Flood risk management in urban settlements in the eThekwini area

Floods have accounted for two-thirds of all natural hazards affecting millions of people and resulting in damage amounting to billions of US dollars. Over the years, flood disasters in the KwaZulu-Natal province of South Africa have increased in severity, with eThekwini municipality enduring the worst of most of the disasters. Floods in eThekwini (study area) are very destructive, resulting in devastating and fatal consequences. Flood risk in the study area was examined to identify the causes of vulnerability and the current flood risk reduction practices employed by all stakeholders of disaster management, with a view to developing an Integrated Flood Risk Management (IFRM) Framework that may be employed to improve and enhance flood risk management effectiveness and disaster management practices. To achieve this, the research adopted a mixed research approach, in a case study of four strategically located cities, representing the entire eThekwini Municipal Area. Questionnaires and semi-structured interviews were used to collect information from purposively sampled community members and key role-players of disaster management, respectively, in addition to a historical literature review of secondary data within the period under review, to develop an IFRM framework. Development of the framework is based on the principle of integrating flood risk and stormwater management, building disaster resilience through Community-Based Disaster Risk Management (CBDRM), aimed at reducing vulnerability and increasing coping strategies, along with good practices and policies in disaster management. A major problem the municipality faces regarding flood risk was identified and verified as the habitation of people on “at-risk” land. Relocation policies have proved very expensive, extremely slow and mostly unachievable. The research further identified a yearly pattern of flood disasters resulting in the loss of property and life, attributed to weak flood disaster response plans. It was also uncovered that vulnerability of community members was due to the lack of adequate capacity to manage the flood disasters, as well as the absence of clear strategies in place to reduce vulnerability, and weak implementation strategies to integrate all stakeholders of disaster risk management. In such cases, the most appropriate strategy to reduce vulnerability would be through flood disaster preparedness and efficient emergency flood response. The IFRM model, therefore, instigates risk reduction through appropriate flood disaster response plans, supported by reliable and accurate flood forecasts, advocating for the application of a risk management approach. This provides measures for preventing a hazard from becoming a disaster, where the major focus is to reduce vulnerability. Effective implementation of the IFRM components requires an enabling environment in terms of policy and practice, including clear roles, functions and effective regulation and enforcement. The nature of flood disaster in the eThekwini municipality creates a situation that needs immediate action to fulfil the aspirations of people in the municipality. Thus, political commitment to principles and practice is critical. The framework for integrated risk management in flood disasters offers a guideline for the holistic management of floods through inclusion of all stakeholders viz-a-vis the government, the actors of disaster management and the general public. It also emphasises the interconnectedness between the three components: flood disaster management, disaster resilience and disaster management good practices and policies.