9/1/2023 0 Comments Bahamas aftermath![]() ![]() ![]() With repetitive disasters, as is the case in Haiti, governmental debt can and has led to cuts in food, education and transportation subsidies and public sector restructuring leads to higher unemployment and increases in informal employment and a rise in urban poverty. The cost of urban post-disaster reconstruction can lead to large international debt reducing options for economic growth and anti-poverty policies, effecting cities and their inhabitants disproportionately. While the disaster affected the entire country, a very large number of people and the majority of economic impact were felt in the urban areas. 86% of people in Port-Au-Prince were living in slum conditions prior to the 2010 earthquake.įollowing the earthquake of 12th January 2010, Port Au Prince, Haiti saw 220,000 dead and over 1 million left homeless. A lack of access to credit due to reliance on the informal economy results in high interest loans being the only option for mortgages as low-income families are excluded from bank lending reducing housing entitlements. Habitants of slums are often isolated from political participation and representation leading to worsening of the underlying causes of poverty and vulnerability. The growth of slums or the ‘urbanisation of poverty’ is an important factor in the increase of vulnerability with many slum dwellers struggling to survive in informal shelter, informal income-generation and lack of access, physically and socially, to land, education, credit, health, sanitation and markets and are often located in inadequate housing on land prone to the effects of climate induced hazards. Many of the habitants of the Bahamas' most affected areas were migrants from Haiti. A strong correlation can be seen between poverty and recent migrants to cities who tend to be excluded and lack the social integration to access livelihoods and housing. However the scale in fatalities cannot be put down to a simple increase in size and density of cities as cultural, political and socio-economic factors also play a part in vulnerability. Of the 20 earthquakes with the highest fatalities, all had high concentrations in urban areas. The scale of disasters has increased proportionally with the growth of cities. With the rapid urbanisation and modernisation of the last century and the resulting stresses on the environmental, economic, social and infrastructural capacities of cities, there has been an increase in disasters and the emergence of new forms of disaster that we have yet to fully conceive. The complexity of response to such disasters is very different to rural areas, the traditional focus for humanitarian action, and is becoming more and more critical in emergency disaster response as urbanisation increases and over 50% of the world’s population now live in urban areas and with 1 billion people living in vulnerable informal settlements. While a rich variety and depth of literature exists about the urban environment and likewise about disaster response in general, less peer reviewed literature exists about urban disaster responses. What can the Bahamas learn from the disaster in Haiti in 2012?Ĭities are affected by natural and man-made disasters in many ways that differ from rural areas. ![]() Time and again it is the slums that bare the brunt of disasters. Marsh Harbour, the largest town on the northern island of Great Abaco, has laid bare the inequality in natural disaster. The storm made landfall here as a Category 5 hurricane, a deadly tempest that levelled homes, crushed cars, crumpled boats and killed people. When Dorian struck, Marsh Harbour was ground zero, the point of impact of one of the strongest cyclones on record. Marsh Harbour, a port city of more than 6,000, was once home to quaint island businesses, wood-frame homes and one of the largest urban slums in the Bahamas. As the storm recedes and the recovery work begins, the confusion over death toll begins. We've seen it before, and no doubt we will see it again. In the aftermath of Hurricane Dorian, Bahamas, the official death toll remains in the tens while residents and even Health Minister Duane Sands recognise that the real toll is likely to be "staggering". ![]()
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