Community Training and Sensitization as a Flood Mitigation Strategy Influencing Household Livelihood in NyandoFlood Plains, Kisumu County

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to investigate the influence community participation in training and sensitization on household livelihood in Kano Plains in Nyando Sub-County, Kisumu County. The study adopted descriptive survey design and targeted household heads in Nyando plains, village elders and chiefs of the locations under study, local government authority representatives, District Disaster management officer representative in Nyando and the NGOs. A sample size of 385 was sufficient for a target population of 11,050. Multistage sampling was used to sample locations and sub locations while proportional sampling was used to sample the number of selected household where the households were grouped into different classifications. The sample size was 370 household heads plus 15 officers were working in Nyando flood plains. Purposive sampling was used to identify the 4 village elders and 4 chiefs, 1 Sub-County Local Authority Management Officer who represented the government, 1 Disaster Management Officer, and 5 managers from the NGOs. Questionnaires for household heads and interview schedules key informants were used for primary data collection. The study found that majority of the households had never attended training and sensitization programmes concerning floods with 42.1% and that the training and sensitization received was not of high quality (60.6%).The study found a strong positive correlation R = 0.582 which was statistically significant as p<0.01 (p < 0.001) between community participation in training and sensitization and household livelihood and that community participation in training and sensitization accounts up to 33.8% (R2 = .338) of variance in the outcome. The study concluded that community participation in training and sensitization influenced household livelihood. However, trainings and sensitization programmes were not regularly done due to financial constraints to facilitate the trainings.The study recommends that more training and sensitization should be conducted to the communities in flood prone areas on how to mitigate floods to ensure improvement of their household livelihood.