women, face particular challenges that are exacerbated by flood risk. Children often miss school during flood events and women are commonly responsible for staying home with children when schools are closed and to clean up the house after floods, forcing them to miss work or not work at all. Thanks to access to rich socioeconomic, gender-disaggregated data, the report also sheds light on the characteristics of affected households and helps us understand the policy relevant link between poverty and flood exposure.

With lack of governmental support, households must absorb the costs of flood damage and try to protect themselves from future exposure. Households in informal settlements take various measures to prevent flood damage (Sakijege, Lupala and Sheuya, 2012). The most common of these are the use of sandbags and tree logs; raised pit latrines and doorsteps; the provision of water outlet pipes above plinth level; the construction of embankments and protection walls; the elevation of house foundations; seasonal displacement; and the boiling and chemical treatment of water.

In April 2018, Dar es Salaam and other parts of Tanzania experienced heavy rains that caused floods in large parts of the city. Information on the impacts of the flood on households and businesses is scarce, an emergency plan of action issued by the Red Cross<sup>4</sup> indicates that the event affected close to 15,900 people across Tanzania –12,000 of them in Dar es Salaam. This flood followed several episodes of heavy rainfall that occurred in Tanzania mainland and Zanzibar between April 12 and April 18. Among the 15 regions affected by floods, Arusha, Dar es Salaam, and Zanzibar were impacted worst. Fifteen people died and 11 were severely injured in Dar es Salaam and one person died in Arusha. The Dar es Salaam Multi-Agency Emergency Response Team and the Tanzania Red Cross estimate that 2,151 households in the city were displaced, 42 houses and 21 latrines completely collapsed and 342 houses severely damaged. The current report provides results suggesting the number of affected households is much larger than official numbers and that the impacts of the flood were significant – households lost on average 23% of annual income.

Recent flooding events affecting Tanzania in May 2019 are yet another reminder of the urgency to address the flood risk problem in the country. During May 5-7, Dar es Salaam received 144mm of rain, which is close to the rainfall average of the entire month of May, leading to flooding and closure of several roads. In mid-May, flooding killed 5 and left 2,500 people homeless in the district of Kyela in the country’s south after a week of torrential rain.

The Disaster-Poverty household survey analyzed the relationship between flood risk and poverty in Dar es Salaam. Two rounds of data collection were carried out between November 2017 and September 2018. The first round established an initial assessment and baseline of household exposure and behaviors in relation to flood events. The second round assessed the impact of the flood that happened in April 2018.

# 2 Methodology and Data

## 2.1 On project implementation

The study was conducted as part of the Tanzanian Urban Resilience Program (TURP), which is financed by the Government of the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development (DFID).

The Disaster-Poverty study has incorporated the work conducted for other TURP components. For example, the team used maps based on the Ramani Huria community mapping project to identify areas exposed to floods, and collaborates widely with other teams under TURP to align objectives and maximize synergies. For example, different teams involved with community work on flood mitigation under TURP were invited to add questions to the questionnaire, and results are shared with partners continuously.

> 4 <u>https://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/MDRTZ021do.pdf</u>

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