Consequences of Perennial Flooding on People’s Socio-Economic Livelihood: Understanding the Coping Strategies of Victims in the Kasena-Nankana Municipality

Abstract

ABSTRACT

Floods are the most common natural disasters and leading cause of natural disaster fatalities worldwide. Its consequences are both negative and positive and vary greatly depending on the location and the extent of flooding and vulnerability and value of the natural and constructed environment that they affect. This study seeks to understand the consequences of perennial floods on the socio-economic livelihoods and coping strategies of victims in the Kasena-Nankana Municipality of the Upper East Region of Ghana. The study adopted a cross-sectional design and used a mixed methods approach. The sample population was made up 363 respondents. Both quantitative and qualitative data collection methods were used to collect data for this study. The quantitative data was edited, coded, and input into the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 21 and cleaned before analysis. Descriptive statistics and Chi-square (χ2) analysis were used to measure the difference between households’ socio-demographics and consequence of perennial floods, how perennial floods affect the socio-economic livelihoods, and the coping strategies of flood victims. The analysis of the qualitative data was done by developing a code book, where transcribed data were imported into Nvivo 12 software to aid in thematic content analysis. The univariate analysis of the manifest and latent consequences of flooding on households showed that 99.45 percent of participants lost their homes due to the floods and 42.42 percent had their main water sources negatively affected by the floods. The study also revealed that the perennial flooding affected the socio-economic livelihoods of flood victims in the Municipality. The results showed that about 31.68 percent of respondents lost their properties other than houses during the floods. More than half (54.82 percent) of respondents experienced crop damage during the floods. The strategies respondents used to cope with their situation were mostly short-term. A total of 95.87 percent of respondents sold their properties to enable them cope with floods, 66.39 percent received help from community members, 45.73 percent relied on their meagre savings, while 28.37 percent also relied on family relations. The National Disaster Management Organization (NADMO) was said to be the sole agency responsible for disaster management in the Municipality but collaborates with the Kasena Nankana Municipal Assembly and Red Cross Society of Ghana. Even though, the current collaboration is effective it needed to be enhanced. The perennial flooding has had serious consequences on flood victims in the Kasena-Nankana Municipal. The collapse of houses of flood victims and the loss of their socio-economic livelihoods to floods impoverished them. The National Disaster Management Organization (NADMO), the main government agency is responsible for disaster management but lack the resources to respond to disasters in the Municipality.