Assessment of Flood Management in South C Ward of Nairobi City County, Kenya
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Date
2017Author
Baariu, Patricia, K
Type
ThesisLanguage
enMetadata
Show full item recordAbstract
Floods are hydro meteorological hazards that perennially affect Nairobi City County,
often leading to loss of lives, destruction of property and disruption of essential services.
This study sought to understand the various aspects surrounding these flood hazards by
focussing on South C ward; which has been perennially affected by floods. In this regard,
this study first sought to assess the flooding patterns of the ward and subsequent effects
of these floods. The second objective was to assess the factors that influence the
vulnerability of South C to flooding. Finally, the study examined the policy, legal and
institutional framework in place to deal with issues of flooding in the City. Topographical
maps, climate data analysis, field observation checklists, interviews, questionnaires and
review of literature were used to collect data. According to 48% of the respondents,
South C has experienced perennial flooding for the past 5 years with reduced
accessibility and destruction of property being among the most significant effects
according to 54% and 18% of respondents respectively. In so far as vulnerability is
concerned, the study found that geographically, South C is vulnerable to flooding as a
result of its being located at a floodplain, where major rivers from the Ngong hills drain.
This vulnerability is further exacerbated by poorly maintained solid waste disposal and
storm water management infrastructure. The study also found that there are 10 laws and
policies that should deal with matters related to flooding but none of them addresses the
matter adequately. The draft national disaster management policy groups floods as an
environmentally-triggered hazard but gives no specific policy recommendations on
dealing with floods in cities; Nairobi city included. The flood mitigation strategy only
acknowledges that, in addition to low-lying areas of the country, there is perennial
occurrence of floods in urban centres. The document, however, doesn‟t offer further
guidelines on how to deal with the same. This study recommends that in addition to
incorporating structural measures such as setting up of sustainable urban drainage
systems and control of solid waste dumping, there is a need to include specific flood risk
management guidelines into existing regulations, as well as strengthen the institutions
tasked with matters of flood disaster mitigation and management.
Publisher
University of Nairobi
Rights
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 United StatesUsage Rights
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/Collections
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