The March 5, 1987, Ecuador Earthquakes Mass Wasting and Socioeconomic Effects (1991) / Chapter Skim
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7 Local-Level Economic and Social Consequences
7 Local-Level Economic and Social Consequences
Pages 100-121
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From page 100... ...
Within a week after the earthquakes, the national government instituted several extreme economic measures, including suspension of the external debt payment to private banks, increased fuel prices, a national austerity plan, and a price freeze on selected essential goods. The earthquake's social consequences and accompanying demands for response and recovery assistance were relatively unusual with respect to their variety and geographic scope.
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From page 101... ...
These communities are located in Napo Province. In the Sierra, where damage was mostly limited to specific types of structures affected by ground shaking, exploratory visits were made to parts of the capital city of Quito, to the town of Tabacundo, the village of Olmedo, and the city of Ibarra and its environs (Figure 4.3~.
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From page 102... ...
· Direct effects from the ground shaking on housing and some public buildings in communities N of Quito, and also to some extent in the Oriente. · Indirect effects on the population of Napo Province that no longer had land access to the rest of the country, as a result of the only road from the town of Lago Agrio to the Sierra region and the capital city of Quito being impassable.
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From page 103... ...
In general, the area has only recently been settled by farmers who came there as part of the national agrarian reform and colonization program. Previously, the area was inhabited by various indigenous groups that to a FIGURE 7.1 Typical preear~quake dwelling along the Trans-Ecuadorian pipeline and highway near Reventador Volcano.
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From page 104... ...
Provisional shelter was found in convents, schools, and private homes until tent camps could be established in Lago Agrio and in the villages between the Salado River bridge and Baeza. It generally is estimated that around 4,000 to 5,000 people were evacuated.
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From page 105... ...
, as well as to some wooden structures. Although no long-term camp for evacuees from the landslide zone was established in Baeza, many of the town's own residents were dislocated from their damaged or collapsed homes and had to find other lodging or :~_ _ ~ __ 1\~ ~ FIGURE 7.2 Damaged concrete-block dwelling in Baeza, Napo Province.
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From page 106... ...
Several of the smaller towns became locations for tent camps that housed evacuees from the landslide area who had nowhere else to go, or who preferred to remain near their landholdings (Figure 7.3~. An Italian emergency medical response team established a field hospital in Baeza immediately after the disaster, which they later donated to the community.
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From page 107... ...
More than 1,000 tents were eventually supplied to families in the affected area in the Sierra. Some families slept in public buildings, such as health centers, until other shelter could be prepared.
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From page 108... ...
These camps apparently were established and maintained under the direction of a local physician, who donated his time to this effort and to tending to the health needs of victims for the first month after the disaster. The tents came from outside Ecuador and were distributed by Civil Defense to the local Red Cross chapter to establish the camp.
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From page 109... ...
To the people in the affected communities, who had already begun to feel the consequences to their pocketbooks of the national economic problems before the earthquake, there was some skepticism that the economic problems and national austerity measures attributed to the earthquake did indeed originate with it. It is difficult to say which of the economic problems evident at the community level after the disaster might have been experienced even without an earthquake, as the national government grappled with its longer-term problems.
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From page 110... ...
The reports described a contingent of local government officials and residents marching to Quito from the capital of Napo Province to ask for additional reconstruction assistance; however, the request was more general than for just things that would allow reconstruction of the disaster-stricken communities to predisaster conditions. Here again, no in-depth analysis was attempted of this aspect of the recovery process, but the relationship between reconstruction and development is a topic of interest for designing disaster assistance in developing countries (Bates, 1982; Cuny, 1983~.
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From page 111... ...
Those in the last group had not received any type of disaster assistance, but often were impacted in some indirect way. Impacts reported included reduced income as a result of a voluntary reduction in agricultural production because it was not possible to transport the agricultural products to market, a reduction in income from food sales during the time that disaster victims were receiving free food, and reduced business in general because the destruction of the Trans-Ecuadorian highway east of the Salado River reduced the road traffic to that point, and many people had left the area to try to find employment opportunities elsewhere.
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From page 112... ...
Thus, these residents were not likely as yet to have long-term attachment to the land nor to have extensive and strong social ties to others in the area. One local storekeeper remarked that, right after the earthquake, the people had helped each other, but now things were "back to normal." Another notable aspect of the earthquakes' effects on the Oriente was the impacts in Napo Province created by the loss of the Salado and Aguarico river bridges.
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From page 113... ...
An inquiry into the impacts on employment due to the drastic reduction in oil production revealed that the workers at the CEPE-Texaco installation near Lago Agrio figured little in the economy of the town, both before and after the earthquake. The CEPE-Texaco "camp" operated much like an offshore drilling rig, with workers sleeping in dormitories and eating in the company dining hall for several days at a time, and then being flown by the company back to their homes in Quito when the shift changed.
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From page 114... ...
For either solution to be accomplished, several national-level agencies will have to work in concert to bring it about in a timely manner. Thus, at least 200 families who had farmed the land between the Salado and Aguarico River bridges remained in limbo about their futures 4 months after the earthquakes, many living without a permanent dwelling or income.
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From page 115... ...
, the provincial office of Civil Defense coordinated housing reconstruction with the Ecuadorian Housing Bank and other groups. They developed a plan for the reconstruction that focused mainly on helping the poorest victims.
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From page 116... ...
~ ~ ~ 4: :~ x ~ ~ ~ Ax> a: a. —e_ ax__ FIGURE 7.4 Temporary dwelling of plastic sheeting used as a residence while family builds a new home using a metal frame, Tabacundo, Pichincha Province.
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From page 117... ...
The provision of technical assistance and instruction is a means of counteracting the potential that local people will be unfamiliar with appropriate building design and construction procedures. The reconstruction plans of the national Civil Defense office and the Ecuadorian Housing Bank included the provision of technical assistance and instruction to community residents.
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From page 118... ...
Program staff found many families incredulous that someone was going to give them a free house, and one of the initial tasks was to gain credibility with the potential recipients. The varying housing repair and reconstruction programs in the Andean highlands of Ecuador lend themselves to valuable study of the differential social impacts of the various approaches to involving inhabitants in the construction of housing.
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From page 119... ...
A loan program to assist homeowners was designed by the Ecuadorian Housing Bank, based on the transfer of some of the bank's funds from regular housing loan programs to programs for earthquake victims. The loans were to be handled by local banks, and the borrowers were able to use the money for housing repair or reconstruction.
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From page 120... ...
the extent to which technical assistance for construction, both inperson and in the form of written materials, reaches the affected population, and what factors contribute to its effectiveness, 2. the extent to which active efforts are made to distribute special instructional materials on handling the housing and health needs of disaster victims to persons at the local level who can assume responsibility for emergency programs, 3.
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From page 121... ...
Quito, United Nations Project ECU-87-004. Junta Nacional de la Vivienda, and Centro de Naciones Unidas pare Asentamientos Humanos-Habitat.
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