The role of communities in building urban flood resilience in Matola, Mozambique

Abstract

Community urban flood resilience is a challenge in different parts of the world, especially in resource-deficient contexts, such as in Mozambique. This paper explores the actions, measures, or strategies the residents of Matola have developed to cope with urban flooding and build com­ munity resilience. The study is based on 18 semi-structured interviews, three focus group dis­ cussions with 24 residents, two semi-structured interviews with municipal officials from the urban planning sector in Matola, who were present during the 2000 floods, and field observa­ tions. The findings reveal that community mitigation actions during the 2000 flood in Matola ranged from reinforcing the material structure of houses and installing water barriers with walls of sandbags, to rescuing and accommodating family and community members in collaboration with municipal rescue teams. Community adaptation measures after the 2000 floods were improving and reconstructing houses destroyed by the floods, raising yard levels with fill, which changed the environment, building new homes in relatively safe self-obtained sites, and adhering to the resettlement promoted by the municipality. The study reveals that during the 2000 floods and the post-flood recovery process, social capital, characterized by pre-existing strong social cohesion and mutual trust among community members, was vital in bringing people together to support and rescue community members besieged by the flood. The municipality’s official network of collaboration with communities, represented by their elected leaders, was a relevant factor for community flood resilience because it favoured establishing ongoing connections be­ tween the parties identifying the main waterways for the creation of drainage channels and organizing the gradual resettlement of residents who had lost their homes in the flood. However, the findings reveal that with a rapidly increasing population and an accelerated horizontal land occupation for different uses, there seems to be a mismatch between the urban development plans and the municipal efforts to build flood resilience, and what is happening in practice with some constructions violating official regulations.