*2.1. Flood Disaster and COVID-19*

According to the United Nations International Strategy for Disaster (UNISD) (United Nations International Strategy on Disaster Reduction 2019), disasters can be either (terrorist attacks, mass shootings, racial/ethnic riots, etc.) or natural (hurricanes, earthquakes, tornadoes, floods, volcanoes, etc.) and are all sudden, destructive, and a significant cause of loss of life and livelihood. Although this chapter gives the aforementioned UN definition that classifies floods as natural disasters, this presentation is in no way intended to disregard the rising views, such as those that consider floods as being man-made. Floods are thus accepted in this chapter as both a natural and man-made disaster. This position is our way of expressing their intention for the Green Social Work's preventative elements.

The effects of disaster exposure on mental health are far too frequently disregarded. In a quantitative study conducted in South Korea in 2005, Chae et al. (2005) compared respondents who had experienced a disaster with those in the control group who had not; those who had experienced the flood disaster indicated harmful impacts in their mental health. Their results confirm that the residents in the disaster-exposed group would experience higher levels of stress, and other psychosocial challenges compared to those who were not exposed to disaster.

Natural disasters in the sub-Saharan region are now more regular, and calamities related to climate change that were once considered to occur only once every century are now happening more frequently and with more disastrous effects (Bouchard et al. 2022). Increasing temperatures, more frequent and severe droughts, floods, and tropical cyclones are some of the destructive repercussions of climate change that are the subject of the 13th Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) (Zhenmin and Espinosa 2019). The aforementioned authors indicate how the World Bank had issued a warning that, if not prioritized, climate change would continue to disproportionately have a detrimental impact on developing countries. As predicted, Cyclone Idai in 2019 killed nearly three million people in Malawi,

Mozambique, and Zimbabwe, serving as a stark reminder of the impact that extreme weather occurrences are already causing on people's lives and livelihoods (ibid). Fundamentally, climate change prevents us from achieving other SDGs because it has the ability to compromise communities with inadequate resources, which worsens mental and emotional health, food insecurity, and water scarcities. The situation will worsen until all global partners commit to "fulfil their obligations to help developing countries get the support they need to address climate change" (Zhenmin and Espinosa 2019, p. 496).

In African countries, climate change is becoming a development impediment, worsening water management issues, decreasing agricultural production and food security, raising health risks, damaging critical infrastructure, and disrupting the delivery of basic amenities like water and sanitation, education, energy, and transportation (Zhenmin and Espinosa 2019). Climate change remains an ever-present global risk. However, the number of people dying from exposure to natural hazards, such as tsunamis, earthquakes, and floods, has greatly dropped, particularly in developed countries. This is due to advancements in disaster detection and monitoring systems, which confirms Dominelli's (2013) argument that disasters do not discriminate but highlight the prevailing societal injustices.

Floods are the most common natural hazard on the African continent, frequently leading to both property damage and fatalities. Their occurrence simultaneously as a calamity like COVID-19 would undoubtedly provide many difficulties, especially for underprivileged people. Likewise, COVID-19 has had a significant impact on all nations, undoing the progress made towards achieving some global goals, such as the 1990s treatment for all—to make HIV testing and treatment widely available to persons with HIV by the end of 2020, and stop the further transmission of the virus (UNAIDS 2020). In several of the recorded cases, inadequate treatment supplies were lacking during the prolonged country lockdowns, and some patients chose to forgo their treatments because they ran out of food (UNAIDS 2020). Consequently, due to infrastructural damage, which may potentially hinder the delivery of medical services and access to them, flooding can cause more widespread disease outbreaks (Suk et al. 2020).

The simultaneous occurrence of disasters in diverse locations across the continent has caused researchers' attention to change from studying single hazards to studying multiple hazards and disasters. For instance, Kassegn and Endris (2021) looked into the socioeconomic effects of COVID-19, desert locusts, and floods in East Africa and found that the three threats worsened already-existing food shortages and weakened livelihoods and development gains that had taken years to achieve. Communities experience disasters when hazard exposure occurs in the absence of sufficient material or non-material capabilities, thus increasing risk.

Living in urban areas has become a daily risk for many in Sub-Saharan Africa. Satterthwaite et al. (2019) refer to poor urban planning, inadequate infrastructure, poverty, illiteracy, limited access to water, health care, and proper sanitation as daily

hazards. Satterthwaite et al. (2019, p. 113) note that "the boundary separating extensive disasters and everyday risks can be fuzzy" and argue that essentially "disasters waiting to happen". Therefore, addressing these disasters separately is necessary to reduce cumulative exposure. Essentially, climate-related disasters intersect not only with co-occurring disasters, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, but the political and governance structure, the socioeconomic circumstances of individuals, and their capacity for adaptation (Bouchard et al. 2022). The historical and political context of townships in South Africa highlights these intersections.

#### *2.2. The Historical Context of South African Townships*

In South Africa, "the term 'township' has no formal definition but is commonly understood to refer to the underdeveloped, usually (but not only) urban, residential areas that during apartheid were reserved for non-whites (Africans, Coloureds and Indians) who lived near or worked in areas that were designated white only" (Permegger and Godehart in Zibane 2017, p. 43). For African residents, townships were areas of exclusion, oppression, control, and containment of all aspects of the life of the residents (ibid). In spite of the demise of apartheid, townships continue to be an architectural remnant of the Apartheid government, whose racial segregation policies were regulated by the Group Areas Act.

The Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP) was established in 1994 after the democratically elected government came into power with the intention of minimizing the negative socio-spatial, economic, and political effects of apartheid by addressing socioeconomic disparities and reducing poverty in formerly oppressed and disadvantaged groups. One of its requirements was to restructure housing policies to offer free accommodation to families that past administrations had shut out. However, the development of new townships and the growth of existing ones have largely replicated historical spatial dynamics when the poor resided farther away from the city (Zibane 2017). Our responses to the flood disaster considered how socio-spatial inequalities and variations in wealth, age, education, and resource availability affect communities' ability to respond to disasters.

#### *2.3. Social Work Practice during and Post Disasters*

Social work scholarship on disasters in developing countries is growing (Koketso et al. 2021; Shokane 2019; Machimbidza et al. 2022), with implications for practice (Kreitzer 2012; Ng 2012), education (Wu 2021), policy (Mangubhai et al. 2021) and research (Maglajlic 2019). Like Ray (1999) we do not consider social work practice, education, policy and research as separate categories and similarly reject the bourgeois "universities as ivory towers" mindset, which leads to detachment from communities, even during times of disasters. Inspired by Ray (1999, p. 25), we appeal for "fresh thinking . . . [and] willingness to abandon the traditional categories that drive our thinking about who does what in the economy". Similarly, Watermeyer

(2019, p. 332) posited that for occupational relevance, community engagement for academics "is increasingly less an optional, more a mandatory".

In non-disaster settings, social workers perform a variety of roles within their micro/mezzo/macro scope of competence. Notably, Levenson (2017, p. 1) argued that "trauma-informed social work incorporates core principles of safety, trust, collaboration, choice, and empowerment". The additional tasks that social workers have to perform following disaster-related trauma can quickly become overwhelming, despite their expert knowledge of stress and trauma therapy as well as experience in public health systems, hospitals, schools, and social welfare systems (Dominelli 2013). According to Harms and Alston (2018), disasters may cause a variety of losses, including those connected to death and the attendant grieving, as well as losses unrelated to death, such as lost relatives, property, belongings, and jobs.

In a recent Zimbabwean qualitative study, Machimbidza et al. (2022) highlighted the various roles of the social worker during different disaster phases. These included the educational role for disaster preparedness, counseling, social aid, and protection available during disaster responses, and last but not least, the provision of advocacy and follow-up care during disaster recovery. However, they mentioned some social workers' reluctance to engage in disaster work. Sim and He (2022) stress the importance of reflecting on the practice process and less on the outcome, echoing Vo's (2015) conclusion that the method of service delivery is just as crucial as its results. Despite their micro-level and non-indigenous focus, Maglajlic's (2019) reviewed studies summarize critical elements of good practice for social service practitioners during disasters.

As the first best practice, responding to the genuine needs of the populace in a disaster-affected area is essential, with emphasis on bottom-up approaches to assessing survivor needs and responding fairly, with immediacy. The majority of locals were pleased with the assistance provided in the wake of the tsunami, while others remarked that those with connections in the proper places received it more quickly (Dominelli and Ioakimidis 2015). Second, service providers must have comprehensive knowledge of the current resources and capacities of neighborhood social service agencies and other partners, as well as knowledge of the sustainability of such support, whether it comes from local, national, international, governmental, or non-governmental sources (Drolet et al. 2021). Third, in order to provide relevant and timely support, social service providers in emergency situations must take the time to coordinate and collaborate with one another, regardless of their level or type (Alaniz 2012).

The fourth is that, in order to provide disaster social services that are organized and pertinent locally, the community that has been affected by the calamity needs strong local leadership that is community oriented (Tosone 2019). Importantly, services must have a degree of flexibility and responsiveness at the local level. Fifth, it is important to ensure that accurate and timely information is available and exchanged and that such communication is available through various channels

(Wang et al. 2019). The ability of practitioners to assist clients and avoid or lessen their own secondary stress is significantly impacted by their level of emotional readiness, which is a critical component of social work practice, more so during disasters (Rosenberg et al. 2022).
