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Top1. Introduction
Climate change presents an increasingly complex and complicated approach to disaster preparedness and response with the frequency and intensity of natural disasters being at the fore front. Disaster preparedness refers to the capacities and knowledge developed by governments, professional response organisations, communities and individuals to anticipate and respond effectively to the impact of likely, imminent or current hazard events or conditions (UNISDR, Disaster preparedness for effective response: guidance and indicator package for implementing priority five of the Hyogo framework., 2008). Whilst scientist argue that some disasters have occurred as a result of natural phenomena, a number of arguments have emerged mainly in the discipline of Social Sciences propounding that there is nothing called a “natural disaster” as these events are as a result of anthropological activities and humans should take responsibility for their contribution to the occurrence of ‘natural hazards’ (Chmutina & Meding, 2019), (Dranseika, 2016). The growing understanding of the role vulnerability plays in driving disaster impacts on a society has fuelled these arguments. This study is largely influenced by the definition that a disaster is,
A serious disruption of the functioning of a community or a society at any scale due to hazardous events interacting with conditions of exposure, vulnerability and capacity, leading to one or more of the following: human, material, economic and environmental losses and impacts (UNISDR, Terminology, 2018).
It recognises that human beings play a part in exacerbating the impacts of hazards, this is where disaster preparedness comes into the picture, where efforts are geared towards reducing the impacts of hazards on people, and a hazard does not always have to culminate into a disaster. So whether or not the hazard occurred naturally as scientists argue or as a result of anthropological activities there is need to invest in disaster preparedness inorder to better respond to these events and build back better afterwards. (Schipper & Pelling, 2006) discuss preparedness as part of systematic incorporation of disaster risk management, which includes prevention and mitigation. The purpose of this study is to examine the present state of disaster preparedness in the country with special attention to the more damaging and frequent disasters floods. The aim of this study is to zero in on flood disasters in Tsholotsho district which are characteristic of the whole country as well inform future policies and statutes based on the actual situation on the ground. The study also draws the country a step closer towards implementation of the Sendai Framework, attainment of the SDGs and climate change statutes which the nation and the globe are running with. Literature in disaster management studies shows that flood management is increasingly risk-oriented; this means that multiplicities of efforts are aimed towards managing communities’ risk to flood disasters. How nations and communities prepare for disasters is important to the development of resilient systems (Rodriguez-Oreggia, De La Fuente, De La Torre, & Moreno, 2013); (O'Brien, O'Keefe, Gadema, & Swords, 2010) and (Masten & Obradovic, 2008).
Disaster preparedness is a huge part of disaster risk management and has been propounded in a number of global frameworks for disaster risk management. The Hyogo Framework for Action (HFA), which ran from 2005 to 2015, outlined five specific priorities for action with the fifth one being ‘Strengthening preparedness for response’. HFA’s priority five explained how improved preparedness in disasters had a domino effect on disaster response which would result in saving lives and livelihoods particularly when absorbed into an overall disaster risk reduction approach. Strengthened preparedness for hazard events is mainly concerned with two objectives, increasing capacity to predict, monitor and be prepared to reduce damage or address potential threats and strengthening preparedness to respond in an emergency and to assist those who have been adversely affected (UNISDR, Hyogo Framework for Action, 2005) and (UNISDR, 2008). Preparedness therefore involves developing a proper plan for ensuring that all elements of the early and initial risk assessments are well recognised and mechanisms for minimising the risk and saving of lives and properties are appropriately established and coordinated (UNISDR, 2008).