KAMAYOYO Kelvin, Zambian Economist, Scholar and BuyZed Chief Technical Advisor and Strategist has noted that there was need for African countries to enhance efforts in restoring floodplains on the continent because floodplains are an integral part of healthy and helps safeguard people and wildlife. In fact, floodplains form part of the river and healthy floodplains benefit communities by slowing and spreading dangerous flood waters that would flood riverside local areas, negatively impact on the livelihoods of the people and destroy property.
Kamayoyo stressed that it was common in Africa that every year whenever heavy rains falls over a short period of time most areas do experience floods causing rivers to rise and flow over its banks. He also noted that floods does happen even when lighter rains falls continuously for many days or weeks, thereby causing the river to overflow and water spread to other parts that are not prepared to accommodate such volumes of water.
Undeniably, floods can be an inconvenience and large floods can be disastrous too, therefore African countries need to do more to effectively restore floodplains. This is also because floodplains are an integral part of healthy rivers and restoring floodplains give rivers sufficient room to accommodate large floods and keep local communities safe.
Kamayoyo noted that though floods maybe beneficial to some communities and nature such water needs to be properly harvested and stored. He argued that floods create Islands and other natural habitats that are home to birds, wildlife and fish, and contribute to flushing out invasive animals and plants. He also noted that floods helps to trigger reproductive cycle of many species such as fish. It is therefore even more compelling that as a continent we endeavored to seriously conserve our rivers and encouraged the local communities to manage rivers wisely so that we continue to enjoy all of the benefits healthy rivers provide.
To this end-effect, African countries need to develop and effectively implement dedicated regional floodplains management strategies that provides an integrated catchment planning framework for floodplains management and improving community flood resilience including reconnecting rivers to their floodplains. For instance, across the Zambezi River basin communities could greatly benefit by reconnecting rivers to their floodplains because natural floodplains are important to the health, safety and prosperity of their citizens.
