Collaborative Design Strategy for Flood Risk Reduction in East Uganda
A. Azhim Firdaus (TU Delft - Industrial Design Engineering)
Jan‑Carel Diehl – Mentor (TU Delft - Design for Sustainability)
W. Brouwer – Graduation committee member (TU Delft - Responsible Marketing and Consumer Behavior)
Anand Ramachandran Nair – Coach (Fields Data)
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Abstract
Background:
Climate change is affecting Uganda through the worsening floods that happen on a yearly basis. These disasters are claiming the lives and livelihoods of local communities, which lead to more challenges such as economic consequences and forced migration. Immediately after hazards like floods strike, local communities are always the first ones to respond before external aid arrives. Their deep understanding of their own context enable them to tap into local resources and tackle specific challenges which are often neglected by official organizations. This thesis sought out to explore possibilities on how local communities like those in Eastern Uganda can be empowered to anticipate and mitigate the risks of floods.
Context:
Fieldwork was done in the Bugisu sub-region, Eastern Uganda. This region is heavily affected by flash floods from Mount Elgon and riverine floods every year.
Themes:
This report revolves around the subjects of disaster risk reduction and anticipatory action. Themes surrounding top-down governance and domestic response on floods were explored to investigate current and preferred future states.
Process:
The process started with literature study and the exploration of the state of floods in the Bugisu sub-region. Then, a prototype of an early warning and early action strategy was designed for a specific flood challenge. Finally, a toolkit was developed to achieve scalability of impact.
Challenge:
The challenge that was chosen for the development of the prototype is how to get women to safety in emergency flood situations. The location of choice is Namabasa sub-county in Mbale city, Eastern Uganda.
Results:
A community-led early warning and early action strategy that is low cost, involves the active participation of local stakeholders and maximises the use of local resources.
A toolkit that consists of manuals, documents and templates to replicate the strategy in another location in Uganda.
Impact:
Fields Data, the main client of this project, has published the toolkit on their website for organizations to freely download it and replicate the early warning and early action strategy in Uganda.
The Netherlands Red Cross and 510 (initiative of the Netherlands Red Cross) have shown interests to develop the strategy and the toolkit. They are interested to review them to establish more community-led approaches and see if the workings complement the current tools and methods being used by them.