access to inputs firm Recovery Timeline
and some continue to incur expenses even as this report is written—al- most a year after the loods that is a signiicant proportion of their total
annual turnover. The assumption then is that these enterprises would take pre-
ventive measures to ensure against possible loods recurrence in subse- quent years. However, this study has shown that this
hypothesis is not necessarily true for a majority of the enterprises.
A quarter of these enterprises have not provided any informa- tion on preventive measures taken, so they may or may not have taken
any. Another quarter of the sample enterprises are still thinking about it or believe that the government should provide such preventive mea-
sures. A few believe that they are inancially weak and therefore depend on the government for relief measures. The others believe that it is the
government’s responsibility to help enterprises cope with the heavy losses during times of disaster. A handful of enterprises have adopted
what can only be called a ‘fatalistic’ attitude towards the loods, believing they cannot do anything to help themselves and all help must come from
outside. Those enterprises that are still thinking about taking preventive measures, but haven’t taken any so far, view the December 2015 loods as
a one-time occurrence and believe that such events are unlikely to recur in the future. As a result, they do not see the need to take any drastic pre-
ventive measures.
However, a little less than half of the sampled enterprises have taken charge of their facilities and have either begun to or will begin to
make changes based on speciic damages or weaknesses in their produc- tion infrastructure. The following are some of the changes in the oing:
• Facility infrastructure:
Apart from repairing afected portions of buildings which is really a curative step some of the enterprises
are increasing the height of their facilities to prevent water from entering facilities in the future. One of them also placed water
pumps in their facility so they can pump water out, especially if there is excessive waterlogging. Waiting for the water to drain out
naturally is often a long and time-consuming process, preventing enterprises from recovering quickly. Another enterprise stated
that they could not make changes to their building since they do not own it. In terms of safeguarding items within their facility,
one of the enterprises has raised the height of the slabs on which they place inventory inished goods and raw materials to protect
against future waterlogging. Another enterprise has created evacu- ation plans to help protect employees, enabling them to ind safe
spaces that do not pose a threat to their lives.
• Location – desire to relocate to an industrial estate:
Apart from rebuilding the walls of their building, Firm 11 wants a place inside
the SIDCO estate. This irm believes that location within that estate will help them add more employees and machines to their produc-
tion so they can gain additional clients in the process.
• Modiications to insurance coverage:
While one enterprise, Firm 11 is considering taking insurance, another enterprise, Firm 7,