Premium
The Impact of Local Elites on Disaster Preparedness Planning: The Location of Flood Shelters in Northern Bangladesh
Author(s) -
KHAN Md. MOZAHARUL ISLAM
Publication year - 1991
Publication title -
disasters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.744
H-Index - 70
eISSN - 1467-7717
pISSN - 0361-3666
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-7717.1991.tb00473.x
Subject(s) - flood myth , preparedness , environmental planning , flooding (psychology) , emergency management , geography , disaster planning , disaster preparedness , business , poison control , environmental resource management , suicide prevention , political science , environmental health , environmental science , medicine , archaeology , psychology , law , psychotherapist
Disaster relief and preparedness organisations are concerned with allocating scarce resources in unstable environments, such as those prone to flooding and river erosion. The need to understand the role of powerful elites in such disaster prone environments is illustrated through an analysis of the actual location decisions and biases involved in siting four flood shelters in four communities in northern Bangladesh. The previously unrecognised implications of the location biases for employment, shelter, access and the utilisation of the flood shelter by the powerless people in the target group demonstrate the need for disaster organisations to include an analysis of the local power structure in project preparation and appraisal.