Developing Countries, Local Communities and Extreme Events: Lessons from Malawi

Even though improvements in science and technology have brought significant advancements in flood risk management (FRM), recurrent and extreme flood events still continue to cause serious disruption to livelihoods and send communities in the developing world into poverty traps. It is increasingly recognised that the former is due to the inadequate inclusion of people at risk in planning processes and the predominance of technological solutions without full accounting for local realities and priorities. By focusing on the Lower Shire Valley, the most flood-prone region of Malawi, this paper unveils the multidimensional nature of flood impacts at the local scale. Furthermore, it builds a strong argument for increased community participation in FRM planning by creating a comprehensive narrative of local villagers’ knowledge of flood characteristics (e.g. historical knowledge of floods, flood dynamics, flood causes). The data was collected through key informant interviews (n=36) and focus group discussions (n=20) in 14 communities and analysed through an interpretivist research philosophy and thematic analysis. In a setting where peoples’ livelihoods are dependent on rivers and the levels of poverty are extremely high, flood impacts go well beyond being merely direct and tangible (e.g. housing units, social and physical infrastructure), and are highly conditioned by a status of social vulnerability, determined by the underlying processes such as impoverishment and lack of access to land. Full comprehension of flood impacts is needed for the development of effective and inclusive FRM strategies. Furthermore, the results indicate that communities, who continue to live in flood prone areas subject to recurrent events, possess an extremely detailed knowledge of flood characteristics (e.g. most exposed areas, differentiation of flooding type, inundation levels) and flood causes (e.g. infrastructure development, environmental degradation), and have a wide array of local level mitigation, coping and adaptation mechanisms (e.g. early warning systems, temporary relocation, local means of evacuation). This type of information can serve as a useful source of data in data-scarce environments such as Malawi. The research presented identifies that the development of sustainable FRM strategies, with tangible impacts at local levels, necessitates that vulnerable communities are at the forefront of both practical interventions and policy development.