Flood vulnerability and responses in urban informal communities in Accra, Ghana

Flood events affect millions of poor people living in precarious conditions in African cities every year. However, to date understandings of and responses to flood vulnerability in African cities have been conceptually and practically limited. A dominant focus on the geophysical and biophysical causes of flood events restricts the analyses to the source of flood events and does not pay critical attention to the internal actors, dynamics and processes of informal urbanization where the burden of flood impacts usually fall. Equally problematic is the approach of city authorities in African countries who focus on the informality and illegality of housing and building as the source of the problem. City authorities have used flooding to justify forced evictions, and often limit their response to the distribution of relief items. This thesis challenges both these analyses and approaches to flood vulnerability by approaching the problem of flood vulnerability through an understanding of informal urbanization. In doing so, the thesis argues that vulnerability to flood hazards in urban informal settlements in developing countries is a product of a complex assemblage of the socio-economic factors, political alliances, state activities and local actions that together produce informal urban space. Using the three case studies from Accra, Ghana of Agbogbloshie, Old Fadama and Glefe, I explore how flood vulnerability and responses in these hazard-prone places have been produced and shaped through an assemblage of processes, actors and socio-materialities within the city. The study therefore draws on urban assemblage as the theoretical framework for understanding how flood vulnerabilities and responses are continuously produced through informal urbanisation, political engagements, accumulation of knowledge and capacities by residents and relevant state institutions. Using a mix of qualitative methods including community focus group discussions, interviews with hazard victims and institutional consultations/surveys, the study reveals that flood vulnerability and responses in the three communities have co-evolved with their historical development, dynamics of urban land management, dwelling processes and the role of state and non-state actors. The thesis therefore recommends three important entry points in understanding and addressing flood vulnerability in cities of the global south. First, a rethink of the overall urban planning and development process which places great emphasis on legality and security of tenure, at the expense of land management, housing provision and access to infrastructure. Second is to harness the emerging and accumulated knowledge and capacities of informal communities for flood vulnerability management. And lastly, the study recommends a re-examination of the roles of city authorities and emerging non-state actors through participatory urban governance and improved rights to urban citizenship.