Public Participation in Confronting Natural Disasters in Khuzestan Province: The Official's Viewpoint

Community participation is one of the important bases of disastermanagement in confronting natural disasters. Khuzestan is one of the most importantborder provinces in the country that is highly prone to natural disasters. This research aimed to determine the status of people's participation in Khuzestan to respond to natural disasters from the viewpoints of officials. This study was conducted in four stages. First, the status of the province was evaluated regarding the occurrence of natural disasters. In the second stage, the province situation is addressed from the perspectives of related organizations, institutions and active NGOs in disasters. By using qualitative study and in-depth interviews in the third stage, the officials’ views on how to attract people to participate in confronting natural disasters was collected. In the final stage, after analyzing the obtained results, some strategies are presented in order to use these guidelines and recommendations and also to prevent the probable human casualties and damage in future disasters. According to the manager's different views about disaster management issues and lack of a common terminology to apply in this field, the process of policymaking, coordination, planning, organizing and training has been undertaken indifferent ways in the organizations. Also, in the governmental system, the role ofpeople as the most important stakeholders has not been considered appropriatelywhich makes the governments feel more responsible for confronting natural disasters.