Programme de bourses "Echanges Universitaires"
Social Change after Disasters:
The Socio-economic and Cultural Impact of post-Tsunami Reconstruction Processes.
University of Zurich - Department of Social Anthropology
Stefan Inglin, Carola Mantel, Jasmin Gasser Naimi
In recent years the frequency and intensity of disasters have increased and hundreds of thousands of people were suffering from their impact. It is expected that this trend will go on and that the poor will continue to be most severely affected. The study of disasters and their impact on society is therefore of crucial importance.
The three research projects described below were developed within the framework of the project group ‚Disaster Anthropology‘ at the Department of Social Anthropology at the University of Zurich and deal with different aspects of the impact of the post-Tsunami reconstruction process on the affected communities. They are supervised by Dr. Jennifer Duyne Barenstein and Dr. Esther Leemann who are leading the overarching partnership project – ‚Towards Sustainable Disaster Preparedness. The Role of Local, National and Global Responses in Enhancing Societal Resilience to Natural Hazards in India and Nicaragua’.
On December 26th 2004 a devastating earthquake of magnitude 9.0 on the Richter scale off Sumatra (Indonesia) and several aftershocks resulted in a massive tsunami that caused death and destruction in several countries, among them Indonesia and India. In the aftermath of the disaster uncountable emergency aid and rehabilitation projects were launched by various aid agencies. Not only the Tsunami itself but also the waves of aid flowing into the region caused divers and complex changes in the lives of the affected communities. The people’s perception of and response to these changes are the focus of the research projects. Ethnographic case studies based on systematic fieldwork will be of high relevance for both research and practice.
Stefan Inglin’s research project focused on the socio-economic and ecological consequences of the relocation of a fishing village after the Tsunami. He did field research in a small village in Tamil Nadu (India) that used to be located on the coast, surrounded by a mangrove forest, and that has been relocated three kilometres away from the coast. This has led to an improvement in infrastructure; at the same time it changed the use and management of fish resources. Due to the distance to the sea, the frequency of fishing in the sea is reduced and fishing in the backwaters of the mangrove forest is intensified. Along with the use of an unsustainable net for sea fishing and some natural changes (e.g. amount of rainfall, or small inflow of tidal water), the availability of fish in both places, sea and backwaters, is negatively affected. Other observed consequences are the reduced income, the emergence of new fishing groups, changes in the informal loan system within the village, change of persons in the marketing process and an increased consumption of alcohol.
Jasmin Naimi Gasser has done an ethnographic case study on the socio-cultural impact of post-Tsunami housing reconstruction programs on a fishing village in Tamil Nadu (India). The pre-Tsunami village with mostly thatched houses surrounded by various kinds of trees has changed into a city-like settlement with concrete houses in neat rows. Almost all trees have been removed to give way to the new houses, and people are dealing with a complete change in the inhabited environment. The research project examines how people are affected by and coping with the new situation. The main focus has become the lack of trees and its effects on the community. The trees were not only an important source of income for many families; the trees provided the spaces where people used to come together, sit, talk, play, work and eat together, in short, where social life was happening. While before the Tsunami people used to live mostly outside, they are nowadays spending most of their time inside the houses. They feel that their friendships, as well as their informal support networks, have suffered, they feel lonelier and unhappy. Most people don’t think that the situation will be back to normal any time soon. Unfortunately the disaster response in the area didn’t pay much attention to the social and environmental impact of the reconstruction programs.
Carola Mantel has conducted a comparative study of two villages in Aceh (Indonesia) that have been reconstructed with the assistance of two NGOs that pursued different approaches. In one of the two cases the responsibility and accountability for the house reconstruction was largely in the hands of a "Village Construction Team", four men who were themselves living in the community. An early return of the survivers from temporary shelters after only three months made it possible for many to be part of the planning and decision making process. In the second case, the NGO employed a contractor that took care of the reconstruction, while the community was still living in temporary shelters about 30km away from their village. The two different "stories" tell about shifts in power structures, about winners and losers of the situation and about different social groups reacting differently on different approaches.
The impact of the Tsunami disaster in both villages was unimaginably horrific with three quarters of the population having lost their lives in the wave. Nevertheless the change of village life needs to be understood in relation to the development of the last decades in which the civil war has caused immense problems to the communities and which is articulated by the community to have been even worse than the tsunami.
Contacts
In Switzerland:
Stefan Inglin
Im Rank 141, 6300 Zug, stefaninglin@gmx.ch
Carola Mantel
Madetswilerstrasse 3, 8332 Russikon, carola.mantel@freesurf.ch
Jasmin Naimi Gasser
Maienzugstrasse 18, 5000 Aarau, jasmin.naimi@gmail.com
6900 Lugano, 091 966 37 93, j.duyne@bluewin.ch
In India:
Sushma Iyengar
Abhiyan-network
sushma_iyengar@rediffmail.com
0091 98 79 56 04 73
In Indonesia:
Posko Kemanusiaan UPC/UPLINK
Jl. T. Iskandar Lorong Pusara Habib
No.1, Ulee Kareng - Banda Aceh
upc@urbanpoor.or.id