Disaster as an Opportunity to Enhance Community Resilience: Lesson Learnt from Chilean Coast

Abstract

Coastal communities in Chile are at risk to tsunamis like other coastal communities around the world. The Dichato community is one of the most affected communities by the 27 February, 2010 earthquake and following tsunami. More than seventy percent of infrastructure was washed away. The livelihood of the local people is severely damaged. The disaster recovery process was slower than expected. The concept of resilience is normally understood as the opposite of vulnerability. This means that where vulnerability is high, the level of resilience tends to be low, and vice versa. As vulnerability is the opposite of resilience, it is very much important to build a resilient community to reduce the disaster risk. This paper focuses on how a disaster can be an opportunity to enhance community resilience to disasters. Qualitative data are collected through key informant interview. Key informants are community leaders, high officials at local and regional office and also from non-government organizations. After this devastating tsunami, Dichato community gets special attention from the government and other agencies. As a result, disaster brings opportunity for the community in the form of new vision, new relation and new idea, which may enhance community resilience in the future. Findings of this paper will open a new horizon that can help to find the strength and weakness of disaster preparedness at community level. It will also help to learn about new approach to build community capacities against disaster.

Journal of Bangladesh Institute of Planners, Vol. 5, Dec 2012, pp. 1-11