Assessing Community Adaptation Strategies to Floods in Flood-Prone Areas of Urban District, Zanzibar, Tanzania

Abstract

Floods disasters around the world have increased for the last 20 years and affected billions of people. The same has been observed in Zanzibar, which resulted in severe impacts in many parts of the urban-west region and affected many people, threaten several lives and caused substantial economic losses. Therefore, this study intended to assess the community adaptation strategies to floods, the genesis of those strategies and the limiting factors for each adaptation strategies in flood-prone areas in the Urban District in Zanzibar, Tanzania. It involved 399 households. Data were collected using an interviewer-administered questionnaire for heads of the households to assess their adaptation strategies. The study discovered that the community has been employing different adaptation strategies to reduce the floods risk at pre, during and after floods. Before flooding is cemented the floor, while during flooding moved to another place and after flooding did the structural repairs of their houses and recommendations to the government on providing necessary support are delineated.