Tana River County
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TANA RIVER COUNTY FLOOD EARLY WARNING COMMUNICATION STRATEGY 2021 Table of Contents Foreword .................................................................................................................................. 6 Acronyms and Abbreviations .............................................................................................. 7 Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................... 8 1.0 Tana River County Background Context ..................................................................... 9 1.1 Geographical context ...................................................................................................... 9 1.2 Socio economic context .................................................................................................. 9 1.3 Climatic condition, vegetation and livelihoods .................................9 2.0 Methodology of Development of This Few Strategy ................................................ 11 2.1 Flood Early Warning Communication Strategy Development Process ................ 11 3.0 Situation Analysis ............................................................................................................ 13 3.1 Context of disasters in Tana River County ................................................................ 13 3.2 Floods in Tana River ....................................................................................................... 14 3.2.1 Types of flooding experienced .................................................................................... 14 3.2.2 Sources/causes of flooding .......................................................................................... 15 3.2.3 The impact of floods in Tana River ............................................................................. 16 3.3 Policy and institutional arrangement ......................................................................... 18 3.3.1 Role of County Governments in Disaster preparedness, mitigation and response 18 3.3.2 Policy environment for disaster preparedness, mitigation and response ............ 19 3.3.3 Institutional structure in place to support flood mitigation in anaT River County 20 3.4 The SWOT Analysis ....................................................................................................... 22 3.5 The Flood early warning information in Tana River County ................................ 24 3.5.1 Types and Sources of flood early warning communication in Tana River ........... 24 Table 4: Sources of flood early warning information in Tana River County ................. 25 3.5.2 Most preferred information methods and channels of communication ............... 26 3.5.5 Challenges of the current flood early warning communication structures in Tana River County ............................................................................................................................ 29 4.0 Rationale and Essence of Flood Early Warning ........................................................ 31 5.0 The Flood Early Warning Communication Strategic Direction .............................. 32 5.1 Key Objective of Flood Early Warning Communication ........................................ 32 5.1 The strategic focus .......................................................................................................... 33 6.0 Management Capacity and Partnership ...................................................................... 44 6.1 Human resource capacity .............................................................................................. 44 6.2 The proposed flood early warning communication structure ................................ 44 6.3 Stakeholder mapping and roles ................................................................................... 47 2 The County Government of Tana River 6.4 Key propositions ............................................................................................................. 52 7.0 Monitoring and Coordination ....................................................................................... 53 8.0 Annexes .............................................................................................................................. 57 8.1 Proposed Budget ............................................................................................................. 57 8.1 Prototype flood early warning messages .................................................................... 61 Flood Early Warning Communication Strategy 3 List of Tables Figure 1: Photo of flooding in Tana River County .......................................................... 13 Figure 2: Meandering of River Tana ................................................................................. 15 Figure 3: Flood Risks areas .................................................................................................. 16 Figure 4: Specific people vulnerable to flooding ............................................................ 17 Figure 5: Key sources of information for communities ................................................. 26 Figure 6: Flood coping mechanisms used ........................................................................ 28 Figure 7: The seven step strategic focusExtending the lead time of warnings; ............................................................................................................................ 33 Figure 8: Proposed Tana River Flood Early Warning Communication Structure ..... 46 4 The County Government of Tana River List of Figures Table 1: Flood Early Warning Communication Strategy Development Process ....... 12 Table 2: Status of enactment of DRM legislation ........................................................... 20 Table 3: Community and County level SWOT Analysis ............................................... 22 Table 5: Categorization of stakeholders (information users) in Tana River County 27 Table 6: Strategies for communicating early warning information ............................ 39 Table 7: Stakeholder mapping ............................................................................................ 47 Table 8: Key propositions .................................................................................................... 52 Table 9: Monitoring plan ..................................................................................................... 53 Table 10: Estimate Flood Early Warning Communication Strategy Budget .............. 57 Table 11: Key prototype messages ..................................................................................... 61 Flood Early Warning Communication Strategy 5 Foreword Tana River County like most of the Arid and Semi-Arid regions in Kenya, is vul- nerable to acute human suffering and loss of development assets brought about by disasters which are caused by both natural and human induced hazards. The main hazards which cause disasters in the county are; floods, drought, conflict and human and livestock diseases. Traditionally flooding in Tana River County was deemed a blessing since farmers and fishermen maximized on this oppor- tunity to plant crops as well as undertake fishing. However, with the increase in population living along the river coupled with ecological disturbance in the catchment areas, flooding has become more of a curse to Tana residents as it more often results in flooding. The flooding leads to; displacement of people, destruction of crops, property and infrastructure and waterborne diseases. As the frequency and intensity of flood events is expected to increase with cli- mate change, as a county, we all need to appreciate the adverse impacts these events could have and the threat these will pose to communities at risk in the county if we don’t act. These events also pose a threat to our livelihood as a county impeding the realization of the County CIDP and the national Vision 2030. There is need to take action now and in future to mitigate the negative impacts of floods and establish a situation where present and future generations will have better livelihoods that can sustain their well-being, live in peace and enjoy good health. The development and implementation of effective and reliable flood early warn- ing communication systems in Tana River County is key in forewarning and reducing the impacts of floods in the county. Going forward the County govern- ment will in collaboration with other key stakeholders ensure that the strategy is effectively implemented with a focus on; • Extending the lead time of warning • Improving context appropriateness of warnings • Enhancing greater participation and ownership of the forecasts by coun- ty and affected communities • Strengthening effective communication and dissemination structure for early warnings • Enhance use of appropriate channel to alert the affected communities • Ensure warning messages are understood by users • Right targeting of warning service to relevant and specific users 6 The County Government of Tana River Acronyms and Abbreviations BRC British Red Cross CBDRT Community Based Disaster Response Team CBPP Contagious Bovine pleural pneumonia CC County Commissioner CBO Community Based Organization CCPP Contagious Caprine pleural pneumonia CDMS County Director of Meteorological Services CDMF County Disaster Management Forum CIDP County Integrated Development Plan CSG County Steering Group DCC Deputy County Commissioner DRM Disaster Reduction