UN Division for Sustainable Development

Case Study Detail Record

Organization type:	Government

Name of Ministry/Agency:

Country:	Seychelles

Initiative Title:	Reduction of Vulnerability to Human Settlement due to flooding as a result of increase weather event

Internet links:	http://www.env.gov.sc http://www.pps.gov/meteo/

Scope:

Status:	Ongoing

Timeframe:	Start: End:

Lead Institution:	National Climate Change Committee

Stakeholders/Partners:	GEF Adaptation Fund

Relevent issues:	- Mitigation policies/measures

Objectives/Challenges:

The two priority areas needs to be addressed are:
1) To deal with existing flooding problems on Mahé the main island of Seychelles and inner islands such as Praslin and La Digue; due to extreme weather event such as torrential rain, that can also trigger landslides and rock falls; and
3) To provide and enforce measures to minimize flooding due to heavy rainfall.

Lessons Learned:

Main obstacles faced were the lack of technical and financial capacity to predict flooding.

The flooding caused severe economic impact, extensive damage to properties , damages to the agriculture and businesses of which they had to claim from insurance companies The economic impact of no action with respect to will be catastrophic.

Some families had to be evacuated to other location

Summary:

As a result of torrential rain in January 2004 a serious flood occurred at Au Cap District, one of the districts on Mahe island of Seychelles. The heavy rain caused extensive damages to properties and other infrastructure. The President of the Republic put together a Task Force to study the problem and come up with solutions and associated costs. The study has shown that Seychelles will need about 4 million Rupees (US$ 800,000) to remedy drainage problems in Au Cap District alone. Other than Au Cap other districts also suffered from inundation including Victoria the capital resulting in restriction of mobility on roads for pedestrians and vehicles as well as damages to properties and closure of business.

The public should be sensitized about disasters and how to cope with such events. This should help to reduce panic and also contribute towards an efficient handling of the situation. Activities envisaged include: setting up an Early warning systems; updating the emergency management plan; a maintenance programme on drainage systems; capacity-building in emergency management and technical fields such as Hydrology and flood forecasting.

The public should be sensitized about disasters and how to cope with such events. This should help to reduce panic and also contribute towards an efficient handling of flood situation in future.