Community Vulnerability to Disasters in Botswana

Abstract

Community vulnerability to various hazards and related risks complicates recovery, reconstruction, and adaptation to disaster shocks. Vulnerability results from several factors rooted within the community requiring an accurate analysis of environmental threats. As such, vulnerability and capacity assessments are essential in the analysis and better comprehension of disasters and the related behaviour within the social environment. Hazard and vulnerability assessment diagnose situational crises and the likely effects on people and the environment. A key result from the study on community resilience to disasters in Botswana shows that communities are vulnerable and are constantly under disaster threat. Although there are district disaster management committee, they are only active during emergency response and ignore the pre and post disaster activities. As such, communities, families, and individuals lack fundamental knowledge, skills, and techniques necessary to enhance their resilience to disasters. After reflecting on issues that make individuals / or communities vulnerable, it is crucial that communities develop measures to reduce vulnerabilities across groups in the community. Therefore, this paper seeks to draw the attention of individuals / or communities to disaster related risks and to deliberately prepare for environmental hazards / risks and ensure appropriate mitigation measures.