Effect of flood disaster preparedness on the livelihoods of the community living along river nyando in Kisumu County, Kenya

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of flood disaster preparedness on the Livelihoods of Communities living along River Nyando in Nyando Sub County, Kisumu County, Kenya. The aim was to determine whether increased levels of disaster preparedness can be one of the major interventions to development in the region in terms of livelihood improvement. It sought to create the relationship between disaster preparedness strategies and community livelihood development among residents living along River Nyando. The target population for this study was 92 comprising of 80 households from Nyakongo and Ayweyo Sub-locations in Nyandosubcounty (2010 Kenya Red Cross Report), 2 sub-location administrators and 10 hospital staff. Descriptive research design was used to describe the characteristics of the situation on the ground in relation to the set objectives of the study. Systematic sampling method was applied whereby the nth item of the study population was interviewed using questionnaires. Purposive sampling was employed to target the hospital staff and administrators. Data analysis was carried out using Chi-square tests to determine the association of variables as well as asses the significance of population variances using the Statistical Packages for Social Sciences together with other computing packages such as Microsoft excel. From the data obtained early warning systems were very effective in ensuring that communities were better prepared for disaster which in turn influenced their socio-economic livelihood. The level of education however did not influence disaster preparedness; however trainings played a major role in creating awareness on flood disaster preparedness. How equipped the hospitals are showed that they were better prepared for disasters and that the community had faith in them being able to handle flood disaster victims. Several challenges were raised that influence the preparedness of the community, ignorance and lack of resources being the major challenges. It was recommended that a county disaster management unit be established to cater for awareness creation and on early warning systems strategies.