Sustainable land management in floodprone rural areas

The United Nations estimated that 55% of the world’s population lives in rural areas (United Nations Development Programme, 2022). Generally, less-developed countries have largely rural-based populations, and heavily depend on customary and/or traditional land administration systems. Namibia’s most rural localities are commonly referred to as “communal,” consisting of 39%, and these areas are mostly vulnerable to threats from natural disasters such as floods.

This is due to various factors, including a high population growth rate and increasing population pressure. As indicated by the recent 2023 Population and Housing Census Preliminary Report of the Namibia Statistics Agency, the rural population is currently standing at 1.5 million, which is slightly more than the urban population recorded at 1.49 million people. Among other concerns, flooding has been recognised as one of the worst disasters in populated communal areas, as evidenced by the hundreds and thousands of households displaced during rainy seasons. One of the most catastrophic floods that occurred in 2010 and 2011 respectively left 65 000 people affected by flooding, and the 2011 flood left more than 100 000 learners affected and more than 750 000 livelihoods disrupted in Omusati, Oshana, Ohangwena, and Oshikoto regions. In these areas, floods disrupt the systems on which vulnerable people rely. For instance, older people; children; and disabled people who may receive assistance from their family members and relatives or friends (access to food, water), the supply may be interrupted by a flood disaster making these groups more vulnerable to the adverse impacts of flood. High rural population growth and land scarcity are commonly known variables pushing people and/or traditional authorities to allocate land prone to floodplains in communal settings. In other words, high population growth in rural areas is perplexingly associated with an enormous growing demand for customary land allocation from communal land administrators. As a result, the status quo of efficient communal land administration in rural areas becomes a bone of contention among land professionals and planners.

Land management

Traditionally, to address the flood and its effects on populated rural human settlements, the theory of sustainable land management (SLM) usually comes into play. SLM is a non-structural measure that implies cautious investments and the utilisation of land in ways that ensure sustainable development and risk reduction. In the context of controlling and preventing flood effects in populated rural human settlements, SLM offers opportunities for building resilience and limiting vulnerabilities and risk by controlling the allocation of customary land into hazard-prone areas, for instance, flood-prone areas. Accordingly, traditional authorities have the responsibility to move communities forward by allocating secure lands and discouraging development in floodprone areas, thereby decreasing underlying risk factors. In this context, planners view SLM as a disaster risk reduction (DRR) strategy for ensuring efficient communal land administration, particularly in populated and flood-prone areas. A cross-country analysis shows that in southern Angola, which shares a similar communal land administration system with Namibia, the implementation of SLM to control flood effects in customary land areas is complicated by several intrinsic factors, namely: the presence of informal settlements, ambiguous land tenure, controversial land ownership, a lack of a land information system, and resource capacities. In this context, people end up being allocated customary land vulnerable to flood disasters. Equally, boundary disputes between one or more parties, the extension of allocated land parcels, the double allocation of a parcel of land, illegal evictions, inheritance conflicts and unclear validity in terms of the prescribed procedures of land allocation have all serious consequences for SLM aimed at controlling flood effects in rural communal land systems.

Development trajectory

Since 1990, Namibia has made positive strides towards ensuring spatial resilience and justice in its communal rural areas. A functional land governance system was developed to reinforce communal land administration, including flood management in communal rural areas. The 1991 National Conference on Land Reform acknowledged traditional leaders as the main administrators of communal land. Therefore, to control flood effects, SLM practice has become a primary decision-making tool of the tiered traditional authorities, ensuring that the communal land allocation system recognises floodplains as open spaces, spaces where villagers cannot be allocated and settled. Stirring towards a vigorous and resilient communal land administration in rural areas, 11 years after the National Land Conference, the Communal Land Reform Act was enacted to govern the official land reform programme in communal areas. Arguably, the CLRA mandates village headmen as the coalface of land administration in communal areas, responsible for the allocation and cancellation of customary land rights. Within the context of flood effects management, the process of customary and/or communal allocation by the village headman should bring all local stakeholders together in a collaborative manner supported by existing legal and policy frameworks to help direct development (in general) towards fit-for-purpose results and advise traditional authorities on circumventing the allocation of communal land in flood-prone areas. So, despite the relevance of traditional authorities in the administration of communal rural areas, the exertion of providing customary land in an effective and efficient manner, involving the cancellation of land allocated in flood zones, is ambiguous and necessitated by a lack of capacity to implement.

Hence, the Traditional Authorities Act of 2000 and the Communal Land Reform Act will be harmonised and enhanced if traditional authorities are imparted with appropriate skills and knowledge on sustainable communal land administration that promotes the preservation of floodplains as open spaces.