Assessing community vulnerability levels and adaptation options to flood risk reduction in Bwaise, Kampala

Abstract

Floods are frequent and widespread natural hazards with severe socio-economic losses and environmental impacts. Floods affect the environment and in most of the world’s vulnerable areas, cause damages to human life, property and crop. The current study therefore aimed at developing effective adaptation measures aiming at reducing flood related vulnerabilities driven by the surging climate change especially in the prone poorest communities of Bwaise.. A cross sectional research approach was undertaken using mixed approaches) where simple random sampling was employed in selection of the households and purposive sampling on the key informants. Data was collected through field surveys, interviews and direct field observations; and then analyzed using thematic content analysis where descriptive statistics (percentages and frequencies) were generated in Microsoft excel spread sheets and then presented inform of tables, pie charts and bar graphs. The study findings revealed that floods have had a number of negative impacts on the communities. The study considered 72 respondents and of these 75.8% reported to having encountered infrastructural damages, 96.7% reported property destruction and 88.7% indicated that water contamination was a major issue. A number of diseases like cholera, Bilhazia were common in the study area. A number of strategies were being used by the communities including use of sand bags, constructing raised floors and lifting the things up on plastic tanks. This was reported by 35.5%, 95.2%,77.45 and 96.75 of the respondents respectively. However, as people strive to cope up with floods, they are encountered with numerous implications including poverty, poor housing structures, limited resilience and the limited adaptive capacity