Members of Malawian Army and locals help recover bodies after Cyclone Freddy in Blantyre, Malawi. Credit: REUTERS/Esa Alexander
On Thursday, May 4, scores of people were killed in flooding and landslides brought on by torrential rains in Eastern Congo’s South Kivu province; whole houses were washed away overnight, along with school buildings and a health centre. This disaster came two days after floods killed at least 131 people and destroyed thousands of homes in neighbouring Rwanda. Africa’s economic progress is at risk because of gaps in disaster preparedness and emergency response.
Cyclone Freddy barreled through Malawi and Mozambique in March this year, killing more than 400 hundred and displacing at least 88,000 people. Rescue workers were overwhelmed, and the world watched in horror as they used shovels to find survivors buried in mud. It was difficult to determine the extent of the damage caused and the number of deaths, as the power supply and phone signals were cut off in some parts of the affected areas.
According to weather experts, even wealthier countries would have been no match for the level of destruction this cyclone has brought. Freddy accumulated more energy over its journey across the Indian Ocean than an entire U.S. hurricane season put together.
While our brothers and sisters struggle to cope with severe infrastructure damage and tragic loss of life, a critical question remains: are we doing enough to strengthen African communities for future occurrences? Sadly, the destruction stemming from recent storms in Malawi was foreseen by their disaster agency – yet it appears these preparations have fallen short.
Accepting and preparing African economies for a different set of challenges
Prior to 1994, Category 5 storm events were entirely unknown in Southern Africa, according to research published in the Southern African Journal of Science. Extreme weather events such as droughts, floods, cyclones and landslides are now occurring with increased frequency and greater intensity.
And the devastating impacts of such disasters tend to be worse for African communities.
When Cyclone Idai made landfall in Mozambique in 2019, over 1,200 miles of Mozambique’s midsection, including some of the country’s most fertile agricultural lands, were inundated with salty flood waters just prior to harvest, setting the conditions for a food crisis.
Countries like the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Mozambique and Malawi must make tough choices in terms of development priorities. Disaster risk reduction remains a relatively low priority in Africa. To prepare for an event which hasn’t happened yet means spending scarce resources now to avert future impacts that would conceivably be far worse without the present investment in preparedness. However, this would mean anticipating, building resilience, adapting and mitigating.
Rather than merely responding after disaster strikes, it is more cost-effective and prudent to invest beforehand in preparedness and resilience.
Disasters push African countries into taking on emergency loans to rebuild and recover. For most, such debts easily become unsustainable, and make them vulnerable to debt distress, further inhibiting economic growth.
Smart public investments can double as disaster preparedness. A resilient basic primary health care infrastructure is a good example; During the response to Cyclone Idai, public health care workers played key roles, with local clinicians essentially being drafted dynamically into the role of first responders.
Unless African countries prepare now for these recurring natural disasters, whether it is a cyclone, a drought or disease outbreak, their hard-fought economic gains will evaporate, and African men, women and children will suffer greatly.
Editor’s Note: This post was originally published on March 28, 2023, and has been updated.
