Is post-disaster housing reconstruction with participatory method effective to increasing people’s awareness for disaster prevention?

Abstract

After the Indian Ocean Tsunami in 2004, many organizations supported housing construction in disaster affected areas. Several documents and papers reported that adopting the community participation in the post disaster situation is effective because disaster affected people needed skills to get a job to increase their income. Many organizations adopted the participatory method in their recovery program especially in housing construction because it would increase people’s awareness to the natural disasters and develop their capacity through the working processes. This research aims to evaluate the long-term changes between level of people’s participation in post-disaster housing construction and current level of awareness for the natural disaster. Questionnaire survey was conducted in three areas which were affected by tsunami (Ache) and earthquake (Yogyakarta and Padang) in Indonesia. Ache was devastated by Indian Ocean Tsunami in 2004, about 31, 000 people were killed in the capital of Banda Ache alone. Yogyakarta was hit by earthquake in 2006, and over 5, 000 people were killed and 95% housing was collapsed in the community located near the epicenter. Padang was affected by earthquake in 2009, and 1, 100 people were reported to be killed or missing. Total of 504 samples were collected (Ache 170, Yogyakarta 155 and Padang 179), we have compared three areas to understand the relationship with ‘participation’ and ‘awareness’. This research findings will be useful to the housing reconstruction planning such as how to increase people’s awareness and how we can approach to people’s action for the future. We believe the possibility of participatory method for recovery phase, but long-term evaluation will reveal undiscussed issues, and it will give us a hint to improve more effective support for the people.