Final Hazards Report
The primary hazard that has been devastating in Zambia is flooding. According to the Zambia Disaster Management and Mitigation Unit, the flooding that has occurred this year is the worst that Zambia has faced in over 50 years. This flooding has resulted in fatalities, injuries, and destruction across Southern Zambia. This flooding is brought on primarily by seasonal heavy rainfall. This is a priority because the flooding is affecting over 400,000 people and many do not have the basic necessities. According to World Vision Zambia “over 8,000 people [are] living in camps in the Southern Province alone, exacerbating the demand for shelter, clean water, sanitation facilities, and protection services.”
As this catastrophe is quite recent the government as well as outside support are trying to find solutions on how to better prepare for heavy rainfall and flooding in the future. The International Water Management Institute is one of the organizations trying to find solutions. The first step that this organization is trying to accomplish is researching the flooding itself. They believe that by researching it they can have “an in-depth understanding of the current situation, as well as formulating a well-drafted, inclusive post-flood recovery strategy is fundamental to helping the country with a multi-sectoral response to ensure recovery, rehabilitation, and restoration.”Another recommendation is to put into place systems like rapid response maps that can help detect early warning signs of flooding. By doing this research and putting a strategy in place Zambia can be better prepared for when flooding does occur. This will hopefully reduce the fatalities and the destruction of the country.
In order to help I would first focus on the Southern and Central areas of the country that have been hit the hardest by the flooding. According to World Vision Zambia, there are over 8,000 people living in camps in the Southern Province alone. I would try to get more essential resources to those camps as those people are at the highest risk of disease and malnutrition.
If I were to build a house in Zambia I would most likely have one built in Northern Zambia as it is not as affected by flooding compared to the rest of Zambia. I would make sure to build on higher ground or stilts and also away from natural water where flooding often occurs.
In conclusion, flooding is a major hazard to the people of Zambia. Thousands of injuries, deaths, and a large amount of damage has occurred due to flooding in recent years. The government, as of now, does not have a concrete solution as of now but is working on improving the conditions to assist in flood prevention for the future. They believe, through research, that they have quite the understanding of the flooding situation and a potential recovery strategy for the future. To help avoid flooding, I would allocate more resources to the Southern and Central areas of the country, and advise people to build on higher ground in Northern Zambia if possible.
https://reliefweb.int/disaster/fl-2023-000014-zmb
https://www.iwmi.cgiar.org/local-media-releases/iwmi-supporting-zambian-government-with-post-flood-recovery-strategy-assistance/
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