INVESTIGATING THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN FLOODING AND DIARRHEA DISEASE, THE CASE OF LILONGWE CITY (BIWI & KAWALE)

Floods have significant implications for the well-being and health of the communities. Floods can be dangerous to people and can damage homes, as well as water and sanitation systems. Flooding can be caused by a variety of factors: deforestation, development in flood-prone areas, obstruction of drainage channels, urbanization, and poor waste management are all examples of human activities that can lead to extreme flooding (Government of Malawi, 2013), its frequency and magnitude can be increased due to climate change impacts. Malawi's capital city has been hit by floods in recent years. However, each flooding incident poses unique challenges, which is why one of the priorities of the Sendai Framework of Action for Disaster Risk Reduction (SFDRR 2015- 2030) is to better understand disaster risk to respond to each situation individually. This study was intended to investigate the relationship between flooding and the transmission of diarrhea diseases in two informal settlements of Lilongwe city in particular Kawale and Biwi communities.
The key hypothesis of this study was that "there is a positive association between flooding event and the transmission of diarrhea diseases in Lilongwe city," which was followed by another hypothesis that "there is no significant difference in the relationship between flooding event and the transmission of diarrhea diseases among communities in Lilongwe. Questionnaires, key informant interviews, and focus group discussions were used to collect primary data, and secondary data were obtained from the city's department of disaster management affairs (DODMA) on flood data. Recorded diarrhea cases in the post-flood and pre-flood periods were obtained from hospitals to provide evidence to support the hypothesis. The collected data was used to determine the most vulnerable groups to diarrhea associated with flooding, to determine the trends in diarrhea disease prevalence in post-flood and pre-flood situations, to assess the communities’ susceptibility to the transmission of diarrhea diseases in the post and pre-flood period and to identify the coping mechanisms the community can use to alleviate the impact of flooding on diarrhea. The results of the analysis of quantitative data from the household questionnaire and secondary data have been analyzed using descriptive statistics and they have
been presented in the form of graphs, charts, and tables using Excel and SPSS. Focus groups and main informant interviews were used to gather qualitative data, which was then analyzed using thematic analysis. To come up with conclusions, the findings from the two methods were triangulated. MUSTREC guidelines were observed on all ethical considerations.
The findings of this study have shown that there’s a positive association between the flooding event and the transmission of diarrhea diseases in two informal settlements of Lilongwe city and that there’s no difference in the association between one community to the other. The results in both post and pre-flood periods from the year 2016 to 2020 have shown that there is an increased prevalence of diarrhea cases in the post-flood period. Children have been identified as the most vulnerable to flood-related diarrhea. The study's findings indicate that the two informal settlements are already susceptible to the spread of diarrhea diseases due to the type of housing used, sanitation practices, and environmental conditions, with flooding exacerbating the problem. Households devise various measures to avoid the adverse consequences of diarrhea as a result of flooding, such as piling sand around houses to keep filthy floodwater away. The researcher has found that the communities desire to cope up with the situation in the aftermath of flooding only that they lack resources, knowledge, and empowerment.

Flooding can be caused by a variety of factors: deforestation, development in flood-prone areas, obstruction of drainage channels, urbanization, and poor waste management are all examples of human activities that can lead to extreme flooding (Government of Malawi, 2013), its frequency and magnitude can be increased due to climate change impacts. The key hypothesis of this study was that "there is a positive association between flooding event and the transmission of diarrhea diseases in Lilongwe city," which was followed by another hypothesis that "there is no significant difference in the relationship between flooding event and the transmission of diarrhea diseases among communities in Lilongwe. The collected data was used to determine the most vulnerable groups to diarrhea associated with flooding, to determine the trends in diarrhea disease prevalence in post-flood and pre-flood situations, to assess the communities’ susceptibility to the transmission of diarrhea diseases in the post and pre-flood period and to identify the coping mechanisms the community can use to alleviate the impact of flooding on diarrhea. The findings of this study have shown that there’s a positive associa

Lilongwe city, in Malawi’s central region, was chosen for the study, with a particular emphasis on informal settlements that are vulnerable to flooding, in particular Kawale and Biwi. Lilongwe city is situated in the north-central part of Lilongwe district, with a population that increased from 669 532 to 989 318 between the 2008 and 2018 censuses respectively. People have been forced to place their lives at risk by living along river banks due to unsustainable urbanization raising the risk of flooding in the region. The Lilongwe river is Lilongwe’s largest river and the city’s main source of water, Msamba and Mchesi are small other rivers in the city. The people who live in these areas rely on surface and groundwater to meet their basic needs. Kawale and Biwi have been experiencing flooding since 2017 due to climate change and some other factors such as urbanization.
The settlements within 60 meters of the rivers Lilongwe and Msamba are shown on the map. The researcher planned to investigate the link between diarrhea diseases and flooding events within 60 meters of the rivers of the chosen settlements because the 60-meter distance from the river is prone to floods and its setting is still in a semi-urban environment with active diarrhea cases. Due to poverty, people cannot afford to own safer places, as a result, they tend to live along the 60 m buffer zone, exposing their lives to hazard. Conditions in these areas increase their vulnerability to the effects of floods on diarrhea disease spread for example distance between homes, environmental circumstances (lack drainage systems & poor waste management).

Traditional authority: Lilongwe City

District: Lilongwe

Coordinates: -13.9065, 33.7532