Disaster mitigation lessons from “build back better” following the 26 December 2004 Tsunamis

Abstract

As detailed by Kennedy et al. (2008), “build back better” was used to imply the need to link humanitarian relief and post-disaster reconstruction with longer-term disaster mitigation and vulnerability reduction efforts in order to ensure that reconstruction would not lead to conditions which could result in a similar disaster recurring. Establishing this link is particularly challenging regarding post-disaster settlement and shelter (e.g. Cuny, 1983; Shelterproject, 2003). The preferred principles to adopt have been known for some time, because after Turner’s (1972: 148) “housing as a verb”, Davis (1978: 33) proposed that ‘shelter must be considered as a process, not as an object’. Especially for “shelter after disaster” (the title of Davis, 1978), shelter is not the structure only, such as a particular type of tent or house, but is an ongoing and interconnected series of tasks or actions which fulfil the needs of (from Kennedy et al., 2008): (i) Physical and psychological health including protection from the elements and a feeling of home and community.

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