Broad disaster preparedness key to tackling future floods

Yesterday’s presidential address offered more clarity than we have had to date. All communities across 11 coastal and up-county counties must vacate or be forcefully evacuated away from high-risk dams, water reservoirs and rivers to higher ground. Schools will remain closed indefinitely. Constituency Development Funds will be directed to rebuilding damaged schools while National Cereals and Produce Board food reserves will go to relief programmes.

The president was worryingly vague on how much the Treasury has been instructed to fund national and county emergency programmes. The promise of relocation and shelter support, a life and death issue for thousands currently homeless, was also unclear. Apart from his passionate and welcoming plea for environmental conservation, his speech was silent on who is accountable for the current human security lapse and how this will be prevented in future.

At the invitation of Pussy Power organisation, I spent Labour Day listening to Mathare residents sheltering in schools, places of worship, food kitchens and along the still surging Nairobi River. While overlooked in the president’s speech, community-based organisations were their first line of defence against drowning, disease, hunger, and homelessness. Absent were navy divers to retrieve bodies, diggers, and tippers to remove debris and officers to assist with trauma counselling and antiretroviral and insulin medicine. Absent also were state officers to register the dead or those without citizenship documents, offer clothing and identify alternative schools for their children were absent. Most are willing to relocate but lack the Sh7,000 shillings for one month’s rent and deposit.

Timely information gathering, open danger reporting lines and community-based decision-making led by local leaders trusted across communities are now critical. Top-down national pronouncements and no local follow-through will diffuse the government’s efforts to protect citizens.

The lack of sustainable land use policy, emergency planning and mitigation strategies to date must not be allowed to confuse comprehensive, inclusive, and faster recovery efforts now. However, unless the government dares to implement a more comprehensive disaster management approach, floods, frustration, and fear will remain out there in the future.