Floods

Floods

Flood is a natural hazard through which a dry area is suddenly covered with water for a particular time. This hazard can lead to serious disasters, such as death of people, destruction of properties and infrastructure.

Floods occur due to several reasons.

1. One of them is the occurrence of heavy rainfall over a long or short time.
2. Another cause is the overflow of water from rivers, dams, lakes, and oceans. This forces water to cross or form a new way through settlements, farms, industries and business centres.
3. Floods can occur when dams burst under pressure of water which is used for power generation or irrigation. Such dams can also burst due to technical problems.

A blocked waste canal

Impacts of floods

Floods as one of natural hazards can cause disasters. Such disasters affect the community and the environment in the following ways:

1. Loss of human and animal lives;
2. Destruction of infrastructure such as roads, railway lines, communication systems, water supply, and sewerage systems;
3. Destruction of settlements and properties;
4. Loss of properties, people, and livestock as they are washed away by floods;
5. Destruction of crops and other plants on the land, putting the country at risk of hunger and diseases;
6. Polluting the environment via poisonous chemicals that may get into water from mining areas, factories and human settlements; and
7. Lack of electricity, communication, and clean water due to the destruction of infrastructure.

Strategies for reducing the impacts of floods

The impacts of floods can be prevented or reduced in a number of ways. These include the following:

1. To avoid living in flood-prone areas such as valleys, near dams, and unplanned settlements;
2. To ensure that the environment is always clean, for example by cleaning wastewater canals in our surroundings;
3. To have sustainable town and city development plans in order to avoid establishing settlements in flood-prone areas;
4. Planting grass and trees to protect the soil from water erosion; and
5. Raising public awareness of protection against floods.

Floods in human settlements