Small changes with big impacts: Mitigating fire risks through small interventions in informal settlements of Dhaka City, Bangladesh

Abstract

Fire Service and Civil Defense of Bangladesh reported 170 fire incidences in informal settlements of Bangladesh in 2016 (Rabbi, 2018). In fact, this is a recurring incident in the slums over the years, which makes “slum” and “fire” synonymous in Bangladesh. Two devastating fires broke out in the slums of Karail and Saattola in December 2016, which destroyed almost 700 houses. Unfortunately, these types of hazards draw very little attention from both public and private sectors. Although some international and national nongovernmental and private organizations provide post hazard assistances, their interventions are usually limited to the infrastructural level because of unspecified land tenure and low property rights of slum dwellers. This also discourages the engagement of built environment related professionals in mitigating the risks or upgrading the slums through spatial design solutions. Questioning this trend of attitude, as a part of social responsibility, the research team (including a volunteer group of architects, planners, engineers and students from different universities in Bangladesh) conducted a pilot project to support fire affected people of Karail and Saattola slums with the principle of “Build Back Better.” This chapter shares the experiences and insights of this slum reconstruction process after fire hazards. It focuses on providing guidelines for housing reconstruction, and a master plan with improved road network to alleviate risks of the highly dense slum settlements and upgrade the slum environment to make it fire-resilient.