it results in better habitat and wherever ignored it becomes an issue.
• Risk reduction should not only be part of the housing policy aimed at promoting preparedness in face of future risks but should also be firmly embedded in development activities.
• Guidelines, manuals along with curricula and courses for various trainings become critical inputs for social mobilisation, safe building practices, incorporating earthquake-resistant elements and materials into local housing types, and monitoring functions, all of which have implications for the empowered control of owners over the process.
• It is also crucial to develop partnerships, share knowledge and expertise among all stakeholders to reduce risks.
Possibilities and Issues for Bihar With regard to possibilities and issues in Bihar, context analysis of flood affected districts by district teams to determine locally available material and skill base and also preferences and aspirations of community for
new house, clearly highlight the need and urgency to adopt an ODR approach to construction. The scale of envisaged reconstruction alone makes ODR as the only viable option if houses are to be built in a time frame of 2-3 years. Furthermore, though majority of houses are kachha, thatched, tin sheeted, it is clear the people will prefer to have brick houses with RCC roof as status ascendancy factor is also crucial in determining people’s aspiration for houses. Again though there is unanimity across districts regarding people’s preference, the district and state officials are also unanimous that providing RCC/Brick option is fraught with serious issues.
Though good quality bricks are available in the region, the limited local production capacity is likely to create a serious imbalance between demand and supply especially in view of the huge demand that house construction in the region will potentially generate. Presently even the modest targets under the IAY are unachieved because of limited brick availability and supply bottlenecks in the region. Lack of skilled masons and artisans is another serious bottleneck in terms of brick/RCC houses as this gets corroborated by the poor quality of existing RCC structures.
Additionally, challenges associated with transportation of building materials given the poor connectivity of the region cannot be overlooked. On the other hand bamboo is a viable option as good quality bamboo is available in relative abundance and enjoys high acceptance with people. Also, the available skill base in bamboo work is of high standard and in widespread use. Besides building houses, the strength and resilience of bamboo can be gauged from its diverse application such as water diversion by irrigation department and elsewhere in private and public buildings. Nevertheless, the scale of
bamboo application envisaged in housing necessitates capacity
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building of masons and artisans to bring in flood and seismic safety features in bamboo and other local materials. National building code also approves bamboo as a building material though chemical treatment of bamboo needs to be tested and standardised. This will further help PWD to bring bamboo in the schedule of rates.
The context of flood affected regions and the envisaged scale of habitat development leaves ODR as the only realistic and viable option. The emphasis on systematic damage assessment in conjunction with enabling structures in place will catalyse demand and the prospect of relying on local material and skills suitably augmented by capacitation measures will fulfil demand. However, checks and systems need to be developed to overcome challenges of using financial instalments for consumption needs, ensuring timely availability of materials, sorting out land issues, building effective delivery mechanisms, honing of existing and imparting new skills as well as setting a realistic sunset clause.
c. Technology and Design Considerations for Effective ODR With almost all the flood affected districts of Bihar falling in high seismic zones (Zone IV &V) and subject to high wind velocity and high intensity floods, the proposed technology options should address multi hazard resistant reconstruction features at all levels of reconstruction ranging from foundation to plinth to walls to roof irrespective of building material choice. However, given the flood proneness of the area, houses need to be constructed on either brick pedestal piles with a plinth level RCC beam at top to support the superstructure or a deep RC pile foundation with appropriate RC bulb at the foundation irrespective of the building material that goes into the superstructure.
In a scenario where 3 to 4 lakh house are to be built, the delivery mode will be ineffective in achieving the target in desirable time frame of two years. A realistic option is to harness the strength of the people, the homeowners to build for themselves. The choice of technology and facilitating its implementation can strengthen the people’s movement if it is anchored in available indigenous skills, material availability in the region and is as per the aspirations of the people and supported with strong governance. Design and technology options need to be considered as key initiative to induce people’s ownership over the entire reconstruction process as they give them the opportunity to choose and decide in line with their need and preferences. An analysis of material availability clearly reveals the need to prescribe solutions with a broad material base with a set of Non Negotiables. All materials RCC/Brick and Bamboo can be made safe from all disasters of flood, earthquake and storms. However policy should not be loaded in favor of Brick/RCC as availability, skills and cost are not good. Brick/RCC house costs 550-600/- per sqft and Engineered Bamboo house is 200-225/- per sqft. Moreover, the region’s strength is its wide spread capacity, and excellent skills for good indigenous construction (6-8 material typologies ranging from bamboo/thatch to brick/concrete). A clear limitation is the availability and cost of brick/aggregate, and lower quality concrete construction in these villages.
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Design and technology options should be rooted in sound technical safeguards so as to ensure that houses are resistant to multiple hazards that the region is prone to. A clear set of negotiable and non-negotiables should be laid down so that safety and quality considerations are rigorously adhered to in all the design/technology option that people might opt for. Safety and quality principles governing plinth and joineries along with provision of loft in all houses should be brought under the realm of non-negotiables universally applicable for all house types. However, people should take informed decisions to select from options available for roof, wall and column types. Design options shall include houses with brick walls and RCC roofs. Given the cost implications the government compensation of Rs. 50,000 is not adequate for this house type and the opting house owner will have to bear the additional cost of Rs. 100,000 that is required for house with a built up area of 22sqm.
However, the shelter policy package should ideally not be loaded in favour of this last technological option, as this category requires price sensitive materials, which are in short supply like bricks & aggregates & sand and scarcity may lead to compromise on the non-negotiable for the other categories. This is the only typology where the construction practices in the region are not good. The availability of options and enabling people to take informed decision requires facilitation with regard to clearly setting forth the cost, area, technology and material availability implications that each house type entails. People centered housing crucially hinges on setting up of appropriate enabling mechanism. Supportive and enabling services should address issues related with the following:
• Material banks- minimum 3000 bricks to all • Awareness and facilitation on safety features- engineer in each
village • Mistri and engineer trainings • Support to mistris for workshops/livelihood • Third party technical audit • Transparency of scheme and finance
It is suggested that the shelter package should make provision of Rs. 150,000 for each house to be built. Out of this Rs. 55’000 should be allocated for core house (accounting for a basic minimum with non-negotiable safety features with people themselves augmenting their housing with increased acess to resources over a period of time) ; 25’000 for household services (water, sanitation and lights) and Rs.65’000 for habitat (Tola) infrastructure. Household services package envisages setting up of dry-pit latrines (econ-san toilets), to avoid contamination of the ground water; facilities for collection, storage and usage of roof rain water; and provisioning of Solar lanterns under TERI’s Lighting a Billion Lives Campaign (LABL).
Mr. Sandeep Virmani, Hunnarshala
Workshop on Owner Driven Reconstruction and Rehabilitation for Kosi Flood affected Regions 17
Design and Technological Imperatives – Key Issues
• Emphasis on multi hazard resistant construction – enforcing safety
standards • Need of regulatory and facilitative framework for success of
rehabilitation • Offering choice of building materials & construction technologies • Design of model houses provided to the public to choose from with
an option to have one’s own design • Promote possibilites for using indigenous material and technology • Development of Appropriate guidelines • Appropriate awareness creation to enable informed choices and
control over the construction process • Capacity building for carrying out the works • Control and assurance of required quality of construction • Facilitation of the constructions through materials banks • Shelter package to include provisioning of household services
2. “Build Back Better”- Role of stakeholders for reconstruction of Community and Public Infrastructure
a. Potential and challenges in introducing Household Services – sanitation, energy and access to safe drinking water
The housing reconstruction package may be proposed as a total of three sub-packages which overall upgrades the housing and living standards. These three sub packages are: 1. Package for Housing Reconstruction 2. Household Services Package – includes water, sanitation, energy 3. Package for Community Infrastructure
Household Services Package i) Sanitation The preponderant practice of open defecation which gets to be a major source of groundwater contamination, given the high ground water table in the region, makes sanitation a critical issue. Poor toilet usage is in part due to space and cost constraints in building toilets and in part due to prevalent cultural practice.
Three kinds of toilet usage are currently in practice in the region. There is first the on the pit model which at Rs 1500/unit is cost effective and simple to construct and is also being promoted under the Total Sanitation Campaign of Government of Bihar. The second option being practiced is the off the pit model wherein a new pit is dug when the old one fills up and the sludge from the old pit can be used as manure. There is also a variant of the off the pit model with provision for two pits.
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The third option being exercised is that of septic tank which is resource intensive, consumes much water and has frequent maintenance costs. For household based sanitation service, Ecosan approach is being suggested as one of the most viable options particularly in light of the fact that the intervention districts constitute a high water table area and other forms of human excreta disposal like pit latrines, septic tank latrines and centralized sewage disposal system have many disadvantages. They are water intensive and contaminate air, water and land. Ecosan toilet is a twin chamber toilet. One of the two chambers is used for defecation and the other is kept sealed. The chamber gets filled up in about eight months. Then the chamber is sealed and the second one is used. To prevent faeces from coming into contact with the soil and underground water sources the bottom portion of the chamber is cemented. Human waste in the first chamber gets composted in about 8 months. The compost does not have any foul smell and is free from any disease causing pathogens or bacteria. The compost is a good soil conditioner and can be manually removed and used for agriculture rendering the first chamber fit for use again.
The ecosan toilet pan provides for separate collection of faeces, urine and wash-water. Urine is led through a pipe to be collected in a tank. This urine is very rich in nutrients for farm production and after being diluted with water can be used as liquid manure. The wash water is led through another pipe into a filter bed from where it can be used for irrigation purpose. As an approach to sanitation, ecosan is resource and management oriented and not disposal oriented. It looks upon human excreta & wash water as resources to be reused for improving agricultural production and prevent contamination of the environment. It aims at sanitizing the products and not transferring problems from one cycle to another. Though ecosan toilet may be the best technology available, it remains to be tried and tested as an appropriate one for the Kosi region.
ii) Lighting Solar technology, despite being renewable and non-polluting, has never been the preferred choice in mass programmes of lighting, because of the high initial costs on the solar lantern which comprises the lantern, a portable device, along with a battery and a solar panel for recharging the battery and comes at Rs 1500 to 2000 per unit. Hence, in case of Bihar, it is being suggested that the energy package be linked to the “Lighting a Billion Lives (LaBL) campaign” of TERI which has evolved a delivery model which neutralises the cost constraint in accessing solar lanterns even by the poor. The Campaign aims to bring modern and clean sources of lighting into the lives of one billion rural people by replacing the kerosene and
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paraffin lanterns with solar lighting devices. Each solar lantern saves about 40-60 litres of kerosene per year and mitigates 145 kg CO2 emissions per year. Alternately it saves about 182.5 kWhr of electricity per year and mitigates 157 kg CO2 emissions per year.
The delivery model for the campaign is a fee-for-service model, where solar charging stations are set up in villages for charging the lanterns and providing them on a nominal fee-for-service (or rental) basis to households and enterprises on a daily basis. The charging stations are operated and managed by local entrepreneurs who are selected and trained by TERI in association with its implementation partners. Use of large capacity modules (with a capacity to charge 50 lights) is preferred for better efficiency and lesser unit cost. 10% of the revenue earned by the entrepreneur is earmarked for replacement and repair costs. This delivery model is able to offer services at an affordable cost, increases safety and accountability for the equipment, ensures charging, and as modelled as a business activity has greater potential for being sustainable particularly in terms of expanding into multi-resources multi-utility platform (Health services, ICT based educational services, water purification services etc.) in the future. iii) Drinking Water The intervention area is characterised by a pre dominant usage of groundwater. However this water is found at very shallow depths of 3.5 m to 4.5 m leaving it vulnerable to contamination by leaching. The bacterial load in water is on the higher end of the spectrum. The degraded quality of water is also reflected in the high iron content. Despite being a high rainfall region, water conservation practices are very poor and run off losses are very high which, along with the alluvial nature of soil, contributes to iodine deficiency.
Provision of hand pumps is the popular method of tapping ground water in the area. Government sinks it up to a depth of 14 m. However this does not take care of the iron content in the water. Hand pumps fitted with iron removal attachments are very costly at Rs 32000/unit. Options exist in terms of promotion of tearfil filters which at Rs 400/-filter could also be promoted as a regional enterprise through training of locals. Local filters costing just Rs 30/filter could also be promoted. While electricity driven piped water supply rules itself out as an option because of the cost implications and uncertain power availability, the possibility of small water supply schemes operated with solar panels integrating street lighting during nights could be looked into. All this notwithstanding the acceptance and ownership related issues around these options remain to be explored.
Being a high rainfall region, installing rainwater harvesting systems per household merits serious consideration. Not only is this approach household centred and capable of providing access to one of the purest
Mrs. Akanksha Chorey, TERI
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forms of water in adequate quantity, even the roofing materials (tin sheets, tiles and RCC) being proposed for the houses to be reconstructed lend themselves amenable to the installation of this system. The traditional practice of using open dug wells as a source of clean and safe water also needs to be revived. With water in the open dug wells exposed to air, iron content in water is lost due to the process of oxidation which cannot happen in the case of water drawn from hand pumps. Using indigenous practices like crushed guava leaves for testing iron content in water could come in quite handy in effecting a behaviour change in water usage practices. Presentations on household services package, more than offering specific options, dwelt on factors that should go into makng appropriate technology choices for the various categories of services like drinking water, sanitation and lighting. Ecological considerations alongwith issues of access, control, affordability, viability and sustainability should inform the adoption of appropriate technology for household services. Thus roof rainwater harvesting or solar lights or ecosan are spelt out as mere illustrations of technologies with a competitive edge when assessed against the aforesaid parametres and ceratinly not as the only options.
b. Habitat and Settlement Planning in the context of existing
land use and water logged areas Settlement planning becomes extremely crucial in post disaster reconstruction as it helps integrate development decisions and investments taken both in the public and private domain, enables greater disaster resilience through a well thought out and planned reconstruction process, ensures resource optimisation through efficient and effective resource allocation leading to sustainable resource usage and plays the role of an honest broker in conflict over resource allocation that inevitably emerges amongst the stakeholders. Planning is a hierarchical process entailing regional, sub regional and settlement level planning. Following grid lays out the key features/issues that need to be considered for various levels of settlement planning:
Levels of settlement planning
Key features/issues
Regional level • Hazard risk • Development priorities • Land utilization at macro level • Regional infrastructure • Looking beyond 2008 inundation area
Sub-regional (districts or cluster of villages)
• Topography • Existing land use pattern • Development constraints or potential
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Settlement Level • Housing layout
• Settlement level infrastructure (physical and social infrastructure)
• Water resource management • Environmental management
Land use planning and land management are critical for settlement planning. Available maps and reality as surveyed are important tools for gaining insight into existing land use and land management practices and hence they constitute the basis of planning. Also, topographical analysis and contour mapping exercises should inform the planning exercise. Base data, especially topography and geology data is very important to understand the slopes and terrain, to extract water ways / watersheds and understand aquifers and groundwater recharge areas. They also generate comprehensive landscape information on issues like water logging and high points for relocation and reconstruction. In a Geographic Information Systems (GIS) this can be processed to project various scenarios.
Participatory mapping not only facilitates proper understanding of pre-disaster situations but is a key tool for damage assessment and formulating possible options and post disaster scenarios. It instills a sense of ownership among affected communities over post disaster processes. It has been immensely valuable in circumstances like Aceh wherein there was no method to ascertain pre-disaster plot demarcations other than engaging the community to collectively map pre-disaster dwelling units. Participatory mapping is perhaps the only method, in the absence of land records, to ascertain plot demarcation and those of agricultural land in case of villages that have come in the river course. Acceptance, ownership and occupancy, especially for ex nihilo construction, is a function of integrated settlement planning. This has been strongly vindicated by Gujarat experience especially the town planning for the walled city at Bhuj and Aceh where people decided to move back in deviance to the government relocation policy. For the walled city in lieu of property surrendered in the walled city people were given the option to access planned layouts with services plots. The core issues in this case were to transform the walled city with a safe and efficient street network and serviced plots. The strategic requirement for attaining this was to ensure land pooling in manner that it was equitable, participatory and entailed minimum displacement. Keeping these in mind a detailed town planning exercise was carried out and its execution resulted in a decongested walled city with safe and efficient street network.
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Integrated settlement planning has to be based on detailed infrastructure planning. Infrastructure planning has to address issues of vulnerability reduction and not exacerbate risks to hazards as has been the case in North Bihar with road and railway construction obstructing natural drainage patterns causing floods and water logging. Environmental management issues like communities settling in wetlands, high population density impacting the ecosystem, reviving and strengthening natural drainage systems should inform the integrated settlement planning. Strengthening disaster preparedness and mitigation is another vital issue to be addressed by settlement planning. Also, the planning should catalyse livelihoods and economic development possibilities through agricultural diversification and promotion of non-farm sector. Social infrastructure issues and heritage conservation are other key elements of integrated settlement planning. However, settlement planning is a time intensive process which requires committed resources and experienced personnel for the undertaking. Another challenge is to obtain statutory acceptance for the planning outcomes. To address such issues planning needs to be institutionalized in a manner that systems are put in place for regional and settlement planning. Other key issues that need to be addressed in a systemic way are: • Building institutional capacity for planning • Building knowledge bases • Building information systems A meaningful and effective planning process also requires establishing platforms for effective participation of all stakeholders in planning and creating a bottom-up process within an established policy framework.
c. Role of Stakeholders in Reconstruction of Shelter, Community and Public Infrastructure
Stakeholder coordination mechanisms specifying the role of various stakeholders engaged in rehabilitation process is mandatory for successful accomplishment of the same. Tamil Nadu and Gujarat experiences are strong pointers and reiterate the necessity of proper and clear stakeholder coordination. Even though the two states adopted a completely different approach to shelter reconstruction, but this did not diminish the relevance of rolling out policy initiatives enunciating clearly the role of stakeholders in the reconstruction process. However, process reflection brings out areas that have scope for further improvement. A key area is to build synergies between existing development programmes, institutions and rehabilitation process such as sharing of labour cost through government programmes, engaging technical and engineering institutions for quality checks and building capacities and harnessing capacities to have a stronger support team at the state and district levels. A rigorous process should be adopted to map community expectations and ensure their participation but this aspect is often a weak area when players enter the fray because of
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funds and lack long term stake in the region. Personnel turnover (govt/NGOs) also hinders the rehabilitation process and a measure of stability in personnel will definitely aid the execution of rehabilitation plans. Contingency funds should be earmarked at the time of planning and budgeting to tide over unforeseen cost escalations. Moreover, to strengthen stakeholder partnerships so that high quality results can be delivered it is necessary to assess NGO capacity against technical, managerial, financial and transparency benchmarks as the absence of this led to involvement of NGOs with weak capacities. The various experiences reveal that stakeholder coordination needs to be worked out on the basis that stakeholder spectrum extends from the weakest to the very powerful players; hence any meaningful mechanism needs to be premised on harnessing collective efforts for achieving equity and inclusion. This would facilitate setting up downward accountability systems, which is a must for empowered control of people over decision making. Damage assessment is the first key step which if properly and rigorously undertaken heightens the probability of inclusive and equity oriented planning and implementation. People centred damage assessment requires demystification of damage assessment process and ingenuity in evolving appropriate tools and techniques for carrying out proper damage assessment. Validation of the damage assessment findings by the community is necessary. Timeframe for completion of rehabilitation should also be collectively agreed upon and should be guided by considerations of political compulsions, administrative capacity and community expectations. A realistic time frame also allows for better scope to dovetail building back better with development programmes. Safeguards like beneficiary tracking are essential to generate information and institute correctives on a wide range of issues like utilisation of financial assistance, quality and technical issues, progress of housing and access to materials and their proper use etc. A tracking system needs to be instituted from community to state level. PRIs can perform beneficiary tracking effectively at the local level. It is expected that the build back better process is likely to generate a pile of regulations and guidelines but the challenge is to carry out its effective dissemination and internalisation across the range of stakeholders. Without an effective inter-organisational coordination it will be difficult to carry out such dissemination. A special purpose vehicle needs to guide, monitor and strengthen inter-organisational coordination. Financial commitment, building local stakes through commitment to have minimum continued presence and better coordination to prevent duplication are other imperatives for building back better.
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The scale of reconstruction envisaged for Bihar will require massive drive and commitment to overcome human resource constraints at all levels (panchayat, block, district and departmental). Available options to address this constraint include filling up vacant positions or deputation for temporary period from other districts / departments, appointing staff on contractual basis and engaging NGOs/institutions personnel. On the other hand, though support was extended for housing after the floods in 2004 & 2007, the completion rate is a meagre 10%. Providing adequate financial support, permitting alternate models, facilitating access to construction material and skill training are essential for attainment of shelter targets. It is proposed that skill augmentation in building techniques using diverse building materials can be carried out through rural artisan training centres in each block. This can either be done by the government or on public –private partnership basis.
It is more than evident that the task of rehabilitation requires involvement of all stakeholders. It is envisaged that the government would take up building of public infrastructure and shelter construction along with community infrastructure wherever there are no takers. Setting up stakeholder coordination mechanisms and subsequent monitoring of all players is another key task that the government needs to undertake. Proposal screening mechanisms and approval processes need to be standardized and institutionalized. Projects should take local considerations into account, for
instance the building material choice for houses within embankments should be such that they can be replaced, given the annual flood proneness of the region, with minimal effort and cost. Building community and public infrastructure for traditionally flood affected area within embankments should be a priority consideration for all stakeholders. Issues of adequate space for storage and refuge should be urgently addressed by building first floor in existing community and government buildings in conjunction with construction of new community centres on elevated ground at the tola level. Facilities of piped water supply / hand pumps on elevated platforms need to be provided. Civil society/PRIs need to engage in vigilance and monitoring functions, selection and execution of various schemes and awareness creation / behavioural change processes. NGOs / Institutions / Corporates should be allowed to adopt villages to build either houses or community infrastructure or both. They can also play key role in extending technical assistance, staff support and as catalysers of social mobilisation, awareness creation and behavioural change. However, government needs to coordinate and monitor stakeholder participation by instituting appropriate supervisory checks and sound audit systems (engaging auditor for internal/ concurrent audit; third party assurance)
Mr. J. Radhakrishanan, IAS, GoTN
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Stakeholder Participation – The Imperatives
• State policy to spell out principles, roles and responsibilities for
stakeholder inclusion and participation • Build synergies between existing development programmes,
institutions and rehabilitation process • Stakeholder commitment should be perspective and not resource
driven • Inclusive stakeholder participation • Stakeholder capacities should be the basis for their engagement
in rehabilitation process • Ensure personnel stability • Promote people centred damage assessment and downward
accountability systems • Beneficiary tracking system essential to generate information and
institute correctives on a wide range of issues • Strengthen inter-organisational coordination for effective
dissemination of regulations and guidelines • Devise mechanisms to overcome human resource constraints • Standardisation and institutionalisation of proposal screening and
approval mechanisms • Decentralised strategies for skill augmentation • Key role for NGOs in technical assistance, staff support, social
mobilisation and awareness generation
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III. Emerging Recommendations and the Way Forward Key Messages: • Disaster is an opportunity to enhance preparedness for future
disasters • Development opportunity must be sought through the rehabilitation
policy. And opportunities for even partially addressing long term developmental goals should not be lost – such as social and economic equity
• As local long-term rehabilitation planning is being done for the first time, the local machinery/administration should be fully and ably supported for the same.
• The timely reach of money is crucial in a region which is annually prone to floods, ensuring that assistance meant for 2008 august flood does not begin reaching by 2009 monsoon.
• Choices before the Government should be made and clearly reflected in the Policy framework and reconstruction packages –
• Speed? Quality? Visibility? Risk reduction? In situ – or – relocation? Owner driven? Agency driven?
• There has to be a strong political and administrative will to go beyond the ‘cash support’
• ODR requires MORE from government in terms of enabling mechanisms - regular monitoring, participation and course correction
• The strategy must seek to complete a significant share of the shelter reconstruction within 2-3 years.
• Enormity of challenge/scale does not allow a centralized approach • Ensure no repeated damage assessments. • We should plan for floods/emergencies that may happen while
reconstruction is underway • Very high density in the region necessitates integrated regional
efforts at vulnerability reduction • There are degraded ecosystems in the catchment area of Kosi,
which further enhance vulnerability in Kosi region Challenges for ODR Policy Framework: • There could be risks of higher social fragmentation/marginalization
through the reconstruction process – for instance increase in nuclear families and alienation of the old and single women – if assessment and house owners selection is not appropriately done.
• There would be a risk of compensation installments getting diverted to consumptive needs, if these installments are not timely and accompanied by easy access to affordable material.
• There is the risk of inspection and corruption going hand in hand – which must be addressed through the disbursement and monitoring methodology.
• If the State has to ensure building back better, then land availability and acquisition will become crucial. The policy and power vested with the District administration for the same becomes crucial.
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• The risk of construction material costs escalating has to be addressed through price regulation.
Key Recommendations: • Both, the embanked area and the area affected in 2008 need to be
planned together. • For better coordination, and a sustained focus on rehabilitation as
well as its emerging issues, a Special Purpose Vehicle should be instituted (going beyond committees)
• Following aspects must be kept in focus- i. Damage and Loss Assessments ii. Policy, technical guidelines, and packages for Housing
Assistance iii. Finance Disbursal System iv. Material and Technical Support Mechanism v. Institutional Arrangement vi. Community Ownership and Communication Strategy vii. Capacity Building – Skill & Knowledge upgradation, and
training for compliance monitoring viii. Partnership strategy, policy, MoUs with variety of
Institutions/organizations/Private Sector ix. Implementation Time-frame x. Impact Monitoring and Evaluation – Third Party Audits xi. Exit Policy and Accountability Systems xii. Grievance Redressal Systems
• Safe community structure in each tola • All materials including bamboo can be built safely,
with prescribed standards, and walling and roofing options must be provided in the policy guidelines, with non-negotiable safety features – especially roof or loft, plinth and joineries.
• Decentralized hubs a crucial component – training/material/disbursals/cluster facilitation/production centres – identify the unit of the hub
• Critical Household services must be considered with the housing package. (services opened up for PPP)
• The problems and mistakes of IAY should inform the reconstruction guidelines for the affected region in Kosi – which in turn can improve the IAY itself, across the State.
• Organizations and Private Sector Screened according to capabilities, strengths, and integrated as per reconstruction needs.
• Settlement of villages in the river path needs a more staggered strategy and implementation strategy.
• Augmenting human resources and enhancing support systems with District Administration is of particularly high priority.
• Public private partnership defined with desired roles for NGOs – recommended – facilitation, training, communication, skills/enterprise.
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• There has to be a framework for organizations/institutions who want to support the rehabilitation. And simultaneously the State must invite and seek partnerships with institutions/organizations based on required roles/activities.
• Vigilance and monitoring at the village level should be the role of the panchayats/anushravan samitis. PRIs need to be structurally integrated within the implementation.
• Beneficiary tracking and developing a database of the beneficiaries need to be instituted.
• Panchayat Bhavans, drinking water access facilities are high priority for community infrastructure.
• Regional planning, land use planning, settlement planning should be assessed and undertaken, as decisions and investments in both private and public domain during reconstruction phase. Would reflect on a single canvas-the landscape of the Kosi region
• Topography, geology would have to inform the planning process • The Policy would have to address issues of Fragmented land
holdings, demarcation of plot vanished plot boundaries, Missing revenue records has to be addressed in the policy.
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List of Participants
Sl. No.
Name Organisation E-mail ID
1 Chandra Kant Mishra United Nation Population Fund
24 Prabhat Kumar Save the Children [email protected] 25 Girish Peter Caritas India [email protected] 26 Subhash Kumar Sinha Handicap International [email protected] 27 Sohaib Ahmad Minority Welfare Deptt.
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28 Sanjay Kr. Singh Mahabir Paramarth Seva Sansthan
