International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction, 13 October | Heavy Torrential Rains causes deaths, destroys schools, churches and hospitals in Angola

Fighting inequality for a resilient future

This year’s International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction addresses the connection between disasters and inequality. Disasters and inequality are two sides of the same coin. Each adversity reinforces the other: unequal access to services leaves the most vulnerable exposed to the danger of disasters; while the effects of disasters exacerbate inequalities and push the most at risk further into poverty.

Since most countries at high risk of disasters are also among those with the highest share of the population living under the national poverty line, the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) encourages people to take action to break the cycle of disaster and growing inequality.

To mobilize action, the UN agency is raising awareness of the brutal inequality of disasters. It calls for fighting inequality for a resilient future, which is the theme of the 2023 observance.

The Day’s theme aligns with the Sendai Framework, the international agreement to prevent and reduce losses in lives, livelihoods, economies and basic infrastructure. The treaty has seven global targets and 38 indicators for measuring progress and complements the Paris Agreement on climate change, with both frameworks interlinked to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.

The observance takes place shortly after the Midterm Review of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030, where the UN General Assembly in May 2023 adopted a political declaration to accelerate action to strengthen disaster resilience.

Heavy Torrential Rains causes deaths, destroys schools, churches and hospitals in Angola. An article by Sofonie Dala 

"In recent days we have been witnessing heavy rainfall, killing people and animals, causing flooding, destruction of infrastructure and plantations."

What happened yesterday in Luanda?

Hundreds of deaths and injured, 1600 homes flooded and approximately eight thousand people displaced are the provisional data of the damage caused by the rain that fell on Monday, in the province of Luanda, for seven hours.

The rain, which began at 5: 00 a.m., damaged bridges, knocked down trees, caused the overflow of several retention basins, and also left vehicles submerged and damaged.

 

According to the Spokesman of the National Civil Protection and Fire Service, Faustino Minguês, the Provincial Government of Luanda (GPL) held an emergency meeting with municipal administrators to collect data on the damage caused by the rain in their districts.

The Spokesman said that the deaths were mostly caused by electrocution and collapse of walls due to a landslide triggered by heavy rains, in the municipalities of Luanda with five, Cazenga three, Viana, Kilamba Kiaxi and Cacuaco with two deaths each.

In some districts the depth of water has been exceeding two meters. Over half of population are displaced people from rural areas or other provinces, many of whom built their shelters on clay slopes that are easily destroyed by rains.

Times of erratic rainfall

The rains come on the back of severe regional drought due to years of erratic rainfall and record-high temperatures.

Since the beginning of the year, the provinces of Angola are being hit by a violent downpour which has caused widespread destruction.

Thousands families have been affected and hundreds homes and churches destroyed as a result of the rains. Moreover, many people are still missing and drinking water and electricity has been cut off in some areas.

Street traders women die electrocuted every day

The death of street-traders women due to electrocution, the disappearance of children and young people, falling trees, flooded health, religious and education institutions, homes and streets and traffic congestion is the provisional balance of the rain, which has been falling almost every day during many hours.

It is estimated that approximately 10 street traders die electrocuted per day and many are dragged by the strong current of water that swept the city. Most of these people are women who sell on the streets.

Furthermore, there are also records of the fall of streetlights, in order to avoid more cases of electrocution people were advised not to keep in contact with electricity.

Conclusions 

As shown in the article, torrential rains is killing hundreds of Angolans. Many of the victims died as a result of homes collapsing and others were swept away by flood water or electrocuted by falling power cables.

                       

According to officials, over 8000 homes have been damaged by floods. Around thousand families have been evacuated. Initial assessments reported that many public places including churches and other institutions have been destroyed. 

Sustainable Development Goal Target 11.5 reads "By 2030, significantly reduce the number of deaths and the number of people affected and substantially decrease the direct economic losses relative to global gross domestic product caused by disasters, including water-related disasters.

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development recognizes and reaffirms the urgent need to reduce the risk of disasters. In addition to direct references to the outcomes of the Third UN Conference on DRR (Sendai Framework), there are specific opportunities to achieve SDGs through reducing disaster risk. For example, by reducing exposure and vulnerability of the poor to disasters or building resilient infrastructure. There are also several SDGs and targets that can contribute to reducing disaster risk and building resilience, even where disaster risk reduction is not explicit.

Targets related to promoting education for sustainable development under SDG# 4, such as building and upgrading education facilities and ensuring healthy lives, as well as targets under SDG#11 (cities) and under SDG# 9 (building resilient infrastructure) reaffirm the interrelationship between disaster risk reduction and sustainable development amongst others can be cited.