Population resilience to flooding in the urbanised mangrove of Douala, Cameroon

Abstract

Purpose This study aims to understand the mechanisms that contribute to the construction of the resilience of populations to urban flooding. It therefore proposes to analyse the strategies and attitudes developed by households subjected to floods to maintain and rebuild themselves despite the damage in the urbanised mangrove swamp of the south of the city. Design/methodology/approach The fieldwork consisted of observing the behaviours, practices and attitudes of households to flooding in the study area. In addition to observations, the fieldwork included interviews (60), focus groups (10), completion of 260 questionnaires by heads of households and field mapping. The sample was determined by the non-probability quota method. The data processing involved the extraction of descriptive and multivariate statistics as well as content analysis. Findings The rapid growth of Douala leads to vulnerabilities through the spontaneous occupation of mangrove areas, thus aggravating the impacts of the floods that occur. Afterwards, the analysis of the individual and collective responses of the inhabitants of the study area highlighted resilience in action. This resilience is expressed in two ways: the individual ability of the inhabitants to exploit internal/psychological and external resources/personal social capital to absorb the shock; and the capacity for self-organisation and learning which is manifested by the use of feedback in the reconstruction phase to transform the disaster into an opportunity for territorial development. Research limitations/implications Two main limitations of this work should be noted and are as follows. The study is only centred on an urbanised mangrove area, although there are others: Does the research hypothesis also apply to other urbanised mangrove areas? Flooding is not specific to mangrove areas. Other spontaneous non-mangrove neighbourhoods are subject to flooding. The results of this study give the impression that resilience capacities are paradoxically manifested in the most vulnerable neighbourhoods. This impression needs to be confirmed by further studies for a comparative synthesis of the experience of shocks between spontaneous neighbourhoods and planned neighbourhoods. Practical implications Urban flooding is one of many physical phenomena that scientists and technologists are learning about and trying to anticipate, avoid, and prepare for. Governments are simultaneously implementing policies for prevention, monitoring, warning, and reaction. If this analysis does not take into account the intrinsic capacities of the populations to cope with dangers, accept responsibility for their actions, and take significant local action when necessary, this framework will still be inadequate. Spontaneous activities are gradually developing around these efforts into coordinated, structured actions that, if taken into consideration and effectively managed, can prove to be successful and satisfying on a town-wide scale. Social implications Scientists and technicians are learning about physical phenomena such as urban flooding and are seeking ways to predict, prevent and protect against them. In parallel, governments are putting in place prevention, monitoring, warning and response policies. This framework is still lacking if this study does not consider the populations’ inherent abilities to deal with threats, take responsibility for their actions and take meaningful local action when necessary. Around these efforts, spontaneous initiatives are progressively emerging into concerted structured actions that can prove to be effective and satisfactory on a town-wide scale if they are taken into account and well managed. Originality/value Very few studies have considered the forms of expression of resilience in marginal urban environments such as spontaneous and anarchic neighbourhoods, non-aedificandi zones and sensitive environments such as the mangroves areas.