By Ote, Hyacinth Uzim
This study examined the impact of flood disaster on rural communities in Ikwo Local Government Area (LGA) of Ebonyi State, Nigeria. The study specifically examined the fundamental causes of flood, investigated the impact of the flood on the rural communities; identified the vulnerable groups from the disaster and the coping mechanisms employed by the communities during flood. Data were generated through questionnaire administration on 400 respondents who constituted the sample size. Purposive sampling technique was employed in selecting the study locations and respondents. The results show that flood disaster in the study area is caused by a combination of rainfall characteristics and human activities in the floodplains. The results also show that the flood disaster has devastating impact on the livelihoods of the people particularly in the agriculture, housing, health, education, water and sanitation, property and assets as well as infrastructure sectors. The results further show that all the population subgroups are vulnerable from the flood disaster in the rural communities as indicated by the respondents. It was also observed that the rural communities employed some coping mechanisms during the floods and their main sources of information on the coping strategies are the mass media as well as informal training which were not regular as majority of the respondents indicated. Despite the devastating impact of the flood disaster, the residents of the rural communities did not perceive permanent relocation from their settlements as a solution to the flood risk as only 9% respondents saw displacement as a challenge. Consequently, the study recommends the implementation of disaster risk reduction measures to build the capacity of the rural communities to live with the flood hazard in a way that minimizes harm to the people. This can be achieved through the use of mass media to disseminate information, education and communication, as well as capacity building and training.