Slum se(lements and flood risk in Mumbai: An assessment of the integra9on of slums in Mumbai’s Disaster Management Plan.

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Slum se(lements and ﬂood risk in Mumbai: An assessment of

the integra9on of slums in Mumbai’s Disaster Management

Plan.

Daniel Ouwens, Tamara Streeﬂand and Jos Wezenberg May, 2013

Tutor: L. RuLng Expert: Dr. K.F. Rijsdijk Word Count: 6092

ABSTRACT

In this research, slum se(lements in Mumbai and their inclusion in the post 2005 Disaster Management Plan will be assessed to answer the following ques9on: To what extent is the renewed Disaster Management Plan of Mumbai suited to mi9gate the eﬀects of a possible ﬂood event in regard to slums?

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The origin of Mumbai’s ﬂood risk lies within it the monsoonal rains, surrounding water bodies and its inadequate drainage systems. But mostly in a combina9on of these factors. Using Geographical Informa9on Systems (GIS) the most vulnerable slum areas were iden9ﬁed, acer which Dharavi was chosen for a case study. Based on the characteris9cs of the slums, the G-‐ North ward DMP was assessed, which showed there is no dis9nc9on made between the slum areas and regular areas. A case is made why a dis9nc9on between slum areas and the rest of Mumbai should be made.

2. Mumbai’s flood risk: The origin 8 3. Physical and social aspects of slum flood risk 9 -‐ Geographic Informa9on Systems 9 -‐ Flood risk in Dharavi 9 -‐ Poverty and vulnerability 10 -‐ Slums in Mumbai 11 4. The disaster Management Plan assessment 14 -‐ Lack of basic ameni9es & Health 15 -‐ Infrastructure 16 -‐ Drainage 18 -‐ Housing Material 18 -‐ Social psychological differences 19 5. Discussion 20 6. Conclusion 22 References 24 Appendix 1 29

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1. Introduc,on

In july 2005, the residents of Mumbai experienced the most severe urban flooding event in their recorded history (Ranger et al., 2010). These floods were merely caused by heavy rainfall: 944 mm rain fell over the course of twenty-‐four hours. More than 60 percent of the Mumbai city area was affected and damages were es9mated at 1.7 Billion USD and 500 fatali9es occurred among many other severe consequences (Samaddar,2011; Government of Maharastra, 2006). The people that were impacted the heaviest by the 2005 floods, were those who belong to the poorer part of Mumbai’s popula9on, living in one of its many slums. A lack of capital as well as limited social and economic resources cause slum dwellers to be more suscep9ble to floods than the rest of Mumbai’s popula9on (Samaddar,2011).

Mumbai is a megacity and one of the biggest urban agglomera9ons of the world with 19.4 million inhabitants (Nandi & Ghamkar, 2013). An es9mated 7 million inhabitants reside in slums se(lements. The United Na9ons report that almost all of the world’s popula9on growth in the next thirty years will occur in urban areas (Cohen,2004). Mumbai’s popula9on will con9nue to grow as well and is projected to be almost 33 million inhabitants by 2025 (Davis, 2006). Hanson et al. (2007) have es9mated that currently 2,787,000 habitants of Mumbai are suscep9ble to ﬂood hazards and that this number will only increase in the future due to the projected increase of popula9on, forcing inhabitants to live in area’s prone to ﬂoods.

Although Mumbai is highly suscep9ble to floods and experiences floods annually due to the rapid urbaniza9on and the accompanying increase in runoff, as well as its geographic loca9on on the western coast of India, the 2005 floods had an enormous impact compared to preceding flood events and caused much concern amongst policy makers (Gupta, 2007).

In the early 1990‘s, the Government of Maharastra developed a Disaster Management Plan in order to cope with flood events in Mumbai. However, this plan failed to effec9vely mi9gate the impact of the flooding event in 2005 (Stecko & Barber, 2009). Subsequently to the floods, its impact and the ac9va9on of the DMP were assessed in order to develop an improved DMP and prevent an equally severe urban flood event from re-‐occurring.

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Under the Indian Government’s Disaster Management Act of 2005, several sub-‐goals were formulated in order to ensure public safety. The Indian government formulated their overall approach as follows in their Na9onal Policy on Disaster Management:

“There will be a paradigm shic, from the erstwhile relief-‐centric response to a proac9ve preven9on, mi9ga9on and preparedness-‐driven approach for conserving developmental gains and also to minimize losses of life, livelihoods and property ”

(Government of India, 2012).

Much has been achieved since then with regard to disaster management, not only in Mumbai but in all of India. Appendix 1 gives an overview of what has been set up, based on the Disaster Management Act of 2005.

As men9oned above, the 2005 ﬂoods have had the most severe impact on slum dwellers.

Although, informal se(lements are most vulnerable to ﬂood risk, they ocen lack inclusion in the mi9ga9on measures that are in place. Furthermore, slums diﬀer greatly to formal se(lements in their physical, social and economic characteris9cs (Stecko & Barber,2009). With urban

popula9on growth and the increase of monsoonal ac9vity caused by climate change in scope, a func9oning disaster management plan and the inclusion of slum se(lements is paramount. This research will elaborate on the flood risk of slum se(lements in Mumbai and their inclusion in the post 2005 flood Mumbai disaster management plan. The main research ques9on is: To what extent is the renewed Disaster Management plan of Mumbai suited to mi9gate the effects of a flood event with regard to slums?

In order to eﬀec9vely research the main ques9on, the following sub-‐ques9ons need to be answered.

Subques9ons:

1 What are the physical aspects of Mumbai’s suscep9bility to ﬂoods?

2 Which slum areas in Mumbai are suscep9ble to ﬂoods?

3 Which characteris9cs that dis9nquish slum areas from other areas aﬀect evacua9on possibili9es and risk mi9ga9on?

4 Does the Disaster Management Plan take no9ce of the social/physical characteris9cs of slum areas?

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Approach

First, to acquire a be(er understanding of the problem, the physical aspects of Mumbai’s suscep9bility to floods need to be described. Second, we need to iden9fy the slums at high risk of flood events. These areas will be iden9fied with the use of Geographic Informa9on Systems (GIS), a computer tool that can be used for analyzing geographical data and making maps. Furthermore, the characteris9cs of these areas will be addressed in order to understand if the DMP that is in place fulfills the purpose of mi9ga9ng risk in these areas. Finally, the

func9onality of the DMP will be elaborated upon.

Flood risk in Mumbai has been widely assessed by diﬀerent researchers. Bachu et al (2010) have predicted future precipita9on and the accompanying increase in ﬂood risk. Furthermore,

research on governmental policy and management concerning the 2005 ﬂoods has been conducted (Gupta, 2007).

Also, flood risk in rela9on to slums has been addressed. Cha(erjee (2009) elaborates on how slum dwellers in Mumbai have recovered from flood events and how the slum se(lements can be altered on a structural level in order to effec9vely mi9gate flood risk. Furthermore,

Sammadar et al. (2011) elaborate on household vulnerability pa(erns in ﬂood prone slum areas.

The relevance of this research lays within the need to protect the most vulnerable communi9es to ﬂood risk and, ensure their future through analyzing the inclusion of their unique

characteris9cs in a func9onal Disaster Management Plan. The research will be conducted from an interdisciplinary perspec9ve. Complementary views from the disciplines Earth Sciences, Human Geography and Ar9ﬁcial Intelligence enables us to adequately assess the func9oning of Mumbai’s DMP with regard to slum dwellers.

Figure 1 reﬂects the interac9on between the disciplines. Earth sciences and human geography interacted through the crea9on of GIS maps based on both social-‐ and physical geographical data. Human geography and Ar9ﬁcial Intelligence interact through the characteriza9on of slum areas, comparing them to regular areas within Mumbai and then assessing whether the current

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Figure 1. Interac,on between diﬀerent disciplines

Overview

The following paragraphs will provide answers to the sub-‐ques9ons and ul9mately the main research ques9on. First, paragraph 2 will provide a short background on the physical aspects of Mumbai’s suscep9bility to ﬂoods. Flood risk in Mumbai is due to human ac9vi9es as well as its geographic loca9on. Mumbai was originally situated on seven islands. Land reclama9on has resulted in a peninsula over the years. The majority of the reclaimed land is located under high 9de level and thus prone to ﬂooding (Gupta, 2007) .

Second, physical and social characteris9cs are used to create a map using GIS. (3)

The 9me limita9ons enforce a strong and limited focus with clear and definite borders. We a(empted to maintain a broad overview of the situa9on for all slums in Mumbai, but in order to make a proper compara9ve assessment we required one slum to be the subject of a case study. We would however, advise that each slum undergoes a similar case study. One of the largest slums of Mumbai, Dharavi (figure 2/3) was chosen as the main focus for the compara9ve assessment. Limited as it was, Dharavi, out of all the slums we considered, was the subject of most scien9fic studies we could find. It is a densely populated slum in the heart of Mumbai. It is prone to flooding and portrays the characteris9cs we an9cipated to find in a slum area, which are described further along.

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Figure 2. Orange dot: loca,on Dharavi Figure 3. Zoom Dharavi

Furthermore, in paragraph 4 and 5, the integra9on of slum characteris9cs in the Disaster Management will be assessed. Mumbai was ordered by the Maharashtra state government to comply with the Disaster Management Act of 2005. This included forming a new Disaster

Management Plan(DMP) on the municipal level, based on the Maharasthra guidelines. This plan includes the du9es and responsibili9es of high ranking officers during an emergency situa9on and should contain a plan of ac9on for different scenarios. It covers floods, seismic ac9vity and acts of terror. We focused on the plans regarding flooding and the integra9on of slum

characteris9cs in par9cular. But before a proper compara9ve assessment of the DMP can be made, the characteris9cs that separate slums from the regular city areas have to be iden9ﬁed and described. Addi9onally, a causal descrip9on of why slums are more suscep9ble to ﬂoods is given. These descrip9ons both entail social-‐ and physical geographical causes. Based on that informa9on the most important aspects will be assessed in the DMP and possible problems are addressed.

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2. Mumbai’s ﬂood risk: The origin

It is important to understand physical aspects of ﬂood risk to gain understanding on the

founda9on of some decision made in the DMP. In the next paragraph these physical aspects are elaborated upon.

There are several factors that contribute to the exuberance of water and the resul9ng ﬂoods.

·First, Mumbai is prone to monsoonal rains. On average Mumbai is liable to 2050 mm rainfall annually. However, due to the monsoon 70 percent of the annual rainfall occurs in June and August (Gupta, 2007). Precipita9on in Mumbai is a problem because it ocen comes in very intense events. Normally 50 percent of the total annual rainfall, comes in three events. The ﬂoods in 2005 were caused by such an event. A record rainfall of 940 mm in twenty-‐four hours was recorded (Jemanani et al, 2006).

·Second, the Mumbai peninsula is surrounded by water bodies, the Arabian sea and the Thane creek amongst other creeks and rivers. Mumbai experiences a rather large 9dal range of 1.6 meters at neap to 3.9 m at spring 9de, resul9ng in a 2.3 m sea level rise at spring 9de (Murthy et al., 2001).

·∙Third, Mumbai’s inadequate drainage system is a major cause for flooding. The drainage system is a complex network of rivers and creeks as well as simple drainage channels (Gupta,2007). The construc9on of the drainage system took place between 1860 and 1900 and is seriously outdated. The high urbaniza9on has increased the city's run-‐off threefold over the last decades, the system is unable to cope with current run-‐off (GoM, 2006) (Ranger et al., 2011). Another failure of the drainage system which a(ributed to the severeness of the 2005 floods, was the fact that the system was clogged by plas9c bags and li(er, caused by overpopula9on and poor waste management (GoM, 2006).

Furthermore, the Intergovernmental Panel of Climate Change (IPCC) predicts sea level rise, an increasingly intensive monsoon and an increase in extreme precipita9on events in the future, further increasing ﬂood risk (Meehl et al., 2007). Finally, heavy ﬂooding will not be caused by one of the factors described above. However, a combina9on of all the factors described above will form a large threat to Mumbai. An extreme precipita9on event, inadequate drainage and

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high 9de will prevent water from properly discharging, and will cause many areas in Mumbai to be submerged. Dharavi and Coloba represent two Mumbai areas that contain slums that are at high risk of being flooded. In paragraph 3, a GIS map is provided on Dharavi’s and Coloba’s suscep9bility to floods. Also, social aspects of slum flood risk will be assessed

3. Physical and Social aspects of Slum ﬂood risk

This paragraph will provide insight on the flood risk of Dharavi and Coloba through the use of GIS maps. First, some technical informa9on on the use of geographic informa9on systems. Then then a flood risk map of Dharavi will be presented. Furthermore, an assessment of the social factors that are at the founda9on of slum flood risk is provided, and a map of the Coloba area is provided as illustra9on.

GIS

Geographical Informa9on System are used to iden9fy the areas that are liable to the greatest flood risk. The lower areas are situated, the higher their risk of being flooded. Thus areas at risk in Dharavi and Colaba will be iden9fied based on their eleva9on. The digital eleva9on map (DEM) for Mumbai was derived from ASTER (Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflec9on Radiometer), a collabora9on between Japan and the USA. The DEM data has an accuracy of 1m eleva9on. Eleva9on differences smaller than 1 m cannot be assessed, since there is no DEM data available with a higher detail of eleva9on.

Flood risk in Dharavi

FIgure 4. represents a flood risk map of Dharavi. It is located between a higher elevated area (red) and a lower elevated mangrove area (green). It is evident that water will flow from a higher to a lower area, and thus finds its way through Dharavi to the mangrove area. Due to the densely populated Dharavi and its encroachement on the bank of a mangrove, vital for

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Figure 4. Flood risk Dharavi.

Poverty and vulnerability

When looking at the Colaba district (ﬁgure 5), it is seen that in many of the areas indicated by risk, slums are situated. This phenomenon will be explained using the theory of urban poli9cal ecology. Work on 'natural hazards' in the 1980s (like drought, ﬂoods or earthquake)

demonstrated the centrality of poli9cal economy in determining who suﬀers their impacts (Hewi( 1983; Blaikie et al. 1994.) Risk is therefore the combined product of physical hazard and human vulnerability (Adams 2009). Geological or meteorological events may occur

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ins9tu9ons, and socie9es that are structurally unequal. The distribu9on of hazard and risk is therefore the outcome of those processes that determine poverty (Ibed). In an urban seLng, the ques9on of who is at risk and who is not depends on their ability to evade or adapt to the hazards threatening welfare. Above all, this is aﬀected by where they live. It is the poorest people who live on the steepest and most failure-‐prone slopes, the areas liable to ﬂood, and who live in the most polluted urban environments. These are the basic parameters of urban poli9cal ecology (Pelling 2003).

As stated before the Municipal Government has set its goal to minimize losses of life, livelihoods and property during the event of a flood. Logically the effect of the measures undertaken to realise these goals (including the renewed early warning system and evacua9on plan) is as strong as its weakest link. With the use of the theory of urban poli9cal ecology, we have just defined the slum dwellers to be the weakest link. Therefore, in order to inves9gate the effec9veness of the measures, we first have to define which characteris9cs of the slums contribute to their vulnerability.

Slums in Mumbai

Before we look at the characteris9cs of the slums, it is important to first paint the bigger picture. In Mumbai over half of the popula9on live in slums, which means around 6,53 million people, and it is growing larger by the year (2011 census). This is largely explained by the fact that because Mumbai's gross domes9c product (GDP) per capita is higher than anywhere else in India, migrants from all over the country relocate to the business capital of India in search of a be(er future (Parasuraman 2007). However, the Municipal Government has not been able to provide sufficient housing for all this rural-‐urban migra9on, causing informal se(lements to develop (Nijman 2008). In some cases in Mumbai slums arose in areas neglected by urban planners due to their vulnerability to floods or their func9on as vital drainage areas (Stecko and Barber 2007). Logically these areas are posi9oned in low-‐lying areas prone to flooding (Ibed). Our results in Fig. 5 illustrates these findings. It is shown that the slums are situated on the margins of the peninsula in areas with risk to floods. The idea is further backed by research done by Perkins in 2008, who made a map of the loca9ons of annual floods and the loca9on of the slums, shown in Fig. 6. Again it is seen that slums are situated at the low-‐lying areas and

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that they are at risk of ﬂood. These maps provide an aﬃrma9on of the theory of urban poli9cal ecology.

Figure 5. GIS Map

In this example we look at the most southern part of Mumbai, the Colaba District. The purple areas are slums and it is shown that they are situated on the margins of the peninsula in areas with risk to ﬂoods. The lowest areas (0-‐3 Meters) are coloured with red (cri9cal risk), then areas with high risk (orange 3-‐5 m) and moderate risk (yellow 5-‐10m).

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We have now defined why slums are located in areas liable to flood, but the characteris9cs of slums make the slum dwellers also more vulnerable to the effect of a flood. In order to verify if the DMP is suited to mi9gate the effect of such an event, we have to find these characteris9c that dis9nguish slum areas from other areas. We iden9fied six groups of aspects in which the difference could affect an area’s ability to mi9gate risk, properly evacuate and most importantly; rehabilitate acer a disastrous event. Some groups interact on different aspects but we tried to sort the aspects based on their coverage (or lack thereof) in the DMP.

The following characteris9cs are covered: Lack of basic ameni9es (1), health (2), infrastructure (3), drainage (4), housing material (5) and social psychological diﬀerences(6). Before we

examine these groups of characteris9cs in rela9on to the DMP, we first have to present our first findings in the DMP.

4. The Disaster Management Plan assessment

Acer inves9ga9ng the Indian Government’s plans-‐, the State of Maharashtra’s plans-‐ and Mumbai’s Ward plans for Disaster Management(DM), there appears to be a gap in its coverage of certain issues that are present in previous ﬁnds in literature on social studies. Slums are treated the same as any other part of the ward or city. Several departments are assigned responsibili9es that best suit the capabili9es of that department and who that department answers to in the hierarchy, mostly the Chief Minister of Maharashtra. There is an absence of slum-‐speciﬁc treatment in the municipal plans available online. Maharashtra’s Disaster Management Monsoon Plan(MCGM, 2012), for instance, only men9ons slums as a more vulnerable group to disease in the statement of responsibili9es of the Health Department. This is however, the same as in non-‐emergency situa9ons. Slums are inherently more suscep9ble to disease due to a lack of (public)bathroom facili9es and polluted water supplies.

That is at state-‐level, which is expectedly vague to allow local municipali9es to form their own plans and policies based on the state plans and hierarchies. However, the local level plans are also not en9rely compliant with the needs we have found are unique to Dharavi and require

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special men9oning in the plans. Dharavi is situated in Ward G-‐North of the Maharashtra Mumbai Disaster Management Plan.

A compara9ve assessment of the G-‐North Ward Disaster Management Plan and the unique characteris9cs of Dharavi was made, based on the six aspect groups men9oned earlier. This assessment can be repeated for every ward within the Mumbai Plan

1 &2 Lack of basic ameniDes & Health

Because many of the slums are built on land, owned by public or private companies, they are denied formalized access to water, sanita9on and electricity (Stecko and Barber 2007). A recent study states that in the dharavi slums there are 75–246 persons per public toilet. These kind of condi9ons cause many implica9ons for health and hygiene. (Tatano & Samaddar 2010).

One of the most significant effects of flooding is the impact on health; Handmer et al. (1999) argues that ‘effect on human health in developing countries, and especially among the residents of informal se(lements ‘are a par9cular concern of any increase in flooding that might result from climate change. Disease outbreaks may be associated with the spreading of waste by floodwaters, disrup9on of safe water supplies and the persistence of water in low-‐lying areas crea9ng breeding grounds for mosquitoes (Blaikie et al., 1994; Kolsky, 1999)

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corpora9on(BMC) plans to structurally improve the sanita9on in slums with the Slum Sanita9on Program. They do however have reserva9on about whether the program will reach the en9re popula9on.(Municipal Corpora9on of Greater Mumbai, 2005) The PowerGrid company has been structurally improving their own grid and receiver-‐sta9ons under the Green Grid program under Community Development Works(PowerGrid, 2013)

The DMP mainly focusses on casualty situa9ons and emergency treatment. It fails to address the large amount of waste(both material and organic) that is carried out of the Slum area and into the streets. It does however men9on that NGO’s are vital in this part and that the

communi9es are to watch out for each other. In Ar9cle 4.1.3; During Relief and Rehabilita9on. It states: -‐ Enlist assistance in maintaining sanita9on standards and disposal of waste, which means that people are responsible for cleaning up their own waste when the ﬂood event has passed.

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This is insufficient. It should clearly warn people for the dangers of improper waste management and its implica9ons during floods. Educa9ons is a large part of disaster preparedness. Also the Mumbai Municipality should increase their efforts to ensure proper sanita9on is provided to slum areas. It is a basic amenity.

During the flooding events, there is a provision of food in some of the main transit camps. The plan covers the needs of vic9ms during a flood event, however it does not cover what happens acer that. It has a small sec9on (4.1.3) which basically states people should fend for themselves and help each other. This shows the strong rela9on between poverty and compromised resilience. There are rehabilita9on programs,this is mainly covered by NGO’s but they each have their own strategy and plans but they collaborate with the Ward Officer to ensure proper distribu9on of required goods. The fact that the NGO’s are not regulated is also seen as its primary strength in the DMP: “Their strength lies in the choice of their manpower, the informality in opera9ons and flexibility in procedures. These organisa9ons enjoy a fair degree of autonomy and hence can respond to changing needs immediately.” (Mumbai G-‐N Ward Plan, 2013) The need for educa9ons is also higher in Slum areas, which is recognized by prominent NGO’s such as the Times of India Relief Fund(2013) which states that it is crucial to instruct all dwellers how to treat food and water and properly dispose of waste. Not only during emergency situa9ons, but also acer.

3. Infrastucture

The main road is a prominent evacua9on route. But both the Dharavi Main Road and the Dharavi Loop Road are men9oned as accident prone in sec9on 2.4. These are generally congested roads which stands in the way of a quick evacua9on. The small dirt roads that form the internal infrastructure are not designed for a quick and safe getaway, but rather in the most eﬃcient way with regards to space available for living and working.

The focus in Slum areas should be on providing as much informa9on as possible through signs and word of mouth to ensure accessibility for all. Not everyone has access to a Public

Announcement System in Dharavi. In the traﬃc sec9on, there is no dis9nc9on between regular and slum parts but this could also be speciﬁc to certain scenarios which the Police departments develop themselves, but there seems to be no record of that online. There should be a strategy

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to keep the small roads accessible and connected to the larger roads, to ensure proper ﬂow of people during an evacua9on.

Rail tracks between Sion sta9on and Matunga sta9on get submerged during heavy rains. This is covered in sec9on 3.7 Responsibili9es of Railway Sta9on Master, Dadar, Matunga and Mahim Railway Sta9ons

-‐ Monitoring level of water on the railway tracks

·∙ Coordina9ng with engineering branch staﬀ posted at the ﬂood prone loca9ons at railway tracks

·∙ Co-‐ordina9on with ward oﬃcer regarding passenger data and alternate transport

Fig. 7 Map of railroad tracks surrounding Dharavi.

The evacua9on possibili9es of the people of Dharavi is signiﬁcantly lower when the access to the railroads is compromised. As shown in ﬁgure 7, the Mahim junc9on and the Sion railway are the most prominent sta9ons for Dharavi. The traintracks on the lower side and the mangrove on the upper side fully envelop the Dharavi slum.

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4. Drainage

Due to lack of space available in Mumbai as well as poor land policies and regula9ons, slums are ocen situated on vital drainage area’s (Stecko & Barber, 2009). As men9oned in the preceding paragraph, poor drainage is one of the main causes of ﬂoods in the city. The encroachment of slums and the absence of a proper waste disposal system prevent proper drainage for the whole city and increase ﬂoods risk throughout, especially in the low lying slums (Cha(erjee, 2010). The following sites are chronic drainage choking sites in sec9on 2.2 of the DMP for ward G-‐N: Matunga Labour Camp, Kunchikurve Nagar, Shahu Nagar, Jasmin Mill Road, Transit Camp, Dambar Compound, Babbu Jagjivan Nagar, kalyan Wadi, Poonawala Chawl, V.K. Wadi, Kumbhar Wada, Subhash Nagar, Muslim Nagar, Anna Nagar.

There is however no men9on of any mi9ga9on inten9ons. This is a statement of warning; plan around it. There is no quick way to resolve this drainage problems because they are mainly caused by the people who build the encroachments that prohibit proper drainage. In order to ensure the safety of the slum as a whole, there should be more control of the build of

encroachment on drainage sites. If not by local police, then through community watch programs.

5. Housing Material

The poor quality of housing material in slums (for example polythene bags, straw, corrugated zinc, cardboard boxes, rocks) make the slums extra vulnerable to floods. Dwellings are easy to break into while the owner is being evacuated. This seems to pose a real security problem in the slum areas. There are several reasons found in a study by Samaddar et. al. in 2012 why some people did not leave during the floods of 2005; one of the most surprising, at first, was that, of the respondents, thirty five percent would not leave because of the possibility of thec from their unprotected residences. This shows that even if everyone is aware of the imminent threat, s9ll some will choose to stay, even if that means they go down with that which they wanted to protect. They have insufficient trust in the local law enforcement to protect their belongings for them.

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In the DMP, ar9cle 3.2, it is the responsibility of Deputy Commissioner of the Police(DCP)(law and order) to guard the property/valuables in the aﬀected area. They can enlist members of the community, according to ar9cle 4.1.2; Help police, if requested, to maintain law and order and watch the evacuated property during the disaster.

Acer the flood has subsided, an inventory must be made of damaged or lost goods. Here, the DCP again relies on the community’s assistance through ar9cle 4.1.3 ·∙ Enlist (the community’s) assistance for upda9ng records of damages and losses. It is a good thing that the people are involved in the repor9ng of damage to their dwellings, there is no guarantee that they will ever be compensated for the damage. In addi9on to the loss, it is incredibly hard to acquire a loan with a slum address. This strongly impairs the resilience of the slum dwellers. There should be a micro-‐financing department set up within the state bank, with a low interest rate, especially for disaster-‐related loans. Dharavi is an economical machine based on labour so the loans will be repaid through the services they provide to the city of Mumbai, which they could not deliver if they are unable to repair the damage sustained during a flood. This creates a win-‐win-‐win situa9on. The bank receives interest, the city receives services and the slum dwellers recieve a repaired shop and or home.

6. Social psychological diﬀerences

We found no early warning procedures in the DMP, but we have found that even if people receive an early warning, they are s9ll hesitant to leave. Because they distrust the local authori9es with their possessions as men9oned earlier, or they think they are used to the circumstances and underes9mate the danger of the ﬂood. The ra9onality that an early warning system counts on in people in order to save them, is not always adequately present in the people it is trying to save. Not because they do not want to leave but because there are too many uncertain9es if should they choose to leave. There is no guarantee they will survive the evacua9on and the risk of thec and or damaging of their property weighs in heavier for some individuals. This opposed to the people in regular housing who simply lock the front door of their apartment and proceed to the nearest transit camp designated for their area, and simply returns home when the water has subsided. None of these issues are addressed in the DMP. There should be a men9on of the problems the slum dwellers face in the DMP because if you do

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not face them yourself, either as a volunteer for an NGO or as a wealthy ci9zen of Mumbai, they fail to come to mind when dealing with emergency situa9ons. It are not just the slum dwellers who have to be educated on how to save themselves, the rest of the popula9on should also be more aware of the reasons behind certain behaviour slum dwellers show during emergency situa9ons and their state of mind. Only if we understand each other can we truly provide relief and properly rehabilitate vic9ms of disasters.

Unexpected This is perhaps the most surprising thing we found. Both the sec9ons: 4.2 Response Structure on receipt of warning

and

4.3 Response Structure on occurrence of disasterare blank. The Mumbai Ward-‐G-‐North plan does not have any (publicly available) response structure, apart from knowing who is

responsible for which aspects of the response. It looks as if there should be informa9on there, but that there simply is none. This should be designed and implemented as soon as possible. There is an excellent early warning in place with a large amount of rain-‐gauges, one of which is located on top of the Dharavi Fire Sta9on. It would increase the survival rate and allow for be(er prepara9on for pending ﬂoods.

5. Discussion

It appears that the government does not want to invest in suppor9ng the Slums in the current state they are in because they are figh9ng to redevelop most of them, elimina9ng the issues completely. But while they are not yet redeveloped(assuming they will be), there the necessary steps listed above should be taken to ensure the safety of every resident, regardless of wealth. There might be a slum specific plan formulated by the communi9es/slum dwellers themselves, based on or with help from the municipali9es. Microfinancing like Kiva.org?

Possible redevelopment projects, but are they worth destroying the current unique systems? One could argue that the people living in slums choose to do so.That if they would se(le for a smaller village land inward, their housing op9ons would improve. The people living in the Slums

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are also of vital importance to the economic processes that make the rest of Mumbai so

prosperous. They had no opportunity for work where they used to live, that is why they took to the big city; in search of a job. There are large redevelopment plans approved by the Indian Government which would transform the Slum area into a modern Township. But in order to do this, the en9re slum has to be destroyed. Because of the unregistered nature of the Slums, there is li(le to no way of knowing who owns anything. So who would s9ll have a place in the new Dharavi and who would be forced to relocate to a possibly worse loca9on? The BMC will have to be very me9culous with this to ensure the future coopera9on of other Slums they wish to redevelop. Redevelopment is the most sought acer answer because the urbaniza9on itself and the illegal placement of encroachments create these problems for themselves in search of a be(er life. The people will keep coming, so unless there is a structural aﬀordable housing-‐plan coming soon, the problems will con9nue to grow.

Reﬂec9on

The group process of an interdisciplinary makes a research more diﬃcult because you have to incorporate each major/discipline equally and diﬀerent views have to be mi9gated and bridged in order to produce a solid report. However, this process contributes greatly to the objec9vity of the project and each individual is forced to view issues from mul9ple perspec9ves, which in turn provokes new ideas and increases how much you learn from the project. Once we discussed each other’s majors/ disciplines we immediately started formula9ng the project as an

interdisciplinary one, searching for complimentary theories and methodologies, which allowed us to focus more on the research itself than on the merger of theories through Repko.

The limita9on of our research is that a similar assessment should be made for every slum in every ward and also compare the way they each handle their own issues. This in turn can be used to mi9gate risk in other slums. Also the direct input from the municipali9es and the people of Dharavi; how they experience disaster situa9ons and how they think they could/should be assisted in the future would be a great contribu9on to the process of understanding the situa9on as a whole.

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6. Conclusions

The lowest areas of Mumbai are most suscep9ble to ﬂooding and the areas that developers chose not to build on because of the risks are now ﬁlled with slums who subsequently

experience the nega9ve eﬀects of their loca9on. The topographical loca9on of Mumbai makes it prone to monsoon rains which strongly increase the chance of ﬂooding of those lower areas. The reason the slum dwellers live on those loca9ons is because they are among the poorest of the city; they are the least resilient and the most vulnerable at the same 9me.

There is enough reason to suggest slum area speciﬁc aspects of the Disaster Management Plan in the following categories: lack of basic ameni9es & health, infrastructure, drainage, housing material and social psychological diﬀerences. More sanita9on; The capacity of the system has to be increased and the current system has to be maintained be(er. be(er educa9on of the

dangers of infec9ons; people have to be aware of the dangers they face during disaster

situa9ons. Not just from the event itself but also during the acermath.. Be(er road design; Even if that means less people can be housed in the area, safety of the residents should be a higher priority. No building encroachments on drainage sites; people are directly put at risk by others blocking the drainage sites. Health issues and faster ﬂooding are a direct eﬀect of these encroachments.

More real protec9on of property during floods and the trust of the people in that protec9on; As long as people don’t feel they can leave without fear of thec and destruc9on of livelihood, they will most likely stay to protect their belongings, making sure the life that the municipality is trying to save is worth loving acer the disaster has passed. A be(er mutual understanding of the behavior and decision pa(erns between slum dwellers and the rest of the popula9on would strongly contribute to the effec9veness of the Disaster Management Plan. Having said that, although the inclusion of special characteris9cs of slums in the DMP might be essen9al in order to save more lives during a flood event, it is ques9onable if the municipality of Mumbai will actually do this. The fact that the municipality has been unable to provide structural solu9ons to the city’s housing problem throughout the years might indicate that the posi9on of slum

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DMP in order to reduce the slum dwellers vulnerability to ﬂoods, the underlying problems that have caused them to be vulnerable should be addressed.

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