Health vulnerability to flood-induced risks of households in flood-prone informal settlements in the Coastal City of Mombasa, Kenya

Fredrick Okoth Okaka,Beneah D O Odhiambo

doi:10.1007/s11069-019-03792-0

Abstract

Floods have serious consequences on community well-being and health. This study was intended to address the health vulnerability of households in flood prone informal settlements in the coastal city of Mombasa in Kenya and their adaptation measures. Mombasa City has a history of floods, in the recent past, significant severe incidences of flooding events have already been experienced. However, there is dearth of evidence regarding vulnerability of households living in informal settlements in the city to the health risks of flooding and households’ coping mechanisms. The study participants were randomly drawn from three purposively selected informal settlements in Mombasa City. Health vulnerability was assessed in terms of flood exposure, flood sensitivity, and flood adaptive capacity. While adaptation measures were explored based on the autonomous steps that household have adapted in response to flooding. Primary data were collected using questionnaires, Key Informant Interviews and Focus Group Discussions. The findings showed that up to 40.8% of the households had a high level of vulnerability, 46.9% had a medium level, while only 12.3% had low level of vulnerability. The findings also showed that household characteristics, water, sanitation and environmental risk factors had an impact on the level of household vulnerability. As coping mechanisms, households had taken some adaptation measures like clearing trenches to unblock drainage channels and piling sand bags around the house. The study concludes that for poor people living in flood prone areas in urban setting, flood early warnings, flood preventive actions and long term mitigation strategies need to be strengthened since they are exposed to greater health problems. The findings of the study are expected to help communities and local support agencies to identify weaknesses, especially in adaptive capacities, and to indicate ways of reducing future health vulnerability of residents of informal settlements to flooding.

Highlights

Floods are recognized to be the most frequent and devastating type of natural disaster worldwide and one of the major environmental challenges faced by many nations in the twenty-first century (Wakuma et al 2009; Bich et al 2011; Ding et al 2013; Mumuni 2013)
This study aims to fill this gap by assessing the present health vulnerability of households to floods and their adaptation measures in flood-prone informal settlements in Mombasa City in Kenya
The results of the study indicate that the housing, sanitation and environmental conditions of households in the three informal settlements are poor and that many had medium-tohigh levels of health vulnerability to flooding

Summary

Introduction

Floods are recognized to be the most frequent and devastating type of natural disaster worldwide and one of the major environmental challenges faced by many nations in the twenty-first century (Wakuma et al 2009; Bich et al 2011; Ding et al 2013; Mumuni 2013). In Mombasa City in particular, flooding has become a frequent phenomenon that at times occurs more than twice in a single year with devastating impacts. This is so due to its low lying nature (the altitude of Mombasa ranges between 0 and 45 m above the sea level) coupled with the impacts of climate change and altered pattern of precipitation (Awuor et al 2008; Kebede et al 2010; Moser et al 2010; Okaka and OmondiP 2017), limited parks and other green spaces to absorb run-off, and poor drainage systems that are often clogged by waste materials. In slums like Ziwa la Ng’ombe, floods occur in places where they did not two decades ago (Moser et al 2010)

Objectives

Results

Conclusion