Impact of floods on rural livelihoods of people residing in flood prone areas: the caseof Luhonono community in the Zambezi Region of Namibia

[摘要] Thi s study examined the impact of floods on the li velihoods of the community of theLuhonono area, formerly Schuckmannsbu rg, in the Kabbe constituency in the Zambeziregion of amibia. The problem identi fied is the persistent flood ing in the Luhonono area,giving rise to the need to examine the impact of floods on the live lihoods of the localcommunity. The study employed both qualitative and quantitati ve approaches, utilis ing bothdescriptive and exploratory designs. The target population for the study was al l the heads ofhou eholds, community leaders and political counci llors of government in Luhonono area.The study applied both purposive sampling and simple random sampling techn iques.Purposive sampling was used to se lect three, in formation-ri ch key in fo rmants; the areaHeadman, the Counci llor and the Community Development Committee member (CDC). Asimple random sampling technique was used to choose a sample of 169 partic ipants from atotal of 800 households in the area. Structured questionnaires and an interview guide wereused as research instruments to collect the data from the sample. The data col lected wascomputed using the Excel computer program and the data was analysed by both qua litativeand quantitative techniques. Chi Square tests were ca rried out to determine the assoc iationof villages and severity of the flooding to the respondents. Hypotheses to test this associationwere examined using the Chi Square method. It was estab li shed that there is no associationbetween the villages and the overall severity of the floods in the Luhonono area. This impliesthat all the villages were equally affected by the fl ood. On the other hand, the results of thestudy showed that floods impacted more severely on one or more of the crops, livestock,water qua li ty, child education, li ve lihoods and dwellin gs. The results have shown that cropsand child education were the most affected. The study fu1ther recommended that theGovernment of the Republic of amibia should step up the relocation drives (consi deringthe willingness of the affected people), linked to positive incentives which would be a longtermso lution, unlike the temporary provision of utilities du ring times of flooding.

[发布机构] University of the Free State