Assessing Vulnerability Trends and Magnitudes in Light of Human Responses to Floods in Karonga District, Malawi

This study argues that the task of disaster risk management in Malawi has been hitherto characterised by post-event humanitarian action and relief activities, with little consideration on the causes and vulnerability assessment per se. Consequently, Malawi lacks a strategy to invest its scarce resources to minimize the damage related to disasters. In this regard, The paper aims to assess the factors that generate the trends and magnitudes of vulnerability with respect to policy makers' response to flood disasters in Karonga district. The study used structured questionnaire, GPS-receiver and observation to collect data from household participants and villages location points. The sample size of household participants was 200, selected from 10 villages in Group Village Headman Matani Mwakasangila and Mujulu Gweleweta. The participants were selected through simple random sampling method. Data from household participants was analysed using SPSS while coordinates from GPS receiver were analysed using Quantum Geographic Information System (QGIS). The study revealed that physical (61%), social (55%), economic (55%), environmental (60%) of the factors were respectively placed in the category of “very important” for generating vulnerability while the cultural factors (37%) were in the “important” category. In addition, the relationship between these vulnerability factors and flood severity revealed strong, medium and weak statistical correlation (r) values. On the other hand, only the cultural factors (p-value=0.009) were significant. The study revealed the vulnerability trends and magnitudes of 9.6%, 32.4% and 58% in the category of “less vulnerable”, “more vulnerable” and “most vulnerable” respectively. Finally, the paper recommends that policy makers should strengthen disaster risk reduction and management strategies in order to reduce human vulnerabilities and infrastructural damage.