*Flooding and Its Impact on Education DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.94368*

*Natural Hazards - Impacts, Adjustments and Resilience*

on which livelihoods depend on.

**3. Associated flood benefits**

to the inhabitants despite the threat posed by flooding.

that resulted in flood damage of exponential levels in Africa [3]. This was caused mainly by cyclone Idai which affected Zimbabwe, Malawi and Mozambique leaving a trail of destructions and deaths [4]. As for flash floods, these are of a short duration caused by high intensity rainfall that quickly floods the smaller basins. Africa is overwhelmed with periods of extreme rainfall and recurrent floods which may be associated with El Nino events which leave a lot of destructions in all sectors of the economies [5]. However, it is a misnomer to suggest that it is only the African continent that is prone to floods. In his article titled, 'The Floods: a man-made disaster?', [6] warns the Army Corps of Engineers in America that its concrete navigation structures in the Mississippi River were intensifying floods, and that its plans to build more wingdikes and weirs would exacerbate a severe and growing problem. Grunwald [6] clearly shows the human hand in the creation of flooding condition. It therefore follows that, while there are naturally caused floods that would have occurred from time to time that natural systems could mostly handle, our development of a lot of the world's landscape and our consumptive lifestyles have led to not only in the increase in flood occurrences, but also cause floods. Flood as natural event, relates to God's venting of anger and flood as man-made implies man's failure to mitigate and prepare adequately for hazard to reduce its impact on infrastructure

Tockner and Stanford [7] opine that floods have always been an important part of nature's regeneration process providing several benefits to countries in the developing world. To that end, some people choose to live in flood hazard prone areas and accept the high levels of risks because of the benefits they access from such areas [8]. The benefits of living in flood prone areas outweigh the risks involved for the vulnerable communities as the floods bring silt to nourish the deltas and to fertilise crops and seasonal fisheries [9]. Studies on floods in Tanzania's Rufiji River Delta by Sandberg found out that it allowed for post flood agriculture which is of benefits to the community in that area as they grow cotton, peas and maize [10]. In case of Bangladesh, flood has noted to be necessary for fertilising, irrigating the fields and enabling fish to spawn [9]. In such scenarios, and as the populations grow, governments are obliged to provide services such as education infrastructure

The value of flooding to mankind is not only limited to soil enrichment for agricultural purposes. Flood water absorbed underground recharges the underground aquifers to supply fresh water to rivers, wells, dams, and lakes from flood water to the extent that many countries are dependent on aquifers for fresh water. Floods are an alternating source of that fresh water supply [11]. Ecosystems also depend on flood water which carries and deposits nutrients rich in sediments that support both the plant and animal life of wetlands [12]. In this way, floods become a pull factor incentivising communities to choose to live in flood hazard prone areas, and accept the high levels of risks because of the economic benefits they access from

In view of the context of the here and now benefits of floods, the negative impact of floods on education, despite being real, tend to be masked and yet have

**152**

such areas [8].

**4. Flood as a destroyer**

a terrible impact on the same. A survey by the Asian Disaster Preparedness Center in 2002, in Cambodia speaks to this observation. The survey in question sought to identify the impacts of disasters on the education sector and the findings revealed that floods were one of the factors disrupting study program accomplishment and thus affecting the quality of current education, particularly in provinces which are prone to floods and where schools were constructed without proper flood resilience [13]. In the context of Zimbabwe, soon after gaining political independence in 1980, the introduced reforms in the education system that focused on the principle of 'Education for all' were adopted. Education for all principle embraced the practical principle of increasing the number of schools by building schools in marginalised areas and disadvantaged urban centres [14]. Incidentally some of the marginalised areas were in flood prone areas. As [14] further argues, the government involved local communities to help support schools through providing labour for moulding bricks and other resources. The emphasis was not so much on quality and cost effectiveness of the education system, but on accessibility to education. The Fast land reform programme in Zimbabwe did not help the situation either. People settled themselves under the disguise of black empowerment through access to land and they settled where ever they felt like. Some communities settled in flood prone areas. Owing to the population expansion in those places illegally occupied, the government had no option but to follow up with the construction of schools, commonly known as satellite schools. By allowing people to settle in such fragile spaces, in one way or the other, it helped to easy political tension that had started building in the country due to socio-economic hardships. However, like in the post-independence era quality of infrastructure in the context of resilience to shocks such as floods is not a priority. When floods eventually strike, because they impact communities in different degrees depending on the vulnerability of that community, the impact on education is least to be acknowledged.

The extent floods affect livelihoods and human life is well documented in literature. In fact, quantifying such loss has been the responders' priority. While that is the case, literature has it that one's political, social and economic status plays a significant role when it comes to exposure to risk of flooding. Poorest communities are the most vulnerable as they live in the most threatened locations [15] they lack the means to live in less vulnerable communities [16]. This construction of flooding implies that one's exposure to flooding is a social construction, thus in a way implying that if it is socially constructed, then flood fits well in the discussion of it as being man-made. Cann *et al.,* [17] are quick to remind us that floods affect the quality of drinking water thereby bringing with them water related infectious diseases such as cholera and hepatitis which will be compounded by damaged or overwhelmed sanitation system. Flood as destroyer has also been noted by other authors such as [18] who argue that it destroy agriculture, transport infrastructure, communication infrastructure, service buildings, and social facilities. Such loss compounds the deterioration of the social and economic lives of people as well as harming the national economy. While literature envisage an increase in flood threats due to various reasons and creations both natural and man-made [19], the extent to which it affects education systems globally has not received favourable attention. More often, after a floods we hear and read about the level of the impact on the socio-economic well-being of children if not mainly on economic related benefits of floods; As [13] have observed, the impacts on children's access and right to quality education have received little attention This has resulted in a lack of studies on the effects of floods on school children and infrastructure in most countries including in Zimbabwe.
