Social and environmental impacts of flooding in vulnerable Kenyan communities

El Niño is back to threaten Kenya. This natural climatic event that occurs in different areas of the world tends to increase temperatures from time to time in addition to the greenhouse effect generated by human activities. This phenomenon can lead to massive and destructive events such as droughts and flooding. 

Torrential rain and deadly floods attributed to El Niño and climate change have affected Kenya in March, leading to one of the most catastrophic events in recent years for the country. Currently 250 people have been declared dead while 194,000 people were displaced and 72 citizens are still missing.

In Nairobi, Kenya's capital city, the floods mainly affected slums, including Mathare and Mukuru. These events do not seem unusual considering how the city is structured: according to a statement made to BBC from Professor Alfred Omenya, urban planning and environment expert, Nairobi city is located on a flood plain of the Nairobi River, which flows through the capital, as well as other rivers and streams. The city's overwhelming and rapid population growth in a century, from 100,000 residents to 4.5 million, did not allow for the development of an adequate water drainage system, keeping the infrastructure, especially the water infrastructure, rather weak and easily damaged.

Professor Omenya underlines that less than half residents in Nairobi is linked to a drainage system. That explains why in most vulnerable city areas like in the slums, sewers are open and overflow in the event of flooding. Also the drains are clogged since they are used as a disposal site for domestic waste. Furthermore, the urbanisation of the city has led to the increasingly disruptive absence of areas covered by land, which is why water is not absorbed but flows away, overwhelming drainage canals and rivers, and roads consequently become an integral part of the drainage system, i.e. real waterways.

The consequences of these events are alarming, and the government must find an answer as soon as possible. Nairobi's water provision has already been tainted by the open sewer cited before and Médecins Sans Frontières warned that the contamination could pose a danger for the proliferation of water and mosquito associated diseases such as cholera, typhoid and malaria. Another major concern is about hunger: floods in fact, have swept away farms and food crops, and this could lead to a period of severe food shortages for people in the whole country. Current weather condition have also left 54 million people without electricity, causing disruption to several infrastructures, including air and port.

For the time being, President William Ruto has decided to close schools until further notice and has signed an order to dismantle and demolish all houses built near rivers in the city of Nairobi. This choice even if done to prevent the death of other civilians, has spread a state of alarm and tension among civilians which have seen their houses dismantled in such a short time that they were unable to find a timely alternative solution. We are talking about 70% of Nairobi residents living in these informal settlements, which occupy about 5% of the city's land area

Most of these people, according to the same government provision that authorised the demolitions, will be relocated to 138 refugee camps, distributed in 18 of the country's 47 counties, which will be able to shelter up to 62,000 people.

But the government will also have to deal with the even more critical situation in the areas surrounding the city of Nairobi. Think of what happened in Mai Mahiu, in the Naivasha area, where a basin overflowed and swept away neighbouring villages causing around 70 victims, or in the Masai Mara, where the wildlife was terribly affected, an event that causes huge damage to the environment and the country's economy.

In the villages, in addition, the impossibility of using the roads, often muddy, prevents access to the most important infrastructures, such as sanitary facilities, and lack of access to food, while the destruction of crops means a severe reduction in the income on which entire families rely for their livelihood. In many of these villages, the closure of schools may also represent a problem and a risk for children, as harmful traditional practices, such as female genital mutilation or early marriages, may be favoured, and children may drop out of school prematurely, as they are encouraged to seek work to help support their families.

The chaos affecting the country is evident and seems to be the result of rather weak planning, which, as Professor Omenya would say, has been so since colonial times. The Kenyan government is now being asked for an efficient and timely response that is also forward-looking and that, with the support of the global community, may be able to prevent similar events and reduce the consequences of what appears to be an unprecedented humanitarian crisis for the country.

Translated by Flora Stanziola

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