Enhance measures to tame deadly floods
The current heavy rains and destructive floods across the country have once again exposed the lack of preparedness to deal with natural disasters.
The storms confirm a shocking inability to secure people, their homes and public institutions, including schools, and infrastructure, especially roads and bridges.
Roads in towns and the rural areas have been swamped by flood waters, a poignant reminder that a lot needs to be done to tame the grave risks. At a time like this, the tendency is to blame failures on the government.
However, all of us have a role to play in preventing or even easing the consequences of this force of nature by taking individual precautions.
It is a grim situation, but the Met has warned that it is not over yet. Several deaths have been reported from the heavy rains at the weekend but more storms are expected.
In Machakos County, helicopters have been used to evacuate people trapped in their homes. Almost 4,000 households have been displaced in Kisumu but other areas have also been affected to varying degrees. They include the 500 people driven out of their homes by floods in Kirinyaga, in Mt Kenya region.
When the skies open, it is an indiscriminate fury, as crops are also washed away, threatening food and cash crop harvests.
The government has been forced to resort to strict measures to get the people to obey floods advisories by threatening forcible evictions.
There is a need to embrace Disaster Risk Preparedness (DRP) as a shared responsibility in response to these deadly consequences of climate change instead of expecting the government to do everything.
Poor preparedness creates a vicious cycle that just leaves the country more susceptible to such disasters. The National Disaster Risk Management Unit (NDRMU) is creating early warning systems, sensitising and educating communities and implementing risk reduction strategies.
The government should devise more sustainable plans for disaster preparedness and help to ensure that heavy rains become a blessing and not a curse. The building of large dams to harvest storm water will curb destruction and enable irrigation to boost agriculture.
