Risks profile of natural hazards and selected diseases in Namibia
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Date
2024
Authors
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Journal ISSN
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Publisher
The Risk Profiling Project
Abstract
The occurrence and effects of natural disasters and
infectious diseases in Namibia are diverse and vary
in different areas, indicating the varying levels
of exposure, sensitivity, and adaptability within
the Namibian society. The diverse and pervasive
occurrence of these disasters are costly to the
country when dealt with in a non-holistic manner.
Consequently, Namibia promulgated a disaster risk
management law, the Disaster Risk Management
Act 10 of 2012, to provide a legal framework for
managing disaster risks in the country. This legal
instrument provided the necessary framework for
facilitating the nation’s transition from disaster
management to risk management and focus on
resilience-building, which aligns with the Sendai
Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015–2030.
However, a comprehensive understanding of
disaster risk for various hazards in the country was
lacking.
The Government of the Republic of Namibia, through
the Office of the Prime Minister, commissioned
this study to profile the disaster risks of pertinent
natural hazards and selected diseases countrywide
at the level of Population Enumeration Area, the
lowest possible spatial scale in the country. The
study profiled the vulnerability and risk of nine
natural hazards (drought, flood, heatwave, wildfire,
sea level rise, frost, earthquakes, windstorms and
lightning) and five diseases (malaria, HIV/AIDS,
COVID-19, foot and mouth disease and diarrhoea).
As the profile shows, there is not a single place in
Namibia which is risk-free from all 14 hazards
analysed in this profile. There are, however, areas that are free from some risks such as malaria,
wildfire, foot and mouth disease, and sea level
rise. At the same time, there is not a single place
in Namibia which is at high risk of all 14 hazards.
The profiled risks are spatially differentiated.
Nevertheless, there are areas with high or very high risk levels for multiple disaster risks. In the Zambezi
Region, for example, there are areas compounded
with a high or very high risk of floods, malaria,
diarrhoea, and foot and mouth disease. The south eastern part of the //Kharas Region is concurrently
under high or very high risk of heatwaves, frost and
earthquakes. This speaks to the need for resilience building efforts to be risk-holistic and area-specific,
to reduce vulnerability and disaster risk of the
communities and infrastructure. Thus, this profile
has established the baseline information necessary
for Namibia to move from managing natural
disasters and leverage the mechanism for disaster
risk reduction in accordance with the Sendai
Framework. However, there is a need to integrate
disaster risk maps in the planning processes at
all levels of government and across all sectors to
reduce the impacts of natural hazards on society.
For this integration to be effective, it is imperative
to develop an integrated and spatially-enabled data
management system for storing data on hazards,
risks, vulnerabilities, impacts and interventions
to support resilience-building efforts. This data
management system should be accompanied by
mandatory and standardised annual reporting of all
hazards and their impacts to ensure that resilience-building efforts are evidence-based
Description
This study represents the first most detailed and elaborate analysis of disaster risks in Namibia and
can better inform the implementation of integrated measures for reducing and managing the disaster risks at
local, regional and national levels in Namibia.
Keywords
Wildfire vulnerability and risk assessment, Drought vulnerability and risk assessment, Heatwave vulnerability and risk assessment, Frost vulnerability and risk assessment, Flood vulnerability and risk assessment, Windstorm vulnerability and risk assessment, Sea level rise vulnerability and risk assessment, Lightning strike vulnerability and risk assessment, Disease vulnerability and risk assessment, Seismic (Earthquake) vulnerability and risk assessment, Overall vulnerability and risk assessment