Voluntary or involuntary relocation of underserved settlers in the city of Colombo as a Flood Risk Reduction Strategy: A Case Study of Three Relocation Projects

This paper examines the long term outcomes of involuntary or voluntary relocation by citing three relocation projects that commenced in 1990’s Colombo, Sri Lanka. Poor and marginalized families living in unauthorized underserved settlements in flood prone areas around Colombo were relocated as a flood risk reduction strategy to rebuild their lives in secure locations. The Sri Lankan experience suggests that relocation projects have been guided by project specific guidelines as opposed to common guidelines which have produced both successes and failures. These outcomes, no doubt, stress the need for having specific guidelines for the three main stages of the relocation process: prior to displacement (pre-relocation), immediately after relocation and two years after relocation. This paper stresses the need to formulate people centric relocation policy guidelines based on the household surveys in select relocation settlements and key informant interviews with government officials and community leaders. Thereafter the implementation of such policies should be considered as a relocation process with emphasis on securing their livelihoods which in turn will assist them to move out of poverty.