Please visit my web page "Urban Tenets" at https://urbantenets.nl/
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When fire strikes a premium residential apartment there are embedded fire fighting system in place, disaster management plan in place, near real time fire fighting response, insurance in place for compensation, legal framework to identify concerned accountable, Committee established to improvise future statutory regulations, life-savings to help get back households to second lease of life at the earliest.
When fire engulfs a squatter settlement or slum there is no insurance company
to pay compensation, no architect to hold accountable, no firefighting bylaws
to look for discrepancy, first fire fighting response is rarely able to
navigate to fire incident spot, no post incident assessment wrt to fire
regulations as who cares for statutory needs of squatter settlements, there is
no handy financial reserve with households to get back on their feet sooner.
Though loss of any kind due to any disaster is unfortunate irrespective of
economic strata, and there are layers of institutional, financial and community
support available in such situations for both of them, still those at the
lowest economic strata of society are clearly in much disadvantageous
situation.
Citing illegality of squatter settlements and slums across the world the
statutory and life saving needs of such habitats are completely ignored since
decades; how ironical it is that while in one part of city the building plans
are not approved by competent agency if they are not compliant to fire code and
building bylaws and in other part of same city i.e. in squatter settlements and
slums there is no policy in place or regulatory thinking neither any mechanism
or physical measures to safeguard lives from fire for instance. Will they let
inhabitants of squatter settlements and slums stay vulnerable to threats and
disasters of all kind just as it seems overwhelming to deal with or whether
something can be done, until everyone is rehabilitated, until there are no more
squatters and slums in a city.
Author: Anoop Jha
#urbanplanning #city #townplanning #squattersettlement #poor #propoor #fire #disaster #disastermanagement #firefighting #policy #governance #economy #slum #architecture #bylaws
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