Equitable resilience in flood prone urban areas in Sri Lanka: A case study in Colombo Divisional Secretariat Division

Amid increasing flood incidences and damages in many parts of the world, the fundamental question arises as to the extent to which poor and marginalized residents can manage disasters by receiving equitable, fair and just support. This paper seeks to examine this question by focusing on a poor and vulnerable area of Colombo, the capital of Sri Lanka. Administratively this area is called Colombo Divisional Secretariat Division (DSD). Here mainly low-income residents live in congested housing conditions with narrow streets and poor drainage management. For years, this Division was regarded as one of the most flood vulnerable areas of Sri Lanka. To understand the resaons, we conducted our field research in this area and interviewed DSD officials and local people with three key equitable resilience dimensions in mind: distributive, procedural and contextual equities. We found that the intensity and frequency of rainfalls had increased in the area, but the residents had not received any flood protection support from the government due largely to some legal and socio-political complications. Many expressed their fear of the next flood incident. As these residents were without legal land ownership the government did not pay much attention to their needs. We also found that a low education level and a lack of political representation led to the marginalization of people in this area. Using information we collected at the Colombo DSD office and other relevant government agencies, we then examine a set of factors that are relevant to income and poverty level, population density, quality of housing, education, infrastructure and participatory decision making. The results show that flood loss and damage risks were heightened by such social vulnerability factors as low income, an unaffordability of flood resilient houses and an absence of policy implementations for flood resilient infrastructure. We also found that a lack of community leadership led to poor participation in decision making. This paper then highlights the important area for mainstreaming equitable community resilience actions.