Elements for Life

[

] 132

N NEW RESEARCH

with slum dwellers in six African cities,

ActionAid has uncovered that there are few, if any, collec-

tive mechanisms for reducing flood risks or for managing

floods once they do happen. Instead, poor people are left to

fend for themselves however they are able.

Urbanization and climate change in Africa

Environmental refugees are already swelling the tide of rural-

to-urban migration across Africa. The trend is expected to

increase as climate-related drought and floods intensify and

grow more frequent, and rural Africans seek a more secure life

in the city. By 2030, the majority of Africa’s population will live

in urban areas. However, global warming is also bringing

increased chronic flooding to the cities, increasing the vulner-

ability of the urban poor throughout Africa.

Already the urban poor have no choice but to build their

homes and grow their food in hazardous places such as river

flood plains. Others construct their shelters on steep, unsta-

ble hillsides, or along the foreshore on former mangrove

swamps or tidal flats. Whether already vulnerable to destruc-

tive floods, damaging landslides or storm surges, climate

change is making the situation of the urban poor worse.

The right to adequate housing and ‘continuous improvement

of living conditions’ was recognized more than three decades

ago by the governments that ratified the International

Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. Six years

ago, at the UN Millennium Summit, world leaders set a specific

target for realizing that right by pledging to achieve ‘a signifi-

cant improvement in the lives of at least 100 million slum

dwellers’ by 2020. However, in Africa – the world’s fastest

Climate change, flooding and

the protection of poor

urban communities in Africa

Ian Douglas, Emeritus Professor, School of Environment and Development,

University of Manchester, Jack Campbell and Yasmin McDonnell,

Emergencies and Conflict Team, ActionAid International

Flooding in Lagos, Nigeria

Photo: Gideon Mendel/Corbis/ActionAid