Table I.

The role of informal institutions for adaptation practices in Karail

Institutions available to poor urban householdsAccess to assetsAsset adaptation
Internally connected leaders and economic elites within the settlementEmployment, financial assets and emergency creditHousehold economic measures (e.g. regular employment, employment diversification). The emergency credit helps households to use physical measures
Externally connected leaders build informal relation with public service delivering organizationsAccess to water supplyHouseholds can access water for their daily use within their housing compound, which saves time for income generation. But water is insufficient for meeting daily needs. During monsoon, water often gets contaminated due to unhygienic pollution entering pipes at weak connection points. Moreover, poor households use ring wells to collect water from this unhygienic pipe system, which increases health risks. When flood strikes, households have to collect water from alternate source (tube well) from further distance, at a higher price and with longer waiting time due to increased people using the same water source
Access to electricityAccess to electricity connection provides an opportunity for poor households to increase their power usage to reduce heat stress during summer. But in Karail during hot weather, the increased use of informal power frequently causes electrical connections to short-circuit, resulting in fires (which can spread quickly in dense settlements)
Civil society organizations and community groups for tenure securityTenure securityHouseholds can deploy preventive and impact minimizing physical measures to climate variability
NGOs and community groupsAccessing services (e.g. credit, health services, education and emergency relief)Household can deploy various economic and socially oriented measures to reduce the impacts of climate stresses and shocks
Formal political systems through externally connected leadersAccess to emergency reliefWhen disaster strikes, households get access to formal support (e.g. relief and financial grants)
Elite neighbours near the Karail settlementsEmployment, financial credit and emergency reliefIt facilitates household economic measures; and emergency relief helps to build households’ emergency preparedness
Locally formed groups
(e.g. Bazaar (market) committee, regional committee, youth groups and women‘s groups)
Emergency servicesMove vulnerable individuals, households to safer places, distribution of flood warning system and community collective actions for preparedness recovery
Source: This is based on the key informant interviews undertaken at Karail, involving three community leaders; the findings of key informants are validated by one focus group discussion. The group consisted of two house/room owners and five tenants

or Create an Account

Close Modal
Close Modal