By Rodrigo Pérez Silva, Mayarí Castillo, Jazmine Calabrese & Pablo Osses
We have known for some time that disasters are not natural, but rather a product of the interaction between human societies and nature. We also know that in Chile, as in the rest of the world, the effects of these socio-natural disasters are not distributed evenly, but are concentrated among the poor and vulnerable. This is related to territorial planning tools, the land market, and public social housing policies, among other factors.
Following the recent floods in the center and south, it is pertinent to reassess what is being done in this area. Although our country has tools that regulate housing construction, such as regulatory plans, they do not consider flood or risk zones other than as indicative elements. Evidence has also shown the long-term limitations of regulatory plans, as they are tools that are easily modified, susceptible to pressure, and do not propose strategies for long public policy cycles. This has led to construction in areas at risk of flooding or landslides, the lack of protection for agricultural land, and the expansion of industrial zones in short periods of time.
Since the 1990s, social housing policy has failed to incorporate criteria to control spatial segregation, prioritizing low land values over the integration of social housing into urban dynamics. This has led to the concentration of vulnerable populations in at-risk areas, among which flooding is the most visible, but not the only one: socio-environmental disasters are increasingly frequent and tend to concentrate their impacts on the population with the least capacity for resilience and adaptation. Specifically, those with the least are most affected and take the longest to rebuild their territories.
Returning to last week's floods, a mapping of information from the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development on the location of social housing up to 2018 shows that a significant percentage of these homes are located in areas defined by the municipalities themselves as at risk of flooding. For example, there are Villa Puente Tapado in Palmilla (with more than 100 homes) and the Río Claro Housing Project in Rengo (with around 50 homes), both in the O'Higgins Region; and the multiple social housing complexes located along the Estero El Carbón in Constitución, Maule Region. In all of these locations, the homes were either evacuated or were at high risk of being evacuated.
We are a country particularly exposed to the effects of global environmental change, so it is urgent to take measures that reduce the risk to the population, but also focus on equity in territorial planning, controlling the impact on the most vulnerable communities. Incorporating social integration criteria for the location of social housing, rather than land value, can be an extremely beneficial measure in this regard. It is also crucial to rethink regulatory plans as long-term planning strategies, including long cycles of public policies and an adjustment so that areas designated as high risk are excluded from residential use under all circumstances.
All available scientific evidence indicates that these types of events will occur with increasing frequency and intensity, both globally and in our country. Planning our territory to adapt to these climate events is the great challenge of our century.
Publicado en elmostrador.cl