ASSESSING SOCIO-ECONOMIC VULNERABILITY TO FLOODS IN CHIKWAWA DISTRICT
Abstract
Disasters cause significant impacts on the household poverty and national economic growth trends through economic losses and shocks to livelihood systems. The water related extremes such as floods, account for the greatest share of global natural disasters inflicting economic damage and death toll. The study assessed the socio- economic vulnerability to floods in Chikwawa district. The study sought to find out the impacts that floods have on education and trade, to identify factors that determine the flood vulnerability in the area and to identify the coping strategies that people employ during floods. The study was carried out in Bereu village of T/A Maseya because it is one of the most affected areas by floods in Chikwawa. This was achieved by using questionnaires and observations for data collection. The data was analysed using Microsoft Excel, Statistical Package for Social Sciences and content analysis was also done do develop themes from the data. The results have been presented in bar graphs, pie charts and tables. The socio-economic spectrum is highly affected by floods in the district. While geographical vulnerability is generally the same for all the people in the area, socio-economic vulnerability tends to vary for a group of individuals within the same locality. This is because different socio-economic groups have different coping capacities and different kinds of exposure to the hazard. Those with some coping capacities quickly recover from the hazard while some wait for relief from government and non-governmental organizations. To reduce vulnerability to floods in this area, there is need to implement community-initiated mitigation measures and clearly assess the implication of these developments so that they do not increase the flood risk of the communities. There is also need for capacity building and community empowerment by either giving them mitigation or reconstruction loans so that they can construct strong houses using durable materials that can withstand future floods and for people to diversify their livelihoods.
Research summary
The study sought to find out the impacts that floods have on education and trade, to identify factors that determine the flood vulnerability in the area and to identify the coping strategies that people employ during floods. While geographical vulnerability is generally the same for all the people in the area, socio-economic vulnerability tends to vary for a group of individuals within the same locality. To reduce vulnerability to floods in this area, there is need to implement community-initiated mitigation measures and clearly assess the implication of these developments so that they do not increase the flood risk of the communities. There is also need for capacity building and community empowerment by either giving them mitigation or reconstruction loans so that they can construct strong houses using durable materials that can withstand future floods and for people to diversify their livelihoods.