Challenges Faced by Humanitarian agency in Emergency Response in Urban areas: Lessons from Haiti and Chile
urbanization process allows its dwellers to have easy accessibility to health care and proper medicine. But the uncontrolled urbanization creates health hazards due to polluted air, sound, water and as well as crime and lifestyle. Unplanned Urbanization has often had psychosocial consequences such as stress, alienation, instability and insecurity; which, in their turn, have led to problems such as depression and alcohol and drug abuse. The more densely populated and more heterogeneous 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. Rapid population growth in urban areas is also responsible for poverty. Another major issue being created by this social problem is the breaking of the traditional family structure.
Social characteristics of urban areas
4. 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:
4.1 Mixed culture The heterogeneous community is a consist 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. This attributes e.g. co-operation and cohesiveness are very common in rural life but rare in urban areas. So during disaster time the urban people are feeling lonely and suffering from depression because of the absence of cooperation among their community.
4.2 Economical 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 economical 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.
4.3 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. On the other hand the rich class has got the full accessibility in political power which has ensured all urban facilities in their life. So this difference creates instability and anxiety in the urban society.
4.4 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
5. At present world population now moving towards urban areas especially in 3 rd world countries more that at any time. The urban areas are now facing difficulties to ensure the urban facilities for this over population 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:
5.1 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