Flood Experience And Victims’ Perceptions About Community Cohesion

  • Muhammad Siddique Akbar, Mazhar Hussain Bhutta, Naimatullah Hashmi, Asim Muneeb Khan, Amna Afzaal

Abstract

The study was conducted to understand the extent to which flood experience correlated with the
respondents’ views about their community bonding. The data were taken from the flood victims by
using a semi-structured interview schedule. Multiple regression analysis was run to know the impact
of material loss and psychological trauma on flood victims’ perceived community bonding,
controlling for other factors such as annual income, evacuation experience, home-stability and
perceived fairness in aid distribution. Spearman’s rho was employed to see the direct relationship
between demographic characteristics of the respondents, flood experience, home-stability, fairness in
aid distribution, period of return to home, and post-flood community cohesion. Results of both the
analysis revealed that material loss and psychological trauma experience came out as strong
predictors of victims’ views about their community cohesion. The other predictors were perceived
fairness in the distribution of disaster aid, period of return to home, educational level and annual
income of the respondents. The study showed that material loss, psychological trauma experience and
period of return to home have negatively impacted the victims’ views about their community bonding.
Our study confirms the past research that disasters like flood cause the loss of communality and affect
the communal bonds.

Published
2020-06-01