Climate change and DIY urbanism in Luanda and Maputo: new urban strategies?

ABSTRACT

Climate-related phenomena historically have had an impact on the lives of urban dwellers of Luanda and Maputo. Recently, however, urban expansion and congestion of different sorts, aggravated by climate change impacts, call for renewed responses on the part of residents. Rising sea levels and harder impacts of flooding are the most disturbing issues in the two coastal capitals, demanding both institutional responses and strategies of urban residents, particularly the most vulnerable. Based on qualitative data collected in Luanda and Maputo, this article describes how urban residents aim to mitigate and adapt to the effects of climate change and by doing so, shape the cities they live in and their environment.

KEYWORDS:

• Climate change
• urban strategies
• Luanda
• Maputo
• flooding

Introduction

As climate changes, changing living environments call for new responses on the part of urban dwellers. The current ‘momentum’ to more actively address climate change and urban life, specifically among the urban poor, in turn calls for more research in as many as possible diversified contexts (Roy et al. 2016). In cities of the developing global south, combinations of urban precarity with several types of official incapacities to deal with the many issues of growing urban living, including climate change, make alternative, informal, do-it-yourself responses emerge. While these provide – or at least aim at providing – possible solutions, they also lead to transformations of the living environments – housing, economies, habits, collective action – and of the ways urban dwellers perceive and anticipate urban living. Climate and environment are, however, only recently beginning to stand out as central themes in urban African studies. The rare combination of urban Africa studies and environmental studies, both on the rise, make it a somehow urgent matter as urban environments become increasingly central to urban studies (Myers 2016). This article examines climate change phenomena in two African cities – focusing on flooding and rising sea levels in two coastal capitals, Luanda and Maputo – and the strategies and responses of the urban poor living in precarious, risk-prone neighbourhoods. With fast population growth, both countries now have significant percentages of population living in cities – 35% (10.5 million) in Mozambique and 65% (19 million) in Angola, in 2017 – while the proportion of this urban population living in slums was, in 2014, 80% in Mozambique and 56% in Angola (World Bank 2018). The main argument is that these residents in particular – living in the margins of infrastructure and service provision, namely those infrastructures and services that prevent and mitigate the negative impacts of climate-related events – are recurrently challenged to develop their own devices within the limits of the available possibilities. Innovation and experimentation, as part of these mitigation and adaptation strategies, in turn create new urban environments and alter perceptions of urban living.

Background literature

A wealth of studies provides the theoretical background for further research. Adaptation, vulnerability and resilience are a few terms used by the social sciences and other sciences to analyse the interactions between human and environmental hazards and risks (Smit and Wandel 2006; Ricci 2015). But what is more evident among the research and analysis is that it is by far more concentrated in the official formal systems. Typically, aspects of urban management and planning are assigned to governments and formal structures. Provision of urban services, however, has engaged both policymakers and scholars in discussions about accountabilities, possibilities and what is actually happening on the ground, especially in regards to ‘unofficial’ informal dynamics.

Adaptation and mitigation usually are seen primarily as a government responsibility or, from a neoliberal perspective, something that ideally should be increasingly privatised. Adaptation itself has tendentially been discussed in terms of large-scale measures, such as methods of coastal defences, city hygiene procedures, innovations in environmental design or resource management systems (Magadza 2000). Some alternative views, however, would put it as increasingly in the sphere of non-state, non-private. This, for critics, makes adaptation somehow still being thought of as ‘underground’ and as ‘piratic platforms and circulations’ (Myers 2016, p. 14).

In some cases, research recognises the importance of urban residents’ knowledge of climate issues, namely of the impacts of flooding (Roy et al. 2016, p. 26). Important analyses have stressed the key role of residents in making and transforming cities, especially in contexts of recurrent lack of infrastructure and services, and have demonstrated the ‘remarkable inventiveness’ of these urban dwellers (Simone 2010, p. 22). Societies and communities adapt differently to environmental and other challenges and coping strategies change over time, as demonstrated in some recent studies (Thorn et al. 2015). In the context of climate change, diverse forms of urban precarities and a number of incapacities to deal with them, urban residents and specifically the poor develop adapted strategies, which in turn change the living environment. They create ‘home spaces’, which involve spatial and social practices (Jenkins 2013) constantly reconfiguring the urban spaces (Udelsmann Rodrigues and Frias 2015; Simone and Pieterse 2017).

Moreover, there are contexts where it has been possible to more successfully engage urban dwellers in policymaking and planning, mobilising traditional knowledge and practices, leading to better results in terms of activities and systems to deal with climate change adaptation (Anguelovski et al. 2014). Despite this scenario, there are today examples of initiatives linking state and communities, an increased recognition of the need to better link both the formal, state-led programs and urban communities. Namely in Mozambique, studies have shown that governance needs to look beyond the government as the sole agent of urban change to include local governments, businesses and civil society organisations (Castán Broto et al. 2013). In Angola too, programs involving the communities also have proven to reach positive results (Cain 2018).

The main overarching issues remaining, however, are the diverse mixtures of local priorities and international trends, the challenges posed by resource constraints and the perceived conflicts between immediate development needs and longer-term climate action (Simon and Leck 2015). Moreover, despite the capacities societies in general have to adapt to climate change, some sectors and groups are more sensitive and more vulnerable to the risks than others (Adger et al. 2003). The urban poor endure cumulative marginalisation in terms of access to infrastructure, services and economy and, increasingly, in terms of protective and preventive devices to cope with the effects of climate change in cities. Integrated formal and informal mechanisms remain to be developed but, at the same time, the urban poor are the ones less prepared to engage in such endeavours.

Methodology

This article is based on information from geophysical data from studies recently done in Luanda and Maputo and a fast-increasing number of studies related to civil protection, disaster risk reduction or prevention (INGC – Instituto Nacional de Gestão de Calamidades 2009; UCL – University College London 2013; República de Moçambique 2016a; Ministry of Environment 2018). In-depth qualitative analysis, which constitutes the core material for the analysis, refers to several interviews conducted by the author in 2017 and 2018, to both some 20 key informants (urban planners, urban administrative staff or academics) and around 10 household heads/families in each city. The selection of the specialists and key informants was based on their profession and institutional affiliation related to environmental issues, urban management, physical sciences, etc. The selection of the residents and families random, resorting to snowballing informal contacts in the selected neighbourhoods. The number of interviews was limited by the duration of fieldwork in each of the occasions. Direct quotations and references to these interviews constitute the empirical material of the discussion and argumentation. The research took place in Luanda in the neighbourhoods of Cazenga, Quicolo and Rocha Pinto and in Maputo in the neighbourhoods of Pescadores, Luís Cabral and Polana Caniço II. These quarters are characterised not only by fast-growing populations and higher levels of poverty within the two cities but also, as in the case of Cazenga, Rocha Pinto, Pescadores and Luís Cabral, particularly affected by flooding caused by rainfall or by rising sea levels. The selection of these neighbourhoods was made together with local partners from universities and research centres in Luanda and Maputo. The choice was based on their relevance within the urban tissue in general as they represent cases of older and more recent settlement, areas of more and less infrastructuring, and areas closer and distant from the coast.

The article starts by describing climate change in the two cities and how institutional incapacity to deal with both urban management and urban improvement, in general, and with climate-related impacts, in specific, combines with increasing urban populations to result in numerous constraints to urban living. It then describes how residents, affected by these combinations and by their conditions of poverty and precarity, develop ways of coping as best as possible with the difficulties and challenges. The discussion that follows brings to the fore the intricate aspects of ‘do-it-yourself urbanism’ as it produces urban change physically and socially; it also changes the perspectives regarding urban living of residents.

Climate in Luanda and Maputo: what is changing?

One of the main challenges to address climate change in Angola and Mozambique is the scarcity of knowledge and data, especially detailed information, about cities’ climate-related hazards. As in many other African urban contexts, ‘a significant share of damage to housing, local infrastructure, livelihoods and low-income households affected by small disasters has been overlooked due to poor recordings’ (Adelekan et al. 2015: 34] and the tendencies to improve local data are not promising. In Luanda, after independence, ‘the quantity and quality of meteorological records were considerably reduced (Carvalho et al. 2017). Data and analysis about climate change in Luanda and in Maputo remains scarce, and the available sources of information call for combined methodologies to fill this gap. A recent study by the NGO Development Workshop in Luanda resorted precisely to multiple sources, including colonial meteorological stations’ data, records from a database created in the early 2000s, oral histories collected with local communities, systematic collection and compilation of climate-related events since 2009 through media sources, satellite imaging and household questionnaires (Cain 2017). Conclusions then were triangulated and pointed to rainfall high variability that may be caused by long-term changes in sea-surface temperatures. In Maputo, systems of regular climate monitoring have been kept functioning since independence, with short occasional interruptions but so far, they have been unable to cover the whole country (INGC – Instituto Nacional de Gestão de Calamidades 2009). A combination of data and sources of information here too has been the solution recurrently used (UN-Habitat 2010).

Despite this background, both in Angola and in Mozambique the main phenomena related to climate change have been identified; flooding and sea-level rising affect the coastal cities more. In both capitals, flooding-related phenomena are the most evident and with a clear tendency to increase, both due to heavier rainfall and to inundation caused by rising sea-levels in areas closer to the coast. The main vulnerabilities in Maputo place a high number of population at risk (Table 1) and, as in other areas of the country, are connected among others to the weak implementation of risk-reduction measures, occupation of risk-prone areas and non-compliance with territorial planning, deposition of waste in drainage ditches and lack of cleaning. Impacts of the 2015–2016 rainy season in Maputo include human casualties and the destruction of houses and public buildings (República de Moçambique 2016a).

Table 1. Population at risk in Maputo city 2016–2017.

Scenario risks	Number
Scenario I – small magnitude threats (strong winds and rain, flooding in cities and villages, drought)	47,637
Scenario II – previous plus basin flooding and cyclone	53,514
Scenario III – previous plus earthquake	55,198

Source: República de Moçambique, 2016a

In Luanda, authorities acknowledge climate change as well. The effects on settlement and livelihoods are mainly related to floods and erosion that disrupt communications and economic activities as well as cause destruction of housing and water and sanitation systems (Ministry of Environment 2018). Luanda also is affected by stagnant water accumulating in ponds, leading to more diseases, namely malaria and cholera.

The Habitat III report on Angola (Republic of Angola 2016) refers specifically that, added to increased temperatures, climate models predict more extreme weather events, an expansion of arid and semi-arid regions, seasonal shifts in rainfall, localised floods, increased incidence of wildfires, a rise in the sea levels, increased rainfall in the northern parts of the country, changes in river flows, and changes in sea and lake temperatures. Sea-level rise in particular is expected to have a significant impact on coastal settlements, where 50% of the country’s population lives, as well as on road networks, and industrial and commercial infrastructure (ibid). The Mozambican Habitat III report (República de Moçambique 2016b), on the other hand, indicates as main concerns related to climate change flooding and cyclones and emphasises the need to consider risks in urban planning as many and costly housing and infrastructural investments are taking place in several Mozambican cities.

According to specialists consulted, the main changes taking place in Mozambique related to climate change are of temperature (e.g. changes of the seasons, as well as higher and more extreme temperatures), decreases in water levels of some rivers and sea-level raising (L. B., University Eduardo Mondlane, May 2018). The most striking hazards in the capital city are flooding caused by intensive rain, high temperatures, strong winds and rise in sea levels (A. Q., specialist at University Eduardo Mondlane, Maputo, May 2018). The same applies to Luanda, and the effects are likely to be increasingly exacerbated by the continued demographic growth and construction (A. C., specialist at Development Workshop, Angola, March 2018). In some of Maputo’s neighbourhoods, flooding has become increasingly disruptive to settlement and livelihoods: ‘In Block 40B of the Luis Cabral (slum) neighbourhood of Maputo, residents claim that flooding has become worse since 1980, pointing out that the 2000s floods completely destroyed the area. A single one-day rain event can cause floods that persist for up to three days. If the rains last from three days to one week, the water depth rises to one metre and it may take a month to disappear’ (Douglas et al. 2008, p. 194). In Luanda, ‘significant numbers of households in Development Workshop’s household surveys say that they have been affected by flooding and erosion’, with 20% of households having been affected over the years and structural damage mainly occurring in steep places near the coast, for example in the Sambizanga district (Cain 2017: 20, p. 22).

Given the emphasis that studies have placed on climate change-related flooding as one of the most salient challenges in unplanned, fast-growing urban Africa today, the focus of this article is on flooding, both caused by raising sea levels and by heavy precipitation. Flooding may be localised (due to inadequate drainage), in small streams whose catchment areas lie almost entirely within built-up areas and in major rivers on whose banks the towns and cities are built. There also is coastal flooding caused by the sea or by a combination of high tides and high river flows from inland (Douglas et al. 2008, p. 191). Impacts of flooding and sea-level rising are varied. Stagnant waters corrode houses and inundate latrines. Flooding affects transport infrastructure and disrupts provision of drinking water, among other direct and indirect effects (Macchi and Tiepolo 2014). About 12% of the urban population in Africa lives within an area that may be affected by a 10-metre sea-level rise (the Low Elevation Coastal Zone, or LECZ) (Gruntfest and Handmer 2001). Flooding is the most common natural hazard in urban Africa and ‘large cities are increasingly affected: seven in the 1980s, 27 in the 1990s, 37 in the 2000s, and seven more since 2010ʹ (Macchi and Tiepolo 2014, p. 22). In Mozambique and in Angola, climate change-induced sea-level rise directly threatens the economies of coastal cities like Maputo and Luanda.

The probability of extreme events, including flooding and drought, is high for Mozambique and the Maputo municipality specifically (Bacci 2014). In Maputo, a recent assessment identified costal zones as vulnerable areas, and the main climate-related hazards with destructive consequences are floods, droughts, rising sea levels and storms/cyclones (UN-Habitat 2014, p. 229). A recent study on climate change clearly indicated that a progressive risk of disaster along the coastal line of Mozambique is expected, specifically in coastal cities and particularly in Maputo where infrastructures are in coastal zones along the city’s Marginal (coastal sidewalk) (Van Logchem and Queface 2012).

There is, however, little evidence that rising sea levels are the main cause of the significant erosion processes that occur today, and the erosion is attributable to altered contributions of sediment from neighbouring river basins and to certain effects of coastal dynamics (Brandini and Perna 2014). Rising sea-levels, however, produce many impacts in the coastal areas of the city and floods due to heavy rains or sea level rise can coexist (Macchi and Tiepolo 2014), which then makes both flooding and rising sea levels the most evident and tangible risks for Maputo (República de Moçambique 2011). In recent years, there also has been serious flooding in Angolan cities (Cain 2017, p. 7) and generally in coastal areas of the country local river flooding, erosion, inundations from sea-level rise and salt-water intrusion are common risks (ibid: p. 9). Luanda, although not in the top 50 worldwide most-exposed cities to rising sea levels, recorded significant proportional increases in exposure (Hanson et al. 2010). The Angolan National Strategy for climate change (Ministry of Environment 2018) indicates that flooding, droughts, erosion and rising sea levels are the main effects of climate change in the country. In cities, particularly in Luanda, Benguela and Namibe, flooding causes the destruction of buildings and disruptions in transportation for long periods.

Capacities and incapacities of dealing with flooding and climate change

While evidence of climate change increasingly is acknowledged, there are numerous challenges to be surmounted in the two capital cities to deal with it, exacerbated by a combination of growing urban populations and high poverty and precarity. The main urban challenge in both Angola and Mozambique today is the vulnerability of the population due to steadily growing poverty. Recurrent precariousness associated with continued migration towards the urban centres and agglomeration without implementation of urban planning further expose most of the population in both Luanda and Maputo to a series of negative events, namely those related to climate-change phenomena. In both countries, the dynamics of urban growth, particularly affected by migration originating from displacements caused by long-lasting civil conflicts, have led to massive settlement in some of the most environmentally risky areas of the cities and to unplanned settlements without infrastructure (Jenkins 2001; Udelsmann Rodrigues 2007; Cain 2018). Consequently, and as mentioned before, in Maputo, the most populated areas, where slum dwellers are concentrated, are most at risk (UN-Habitat 2014, p. 229). In Luanda, too, low-income settlements and poor families within all settlements tend to be the most vulnerable (Cain 2017, p. 8).

Adding to a generalised condition of vulnerability and precariousness in the cities and particularly in the peri-urban areas, over the years the management instances have not been able to cope with growing settlement and consequently to provide safe, liveable cities. Moreover, regarding natural hazards, poor capacities for prevention have been commonplace for many years. Although important planning regarding risk reduction and resilience has been increasing and developing in both countries since the beginning of the 2000s, many constraints remain.

The national contingency plan issued by the government of Mozambique is an annual document that serves as a basis for coordination, response and management of extreme phenomena foreseen – natural and man-caused – that create emergencies during the rain and cyclone season (República de Moçambique 2016a). The technical council of management of calamities (Conselho Técnico de Gestão de Calamidades) has been in charge of its elaboration since the 2000s, with the participation of national municipalities and a national team composed of UN system agencies and civil society organisations that work in the area of disaster risk reduction (Humanitarian Country Team). Major projects led by the government and the World Bank, like Cities and Climate Change, aim at resilience to climate-related risks; the latter has developed technical designs for priority drainage works in Maputo since 2012. Another plan for natural calamities (Plano Director de Prevenção e Mitigação das Calamidades Naturais, PDPMCN) was prepared for 10 years (2006–2016), followed by a disaster risk-reduction plan (Plano Director para a Redução do Risco de Desastres em Moçambique, 2017–2030). Also, Mozambique prepared in 2013 a strategy for climate change (Estratégia Nacional de Adaptação e Mitigação das Mudanças Climáticas, ENAMMC) and in 2007 a program (Programa de Acção Nacional para Adaptação às Mudanças Climáticas, NAPA).

In Angola, the strategy for climate change (Estratégia Nacional para as Alterações Climáticas 2018–2030) is the main document focusing specifically on this issue and the mechanisms and systems to be developed and improved in the coming years. These include two areas of policy being drafted, namely the national plan for emissions (Plano Nacional de Emissões) and the national plan of adaptation to climate change (Plano Nacional de Adaptação às Alterações Climáticas). Although the Ministry of Environment is responsible for the international integration of laws and policy and for national environmental policies, the Civil Protection System, created in 2003 along with its specialised Civil Protection Committee, handles response to crises, catastrophes and accidents. The National Plan for Preparedness, Contingency, Response and Recovery 2015–2017 is being revised for the next cycle.

While at the national levels the two countries have started to develop climate change related policy, this area is still very recent, not enough developed and, in general, addresses urban climate change generically. There is today a set of internationally widespread theoretical and practical devices that aim at addressing the effects of climate change on urban life. UN-Habitat has identified physical and infrastructural adaptations needed for cities worldwide as well as a broad range of measures that reduce vulnerabilities and increase community resilience. The latter include local economic development strategies, community early warning systems, better shelter options and participatory in-situ slum upgrading, relocation of urban populations to appropriate or improved locations, improved public health interventions or urban and peri-urban agriculture that takes into consideration a changing climate. But while enunciations and knowledge about urban effects and responses to climate change advance, the situation in the two capitals is still not entirely dealt with and the majority of the urban population, especially those living in more fragile conditions, regularly endures the consequences of climate change.

Strategies and improvisations of the urban residents

Given the current state of affairs, there is a set of improvised responses of urban dwellers to changing living conditions, particularly those related to flooding, that aim at mitigating and adapting in the absence of formal systems and mechanisms. Although there are active linkages between the formal and the informal, so far climate-change urban strategies in Luanda and Maputo have relied more significantly on the reactions of the urban dwellers outside the official sphere.

Definitions of non-formal, urban responses have mobilised several scholars over the years, particularly in the developing global south and within an integrative perspective, pointing to both urban planning that involves the informal and the poor and to the potentials of collective organisation in the informal economy (Lindell 2010; Meagher 2013). Less common, however, has been the exploration of the possibilities of the informal economy to make economies greener and simultaneously address inclusion in global environmental agendas (Brown and McGranahan 2016). The perspectives in this area remain based on collective action and on the fact that societies have inherent capacities to adapt to climate (Adger 2010).

There also have been some analyses of the linkages between societies’ capacities and agency and the environment. Most studies about indigenous knowledge on climate change, however, were conducted in rural areas and not urban communities, most likely because there is a widespread inclination to assume that urban residents ‘tend not to depend upon ecosystem services for subsistence’ (Codjoe et al. 2014, p. 371). As in other developing global south contexts where traditional knowledge and practises have been ‘rescued’ and ‘valued’ (Anguelovski et al. 2014, p. 159), African indigenous knowledge of the environment has been mobilised fewer times for African urban studies Mawere 2014).

But what studies in general have shown is that ‘residents of African cities often use very different calculations of what it is possible to do as a means to decide how to deploy limited resources’ (Simone 2010, p. 15). Picking on Simone’s references to this ‘social infrastructure’, which is mobilised for a diversity of purposes in the urban living, Ricci proposed a concept more directly connected to climate issues and adaptive capacity, referring to urban African contexts (Ricci 2015). While it builds from the discussions on informality, urban livelihoods or resilience, it specifically refers to people’s lifestyles, to ‘autonomous adaptation practises’ – unplanned and spontaneous, different from planned adaptation of institutions – and to agency regarding specifically the natural environment (ibid: p. 36). Contrasting prevailing notions of urbanism that set how the modern city should be and look, recent analyses increasingly emphasise processes of urban creation and transformation that are less predictable, impermanent and spontaneous (Murray 2017, p. 41), characterised by constant potential for change (Mehrotra 2011), making new urban worlds (Simone and Pieterse 2017) and new urbanisms (Pieterse and Simone 2013) emerge. Many of these transformations are unplanned and the result of urban dwellers’ responses to the needs and conditions found in their urban environments. This perspective that highlights the agency of urban residents and recognises that ‘individuals take an active part in events and networks’ and that urbanisation is made of intricate relationships, with people ‘using things that exist in more than one way’ (Simone 2010, p. 5).

Do-it-yourself (DIY) urbanism has, in this sense, also become a useful concept. Although some researchers see DIY and informality as interrelated concepts dealing with social and cultural space production (Jabareen 2014), recent proposals have defined DIY urbanism broadly as ‘any action taken by citizens that impacts urban space without government involvement or even in opposition to government policies and regulations (Finn 2014b, p. 331). The notion applies to cases of urban residents that do not want to wait for bureaucracies to deal with urban problems and so address them on their own, challenging traditional notions of planning and governance (Finn 2014b). More detailed definitions focus on the creation and implementation of small-scale interventions in urban public spaces, characterised by the fact that they are led by single users or small voluntary groups, aim at emulating or augmenting official municipal infrastructure in public space, and benefit the public (Finn 2014a, p. 383). The concept is also quoted as ‘tactical’, ‘pop-up’ or ‘guerilla’ urbanism and involves resident-generated urban intervention, low budgets and is often temporary (Talen 2015). These conceptualisations have, however, so far mainly been built from examples of the global north (Murray 2017) but they may potentially integrate other contexts in the discussions as in developing countries this ‘unauthorized use of public space is often standard protocol’ (Talen 2015, p. 136).

In sum, different analyses made in the global south have shown that in many cases national and municipal governments do not have the capacity to control all urban aspects – except in theory, legally – namely important ingredients that build and transform cities, like money, people, information or materials (Simone 2010, p. 9). Consequently, urban dwellers and stakeholders operate largely outside the ‘official’ planning and management. For the social sciences, this fact calls for more case-study, empirical research on urban alternatives, especially regarding the ways of dealing with climate change. Possible ways of ‘reading’ urban environments through different perspectives – scientists and scholars, spiritual and symbolic agents, artists, movements and organisations (Myers 2016) – bring to the fore the at times dissonant views of urban stakeholders but also allow picking from the multitude of possible angles the urban residents’ perspective and practise.

Perceptions of change and improvised new practises

Among the changes that urban dwellers commonly refer to regarding climate change, the increasingly acute impacts of flooding-related events stand out in many cities. Few studies have been conducted in the continent, however, about the perceptions, experiences and indigenous knowledge related to climate change and variability. One of these few, done in Accra (Table 2), concluded that residents have formed opinions about climate change and most attributed it to the combination of deforestation, the burning of firewood and to rubbish (Codjoe et al. 2014). The perceived impacts also can be considered negative and positive, the latter including, for instance in the case of heavy rain, ‘washing away of filth in community drains’, better productivity of crops that need more water, or more available water in general (ibid). The negative, however, are mentioned more frequently.

Table 2. Mentions to negative effects of flooding.

Human	Destruction of life
Housing	Destruction of property and shelters, rendering people homeless, property damage
Health	Stagnant water, which enhances mosquito populations; transport of pollutants and rubbish; adverse health impacts
Livelihoods	Destruction of farms and farm produce, disruption of fishing stocks, loss of livelihood

Source: adapted from Thorn et al. (2015); Codjoe et al. (2014).

Studies in African countries have shown local people’s perceptions of why floods occur. A recent one, conducted in one of the poorest neighbourhoods of Maputo, indicates that the local dwellers believe flooding to be caused by disorderly increased population density and construction, which closed natural water courses by the building of walls. On the other hand, people consider that the soil has become impermeable due to the habit of burying garbage in plastic bags, associated with the fact that drainage systems are non-existent or were not correctly built or are clogged with garbage ditched by the residents. All this causes many impacts on neighbourhood lives (UCL – University College London 2013).

In Maputo, too, urban residents have indicated that storms seemed more intense and destructive, occurring because of the lack of adequate drainage infrastructure, internal organization in the neighbourhood, land planning or assistance for victims (Douglas et al. 2008, p. 196). In Luanda, research on people’s perceptions of environmental burdens has shown that these vary between urban areas but in many cases refer to flooding and erosion that disrupts communications and urban economic activities and destroys housing and water and sanitation systems (Cain 2017, p. 23).

Among the residents, particularly the older ones, some often refer in interviews to the changes taking place regarding the climate. As a 75-year-old resident of Maputo mentioned, ‘today the rain destroys houses, especially since the 2000s. Temperatures are higher. It was not normal to have 32°C or 34°C. Or to suddenly be too cold and right after too hot’ (E.C., male, 75, Block 7, Polana Caniço, May 2018). In other cases, residents say that some years ago, before the increase and densification of construction, people could cope better with high temperatures. As a 59-year-old male resident put it, ‘if we wanted cooler air, we would go to the coast, which is quite near. But now the coast is too closed and the air does not circulate. And the trees are gone, they were used for charcoal’ (J.C., Block secretary, Bairro Luís Cabral, Maputo, May 2018).

In Luanda, a female resident of Cazenga in her 40s mentioned in an interview that ‘before, the rain did not cause as much destruction as it does now. It looks worse every year’ (Luanda, 2017). Often, people associate these changes to other consequences, like a resident in a flood-prone neighbourhood: ‘sicknesses are appearing. Today, there are even children with high blood pressure. This is due to the high temperatures. Only yesterday, about four people died because of blood pressure problems’ (J.C., male, 59, Block secretary, Bairro Luís Cabral, Maputo, May 2018). Stagnant water and malaria often are mentioned in both cities as being widespread faster when it rains. In Luanda, cholera outbreaks are frequent and directly associated to flooding, as one male resident in Quicolo mentioned: ‘We know that if it rains and the water stays for more than three or four days that we are going to have cholera’ (A.T., 52, 2017).

Regarding the effects of higher sea levels, residents in coastal neighbourhoods naturally more often point out the effects. In Maputo, the residents of the coastal Bairro dos Pescadores see very clearly that the Xefina islands, off the coast, are the most affected by erosion: ‘In a few years, the [main] island can disappear and this will also affect the population on the coast; there are already areas under water and if the sea is agitated it passes beyond the road’ (O.M., male, secretary of Costa do Sol, May, 2018). Throughout Luanda, people share accounts of the sea affecting areas like the coastal neighbourhood Boavista or at times cutting off terrestrial access to the Mussulo peninsula via the Buraco stretch. Residents in neighbourhoods closer to the coast, like a Rocha Pinto man in his late 30s who said that sometimes he had to take family in because ‘the whole area of the Samba road was flooded with the calemas [strong wave season] and I was the nearest relative they had’ (R. B., 2017).

In face of these perceived changes, urban dwellers adapt their behaviours and practises to protect assets, prevent disruptions through arrangements in residences, and better anticipate impacts and damages. Studies have shown how urban dwellers adjust to flooding, particularly in African cities (Douglas et al. 2008). Common reactive responses in other urban contexts in Africa involve both mobility, temporary or permanent, and the search for alternatives, also temporary or permanent. Other strategies involve preparation and prevention for future hazards (Table 3).

Table 3. Strategies to deal with flooding.

Reactive

Move to dry areas, move to relatives’ houses, move to emergency relief sites, collect water, ration (food, water), move and store assets elsewhere, diversify economies, pool resources

Potentially preventive

Slum-upgrading work, upgrading of houses, collective action, modification of houses, improvement of neighbourhood common spaces (bridges, drainage channels), reinforcing buildings (roofs insulated, built or remodelled to be sloped, homes elevated with sandbags, barriers of rock or cement laid in front of doors), preventing people from building on waterways, storing enough food, moving from flood-prone areas to higher grounds, migrating, indigenous weather-monitoring systems

Source: Thorn et al. (2015); Codjoe et al. (2014).

The common responses to flooding of houses rely on placing belongings on higher places (tables, beds, etc.), on bricks and other materials or on top of wardrobes to try and protect them from being damaged. Also, those who can move their belongings temporarily to other locations until the water levels lower. Moving away temporarily is also a common strategy, particularly regarding children, and people may stay with family and friends or be hosted temporarily in public buildings or churches. According to residents, water from flooding usually does not stay high for more than two days and in neighbourhoods like flood-prone Luís Cabral or Cazenga ‘does not rise over half meter’, as often mentioned. Some said ‘the water never made houses disappear, does not have much current, unless when it is running in the main ditch’ (J.C., male, 59, Block secretary, Bairro Luís Cabral, Maputo, May 2018). In Cazenga, a female street vendor around her 40s mentioned that ‘we already know up to which height the water can get normally (Luanda, 2017). At times, however, people say it can take longer and be at higher levels: ‘in 2000, the water raised over two meters and we had to stay for almost two weeks in the church’ (A.T., Block coordinator, Bairro Luís Cabral, Maputo, female, 65, May 2018).

To deal with flooding, people may climb up the roofs and wait for the water to lower. Inside houses, damage varies, as one 59-year-old male resident and block secretary said: ‘beds, sofas, fridges are the things that suffer more. People put them on top of tables if they can to save them’ (J.C., Bairro Luís Cabral, Maputo, May 2018). Urban dwellers also resort to a series of arrangements in houses and streets to alleviate the impacts. When trying to minimise the damages caused by flooding, responses are in some cases, when it is possible and effective, based on opening up drainage channels, building barriers against water entry at doorsteps or creating outlets at the rear of houses. Taking water out of houses with buckets (or, when possible, water pumps), building temporary plank bridges, digging trenches around houses or using sandbags at the entrance of the houses are other coping strategies, usually conducted by individual families and rarely within a community type of action (Douglas et al. 2008, p. 199) but relatively common.

But although there are mechanisms already ‘learned’ to mitigate the damage caused by flooding at each occurrence, some urban dwellers have developed strategies aimed at preventing future impacts. Prevention for these future disruptive events is based on learned practises and solutions. A young female resident in Quarteirão [Block] 7 mentioned that in the October 2017 gale, ‘the wind took off the roof zinc sheets but as it blew during the day, people were able to go search for the sheets some meters away and put them back on. But nailed them more firmly afterwards’ (L.M., female resident, Polana Caniço, Maputo, May 2018). Also, in Luanda, a male neighbourhood coordinator in his 50s referred to the variety of solutions that ‘people have been finding over the years’, such as barring the entrances of yards with elevated steps, using sand bags or digging ditches before the rain starts’ (male resident, Rocha Pinto, 2017). Through these reactions and arrangements, urban residents shape and configure their living environments, attempting to adapt more to the effects of water-related events.

Transformations of the living environment and ways of living

The description of strategies developed in the two cities engages the discussion of the transformations entailed by changing adaptive DIY devices. On one hand, as in other contexts, many of the strategies suggested by the residents have been used effectively during past drought and flood events (Codjoe et al. 2014), showing that knowledge in this area is cumulative. On the other hand, examples show that actual and ‘prospective’ action is substantially developed by urban residents in the absence of other mechanisms. As analyses have indicated, ‘innovative and revitalising adaptation occurs as residents shift from employing more generic and expected coping strategies’ to other more specific and complex, within what has been called ‘transformative adaptation’, which involves moving, for instance, from individual coping to communal and anticipatory learning, collaboration and collective action (Thorn et al. 2015). Specifically, there is a wide range of capacities urban residents use to cope with climate change (Roy et al. 2016, p. 261), and as they use them, they modify the milieu. The most evident transformations caused by these cumulative DIY activities are in the physical environment, namely in housing. There is also, in turn, a set of ways of doing things that are modified through time within the processes of dealing with climate change, such as economies, habits or local organisation.

Transformation and adaptation of houses, as described, are the most evident responses to climate change in the living environments. Houses and yards, walls and entrances, roofs and adjacent streets are subject to a series of improvements and improvisations, with dwellers building protections, drainage ditches and outlets, securing roofs with stronger fixes and heavy weights. Despite the constant – and according to some, worsening – impacts of climate change on urban living, residents often do not want to move. As a local authority mentioned, ‘people who now live in the most affected areas have been relocated before and came back. They destroy the government warning signs, build the houses back during the night and fight with the authorities. They prefer to live in the neighbourhood and take risks. They are suspicious of the state. The neighbourhood has a strategic location, near transportation’ (J.C., male 59, Block secretary, Bairro Luís Cabral, Maputo, May 2018). To be able to continue living in affected areas, residents have to do their best to suffer less from the negative effects of climate. With more events of strong wind taking place in both Luanda and Maputo, residents have increasingly resorted to improved methods of protecting roofs over time. As one 65-year-old female resident mentioned, ‘people learned to nail strongly the roof zinc sheets and put as many cement blocks and rocks as they can on top of roofs to secure them’ (A.T., Block coordinator, Polana Caniço, Maputo, May 2018).

Flooding prevention is increasingly based on new construction techniques. Houses built more recently are preferably built on higher ground or over a concrete structure above the floor, and particularly the entrances of houses are built above street level. According to a 65-year-old female resident, this was not how people used to build before but ‘people have learned with their mistakes. And they see the examples of their neighbours and do the same way’ (A.T., Block coordinator, Polana Caniço, Maputo, May 2018). Some ‘improvised’ solutions have even become quite available in the market over the years, as a male in his 40s said: ‘Today, it is very easy to hire a few young men to come and “plant” these sandbags everyone uses today to protect gates from water. They bring the bags themselves already’ (B.C., artisan, Cazenga, Luanda, 2017). More often than before, construction materials are preferably resistant to water, and it is very rare to now have houses or parts of houses built of wood. As a woodworker resident in Luís Cabral said, ‘People living here now even avoid having furniture made of wood; if they do, they try to keep them above something else. My clients are not from this neighbourhood’ (F.N., woodworker, male 57, Maputo, May 2018). The aspect of houses then gradually changes, adapting to the changing conditions and adversities, following designs and devices about which knowledge has accumulated and improved over the years, not necessarily those of formal urban planning. More broadly, a sort of ‘unofficial planning’ emerges, made by private and/or community initiative (Jenkins 2001), ‘physically structured by urban dwellers aspiring to establish legitimate and viable forms of socio-culturally informed physical order (Andersen et al. 2015, p. 423).

Ways of living also alter over time to adapt to the changing conditions. During disruptive times, such as during flooding, residents try to keep regular income activities and whenever possible go to work daily. Consequently, most already have learned to endure the occasional disturbances at specific seasons. As one 65-year-old female resident mentioned, ‘People have boots to go to the machamba [vegetable garden]; and you can take off your shoes to walk to the main road to get into town to work’ (A.T., Block coordinator, Polana Caniço, Maputo, May 2018). In Luanda, a female young street vendor said, ‘We sell less during heavy flooding. So, those who can, have to use their savings during that period to meet the expenses’ (Cazenga, 2017).

In general, families also know that flooding will cause damage, some of it inevitable, and prepare to cover them – which is rarely achieved in such contexts of precarity – or be prepared to endure a variable period without them. This applies to a variety of assets, like furniture or apparel. As a woman in her 40s described, ‘We know we have to live for some time without a freezer, after the one we had was ruined by the water. Until we are able to save for a new one’ (V.S., domestic worker, Cazenga, Luanda, 2017). Also, some habits have changed over the years in relation to ways of, for instance, preventing diseases. Some residents say that there is now more information and, as one 65-year-old woman put it, ‘If some years ago children would play and swim in stagnant waters after the rain, today we try to keep them away from that, due to the diseases they can get’ (A.T., Block coordinator, Luís Cabral, Maputo, May 2018).

Regarding local organisation and collective action, climate-related impacts also have led to a variety of arrangements aimed at both mitigating and preventing the impacts on local communities. These include specifically created committees, for instance to dig ditches, or agreements among neighbours on roads and passages and how they are maintained and improved. Despite these new local arrangements, most times residents complain about the lack of coordination and solidarity in the neighbourhoods. As a 62-year-old woman recalled, ‘After independence, it looked like the area was going to evolve. There was organisation, block meetings, collective cleanings. Today, no one organises this anymore and it is each one by itself’ (L.M., Quarteirão [Block] 7, Polana Caniço, Maputo, May 2018). However, in many cases, out of necessity, groups and associational efforts can be formed, and as another resident mentioned, ‘Those affected can be mobilised for works to prevent flooding or to contribute to pay for workers to do this job’ (F.N., woodworker, male 57, Luís Cabral, Maputo, May 2018). In more sophisticated cases, local administrations of the most risk-prone neighbourhoods may create committees for natural risks and calamities management, depending on the neighbourhood. In Maputo, for instance, in the neighbourhood of Luís Cabral (like some others in the city) the administration staff has been trained by and received a kit from the National Institute of Calamities (INGC) with shovels, hoes and rubber boots, to be used in case of flooding.

Despite the varied solutions found and the diversity of impacts they produce locally on urban living, the connections between the DIY of everyday life and the formal responses are still to be better known and yet to be developed and improved. Overall, the key importance of understanding local responses and the local effects on settlements and urban living lies in the possibilities to develop co-productions of services and co-creations of knowledge among urban dwellers and urban planning and management (Roy et al. 2016, p. 28). This is to be achieved mainly through the expansion and deepening of knowledge about the intricacies of climate change, local initiates and the production of urban living.

Conclusion

In the presence of incipient formal systems and mechanisms to deal with climate-change effects in the capital cities of Luanda and Maputo, residents and especially the urban poor living in precarious, risk-prone areas have developed over time a series of responses to adapt to and mitigate the effects of climate change. As a consequence, cities change not only due to the effects of climate change but also to the ways found by the urban dwellers to deal with it. Dealing with flooding caused by heavier patterns of rain and by rising sea levels – the most salient phenomena affecting the two cities – has demanded adaptations related to housing, the economy, habits and ways of organising collectively. Although change is evident, it is rarely described in detail that could stimulate more linkages between planning and management of formal and informal urban living. Solutions found by urban residents in specific areas are more adapted to the local physical, social and economic conditions but the implications this has for policy response are still unclear. Possible explanations for the recurrent dissociations between the informal urban construction and policy rely on, first, that urban management is perceived as a fully formal business. Second, that the precarious living conditions in slums are perceived as temporary and to be replaced by formal solutions in the future. A variety of cases in the developing world shows that over time dwellers develop their own cumulative long-lasting solutions. Cities of the global south are increasingly products of these informal, improvised and do-it-yourself constructions. As capacities and resources to operate urban transformation through formal planning and management do not seem immediately viable in most of the global south cities, ‘reasonable’ policy options rely apparently on compromises between the formal and the informal. In this context, more knowledge of the informal dynamics, including more and better informed official documentations and guidelines, is most necessary.

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Acknowledgement

This research had the financial support of the Swedish Research Council Formas.

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No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

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Notes on contributors

Cristina Udelsmann Rodrigues

Cristina Udelsmann Rodrigues is specialised in African Studies and currently works at the Nordic Africa Institute, in Sweden as Senior Researcher. Main research areas include urban anthropology and sociology, urban transformation, poverty and development, borders and migration in Africa. Her research is mostly conducted in Angola but she has also been working in all other Portuguese speaking African countries.