Household disaster awareness and preparedness: a case study of flood hazards in Asamankese in the West Akim Municipality of Ghana

Abstract

Increasing disasters and their associated devastating impacts on society have called into question the capacity of countries to address disaster occurrences. Hitherto, primary disaster management institutions have addressed disaster in a piecemeal manner, commonly through the distribution of relief items after occurrence of disasters. Considering this shortfall and as a contribution to the current discourse of disaster management, this study investigated households’ awareness and preparedness for flood disasters in Asamankese, a rapidly developing township, which has also seen increase in flood disasters in recent times. To this end, a mixed research method approach was used in both data collection and analysis. A survey was conducted to collect data from 200 households in the township. Two focus group discussions were also organised to gather in-depth insights. The study found that households’ awareness of flood disaster risks was very high in both flood-prone and non-flood-prone ecological zones of Asamankese. Also, notable from the study was that whereas level of awareness was high among residents, preparedness levels were generally low, especially in terms of financial preparedness. Several recommendations were proposed, which include improving public education and sensitisation on flood disaster preparedness strategies, creating financial support scheme for residents to increase their financial preparedness as well as encouraging residents to increase their social capital support and participate in community gatherings.