Als student Watermanagement heeft Anoushik tijdens haar stage bij de Universidade de Cabo Verde onderzoek gedaan naar de kwetsbaarheid van de bewoners van de wijk Safende tegen flash floods.
Samenvatting
This study addresses the challenges facing the City of Praia, the capital of Cape Verde, in adapting to climate changes and reducing the effects of flash floods. Praia is highly vulnerable to these extreme weather events, due to its volcanic scenery, uncontrolled urbanization, and insufficient infrastructure, together with the vulnerability of informal settlements. Although the government has stated their ambitions to improve the city’s difficulties, the lack of
efficient governmental actions and financial support hinders the realization of the flood-risk measures. In addition, the flood-risks are not mapped per district in the City of Praia. The above difficulties have resulted in inadequate use of international funding to provide for these measures. During the flash floods on 12 September 2020, one of the highly impacted informal settlements was the Safende district. Even though, the district was funded by the African Development Bank Group to implement drainage channels for the protection against flash floods. The drainage channels are disproportionate in size comparing to the natural stream of the Safende river and have been let unfinished during the construction. The aftermath of the flash floods in 2020 show the insufficiency of the drainage channels and leaving residents feeling highly vulnerable to flash floods. These difficulties have led to answering the main question in this study: What are the key factors that influence the vulnerability to flash floods of the community in the Safende district?
The methods used to address the City of Praia’s vulnerability and to answer the research questions are related to the exposure to flash floods in the Safende district, to the experience and to the reduction of the resident’s vulnerability to flash floods in the Safende district. To determine the exposure of the residents to flash floods qualitative research is approached, including conducting literature review, making observations, and conducting a review of a hydraulic study of the flood-risks in the Safende district. Exploring the experience of the residents during the floods of 2020 is conducted by a survey. This survey concludes questions related to resident’s characteristics, experiences, measures taken, perceptions, alerts, and the needs of the residents of Safende. This data and the data of the method exposure form the base in the motivation to determine that reducing vulnerability of the residents could be executed by non-structural measures. This includes creating awareness among the residents exposed to flash floods in Safende. Suitable stakeholders are chosen to accommodate the main difficulties of the residents and proposed requirements.
Literature is reviewed to gain insights into international approaches for integrating awareness strategies and reducing vulnerability to flash floods. The fourth chapter of this study discusses the results obtained from the method exposure. Evaluating the statistics of the review study, information about the future flood-risks of Safende was obtained with data of the water height in 50 and 100-year return periods. Furthermore, the current state of the Safende river and from both drainage channels were observed, with the description of a critical junction point where the river and both drainages collide in the Safende district. The fifth chapter of this study analyzed the results from the survey questioned to 22 residents of Safende. The results showed that over a third of the respondents is situated in households vulnerable to flash floods and that almost 70% of the respondents have been personally affected by flash floods but
have not succeeded in adjusting the effective measures to reduce their vulnerability. The 30% of residents that have not been personally affected by flash floods have taken measures to reduce their vulnerability or live higher in the valley. Overall, a majority of the respondents agree that they live in a flood-risk area. Furthermore, the results showed that residents are interested in different ways they can reduce their vulnerability to flash floods and show the
importance of being warned before the flash floods occur. Which can be concluded as wanting to enhance their flood-awareness. Chapter 6 discusses the need to reduce the vulnerability of flash floods of the residents in the Safende district. It emphasizes on the importance of increasing the flood-awareness of the residents in Safende district with the potential collaboration of the Civil Protection Praia and the NGO Safende Tudora. Both parties have societal interests in reducing the vulnerability to flash floods. Furthermore, a strategical planned for this collaboration is elaborated, with the advice to both stakeholders to participate in exchanging their knowledge and give trainings on flood-awareness with each other to organize training sessions about the risks of flash floods with the residents of Safende. The results also showed the importance of regular evaluation of both stakeholder’s actions in the approach to spread flood-awareness in the Safende district. In conclusion, the objective of this study, which aimed to understand the factors affecting the vulnerability to flash floods in the Safende district. The studies key findings included the prediction of future flood-risks, the personal implications experienced by the residents and the dissatisfaction with current
governmental measures in the Safende district. Where the potential collaboration of the Civil Protection and the NGO Safende Tudora is highlighted as a solution to fill in the knowledge gaps and increase flood-awareness of the residents. Through preparation between both parties and educating the residents on this topic.
Hereby this study provides several recommendations to the Civil Protection Praia and the NGO Safende Tudora:
Conducting a future study with a larger and more diverse group of individuals to obtain more conclusive information about the vulnerability to flash floods in the Safende district and other informal settlements from similar size. Second, to provide a follow-up study with an instruction guide on what specific aspects should be observed on in the neighborhood. Additionally, identify residents or other researchers who can help observe a larger area with the help of these instructions. The last recommendation is mainly advised to the Civil Protection of Praia. It is to invite independent experts who have researched vulnerabilities and solutions to flash floods for a brainstorming session.
Particularly the professors of the Universidade de Cabo Verde who have done much research about the City of Praia. This session can uncover unpublished research and compare it with existing structural plans to identify the most promising measures to reduce vulnerability to flash floods in the City of Praia.