Abstract
The paper documents the resettlement process undertaken following the 2011 heavy rains in Dar es Salaam City, which adversely affected many people who lived in flood prone areas particularly in and along Msimbazi river valley. Within the resettlement process, challenges which were encountered by different actors during the resettlement process were investigated. With the use of qualitative and quantitative data, the paper shows that the resettlement of households from Msimbazi River Valley to Mabwepande followed a number of steps decided during the process with no pre-determined guidelines. The process largely centred around identifying those to be resettled, relocating them to the resettlement area and issuing alternative plots. The physical, economic, social, cultural and environmental dimensions of resettlement were less coherent in the process. Subsequently, the process resulted into both negative and positive outcomes, which are persistent until today. These include poor housing conditions, disruption of economic and income generating activities, unreliable social and technical infrastructure services, inability and or reluctance to develop the new plots and low living standards. However, high level of tenure security and certainty of being free from flood risk are some positive outcomes of the resettlement. The paper argues that the implementation of resettlement projects with no well-articulated process that takes care of the environmental, spatial, economic and social needs of the resettled population obscures the outcomes of the project. It therefore calls for caution when planning and implementing disaster led resettlement projects that necessary steps ought to be carried out to protect and enhance the wellbeing and livelihoods of those resettled apart from issuing alternative parcels of land.
Highlights
The urban poor are often the worse stricken by flood, earthquakes, landslides and cyclones and yet the most vulnerable to natural disasters for they inhabit overcrowded, marginal, unstable and dangerous land with no financial cushion or security (Cronin & Guthrie, 2011)
With the use of qualitative and quantitative data, the paper shows that the resettlement of households from Msimbazi River Valley to Mabwepande followed a number of steps decided during the process with no pre-determined guidelines
By the end of the operation, about 680 families (3400 beneficiaries) were officially re-settled at Mabwepande. The floods affected both tenants as well as house owners, the resettlement only considered house owners who were accommodated in the temporary centres and some who relocated to relatives and friends
Summary
The urban poor are often the worse stricken by flood, earthquakes, landslides and cyclones and yet the most vulnerable to natural disasters for they inhabit overcrowded, marginal, unstable and dangerous land with no financial cushion or security (Cronin & Guthrie, 2011). The most common meteorological hazards include heavy rains, storms/ hurricanes, droughts, tropical cyclones, rainstorm floods, heat waves and low temperature disasters (ibid) Such hazards often lead to adverse consequences on lives, properties and socio-economic activities. The low-lying river valleys along the Zambezi River in Central Mozambique experienced catastrophic flooding, the second such occurrence within two years, which was caused by heavy rainfall in the South Eastern Africa in early 2008 and up to 80,000 people were forced to displacement This number added to tens of thousands of people already displaced from floods and cyclones during 2000, 2001 and 2007 (Macaringue, 2010; Stal, 2011; Artur & Hilhorst, 2014). Thence, the study narrows itself on the process used to relocate and resettle flood victims from their original residential flood prone areas [within and along Msimbazi/Jangwani river valleys] to holding centres and at the resettlement area
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