Community responses to floods: case study of Thornwood Township in Mariannhill, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.

Abstract

The overall aim of this study is to explore and examine the community’s response to floods in the Thornwood area. Particular focus was paid to the flood that occurred in 2022 in Thornwood township in the province of KwaZulu-Natal. This study adopted a qualitative method. In order to achieve its objectives, this study used both in-depth semi-structured interviews and focus group discussions. 13 participants were selected and interviewed for the in-depth semi-structured interviews, and 4 groups were interviewed, whereby each group comprised of 5 participants each. In total, there were 33 participants selected and interviewed for both the in-depth semi-structured interview and focus group discussions. The findings revealed that floods affected the community of Thornwood township severely. The findings also indicated that there were many serious challenges posed by floods in the study area. In addition, this study also found that the community in the study area used different coping strategies, whereby most participants indicated that those strategies were helpful. However, it was also discovered that the same coping strategies also had some limitations and disadvantages. This implies that even though these strategies were so helpful to a certain extent, but on the other side of the coin, this community was still vulnerable and unable to resist the flood effects. Furthermore, the findings again revealed that this community did not receive any external support, specifically, from the government.