ABSTRACT
This paper draws on material gathered during an evaluation of NGO post-flood rehabilitation activities in Bangladesh during 1988–89 to discuss some of the issues involved in selecting the design of housing to provide in a post-flood rehabilitation programme. Of the agencies included in the evaluation all but one selected designs intended to be resistant to future floods. These were found to be significantly more expensive, took longer to provide than designs not intended to be flood resistant, and also created the potential for the 'rehabilitation' houses provided on a grant basis to undermine development programmes providing housing to poor groups on a loan basis. The paper concludes that the selection of flood resistant designs was inappropriate considering the unprecedented need for new houses following the 1988 floods, but that more research is needed on appropriate, low-cost designs for highly flood-prone environments.
