Amid increasing flood incidences and damages in many parts of the world, the fundamental question arises as to the extent to which poor and marginalized residents can manage disasters by receiving equitable, fair and just support. This paper seeks to examine this question by focusing on a poor and vulnerable area of Colombo, the capital of Sri Lanka. Administratively this area is called Colombo Divisional Secretariat Division (DSD). Here mainly low-income residents live in congested housing conditions with narrow streets and poor drainage management. For years, this Division was regarded as one of the most flood vulnerable areas of Sri Lanka. To understand the resaons, we conducted our field research in this area and interviewed DSD officials and local people with three key equitable resilience dimensions in mind: distributive, procedural and contextual equities. We found that the intensity and frequency of rainfalls had increased in the area, but the residents had not received any flood protection support from the government due largely to some legal and socio-political complications. Many expressed their fear of the next flood incident. As these residents were without legal land ownership the government did not pay much attention to their needs. We also found that a low education level and a lack of political representation led to the marginalization of people in this area. Using information we collected at the Colombo DSD office and other relevant government agencies, we then examine a set of factors that are relevant to income and poverty level, population density, quality of housing, education, infrastructure and participatory decision making. The results show that flood loss and damage risks were heightened by such social vulnerability factors as low income, an unaffordability of flood resilient houses and an absence of policy implementations for flood resilient infrastructure. We also found that a lack of community leadership led to poor participation in decision making. This paper then highlights the important area for mainstreaming equitable community resilience actions.

在世界许多地方，洪水泛滥和破坏不断增加的同时，一个基本问题出现了，即贫困和边缘化居民在多大程度上可以通过获得公平，公正和公正的支持来管理灾害。本文旨在通过关注斯里兰卡首都科伦坡的贫困地区来研究这个问题。在行政上，该区域称为科伦坡分区秘书处分区（DSD）。这里主要是低收入居民，居住条件拥挤，街道狭窄，排水管理不善。多年来，该师一直被认为是斯里兰卡最易受洪灾的地区之一。为了了解原因，我们在这一领域进行了实地研究，并采访了渠务署官员和当地人，他们牢记三个关键的公平应变能力：分配，程序和上下文平等。我们发现该地区的降雨强度和频率增加了，但是居民在很大程度上由于一些法律和社会政治问题而没有得到政府的任何防洪支持。许多人表示担心下一场洪水事件。由于这些居民没有合法的土地所有权，因此政府并未对他们的需求给予太多关注。我们还发现，较低的教育水平和缺乏政治代表性导致了该地区人民的边缘化。使用我们在科伦坡DSD办公室和其他相关政府机构收集的信息，然后检查与收入和贫困水平，人口密度，住房质量，教育，基础设施和参与性决策相关的一系列因素。结果表明，由于社会脆弱性因素（如低收入，抗洪房屋的承受能力不足以及缺乏抗洪基础设施的政策实施），洪灾损失和破坏风险有所增加。我们还发现，社区领导力的缺乏导致决策制定的参与度低。然后，本文重点介绍了将公平社区应变行动纳入主流的重要领域。