Examining Community and Government Responses to Floods in South African Informal Settlements

The aims of this study were to examine communities’ responses to flood in informal settlements of South Africa and the existing government strategies to mitigate the impact of floods on poor communities in informal settlement of South Africa. In order to answer to the above research objective, this study used the existing secondary qualitative data. These include audios and videos from materials shared on YouTube channels platforms as well as TV news posted online and diverse categories of articles available online. These sources contained victims of flood testimonies, expert’s analysis as well as official reports.

The findings have shown that despite repeated occurrence of flood in informal settlements, communities have not developed collective strategy to respond to floods. It was evident that the response is spontaneous and un-coordinated. That means that there are no educational and training available to assist communities deal with floods where they occur.

Poor assets and form of livelihoods undertaken by informal dwellers, do not allow them to recover from flood effectively. The findings have also shown that the government intervened, however, the interventions have not been effective in addressing the underlying problems that lead to vulnerability to flood. This means that government intervention is reactive rather than pre-emptive. The study recommends long term strategy, if challenges related to flood in informal settlements are to be addressed. While this study uncovered some important findings, as a desk-based study, it presents some limitation. It is important that further study is conducted that involves people and those affected by floods.