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Background: Households are important elements in food disaster preparedness and play important role in its management. This study compared household food disaster preparedness in food-prone rural and urban communities in Kaduna State. Methods: The comparative cross-sectional study was conducted among households in foodprone rural and urban communit...
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... dumping is the most common method of refuse disposal in both the rural 168 (83.2%) and urban 120 (59.4%) communities, p=0.001. (Table 2). ...Citations
... Global hazardous risks such as climate change impacts, human vulnerability and lack of capacity and intense frequency attributable to rapid urbanisation, settlement in hazardous prone areas (Joshua et al. 2023) are estimated to increase with 70 million people being exposed and R800 million people residing on susceptible areas. South Africa is no exception, as it has been affected by various anthropogenic and natural hazards and disasters of different types and proportions. ...
This study aimed to compare how vulnerable informal and formal households are to disaster risks in Bekkersdal mining area in the Rand West City municipality, using a mixed method. A qualitative approach was used to construct a situational analysis of the community, while a questionnaire was used to collect descriptive data. Findings showed both household types (formal and informal) experienced disaster-related risks as their coping resources are limited. Disaster risks such as mining-related incidents (dust, earth tremors and windstorms) are more significant in the informal areas than in formal areas because of their geographical locations. The latter are located in high density areas, with limited access to basic services. Resulting in among others, construction of illegal informal areas and use of illegal electricity connections. These disaster incidents occur against the backdrop of an already vulnerable dolomitic environment that tends to form sinkholes. Thus, the negative impact of mining is the highest disaster risk factor in the area, yet households seem tolerant and distant as they perceive mining as a job opportunity. The study recommended the municipality to include disaster risks in their integrated development plans to ensure that sustainable mining practices are in place to minimise the negative effects in the area. The rehabilitation of mines, measures to prevent informal construction or illegal occupation, and educational awareness on mitigation and adaptation measures are necessary.Contribution: The study adds to the body of knowledge by revising some old techniques of addressing disaster risk measures, especially in surrounding mining communities.
... In most cases, whether natural or artificial, Nigeria has always been caught unawares because there had not been any efficient disaster management system in place and as such each time disaster strikes, it usually results in significant human and animal lives and economic losses to the country. Flooding which is a recurring disaster in Nigeria is usually caused by either climatic or non-climatic factors, thus leading to river, flash, urban and coastal floods among others [16]. In the history of flooding in Nigeria, the worst experience was recorded between July and October 2012 when 363 people lost their lives, 2.1 million people across ten states were displaced and 18, 282 were injured [17]. ...
Nigeria has suffered from both natural and man-made disasters such as flooding, drought; civil unrest, genocide and insurgency; and the country is very important in the continent in terms of its population size, weak health systems and poor disaster preparedness. During disasters, hospitals play critical role by providing essential medical care to the injured in the communities. This paper assessed the relationship between disasters and hospital safety in Nigeria. The study is a narrative review using secondary literature from PubMed, Medline and Google scholar databases. The search words were disaster, Africa, Nigeria and hospital safety. Hospital safety index (HSI) is a global diagnostic tool that provides a snapshot of the probability of functionality of a hospital during disasters. It has structural, non-structural and functional factors in addition to environment and the health services network dimensions with 145 items that can be assessed and grouped into three safety categories- high (A), average (B) and low (C). Category A with score of 0.00-1.0, requires preventive measures to maintain and improve safety; category B with score of 0.36-0.65 measures are required in the short time to reduce losses; category C with score of ≤0.35 requires urgent measures to protect lives. Nigeria over the years has experienced flooding, epidemic, insurgency, fire outbreaks and gas explosion among others with serious impacts. The flood of 2012 alone caused 363 deaths, 2.1 million displaced persons, 18,282 injured and damages of $16.9 billion. The challenges include large gap between policy and implementation, poor knowledge and education on HSI, lack of hazards vulnerability and capacity assessment, hospital building code issues, corruption and poor post-disaster analyses. It is a wakeup call for synergistic action by the relevant stakeholders to reduce risk, protect health facilities and save lives in Africa in general and Nigeria in particular.
