A Cry for Help: Angelique's Last Hope Lies in Citizen Science and Climate Action

"We woke up at 2 am and heard people screaming," Angelique Nibagwire, a 47-year-old mother from Karongi district in western Rwanda shared in the aftermath of the torrential rains and subsequent severe floods on 03 March 2023. Another resident in the area, Nyandwi Emmanuel, said three relatives died after a house he was renting to them collapsed as they slept in the night. By the end of the day, the official count of fatalities was at 129. The testimonies of Angelique and Emmanuel, though representing millions of unheard and marginalized voices, carry the weight of shared suffering and embody the urgent need for action on a global scale.

Figure 1: Residents wade through water after their homes were swamped, following rains that triggered flooding and landslides in Rubavu district, Western Province, Rwanda May 3, 2023. REUTERS/Jean Bizimana

According to a study published by Nature, 1.81 billion people (23% of the world population) are directly exposed to 1-in-100-year floods. Of these, 1.24 billion are located in South and East Asia, where China (395 million) and India (390 million) account for over one-third of global exposure. Low- and middle-income countries are home to 89% of the world’s flood-exposed people. 

In March, Cyclone Freddy left more than 1000 people dead and 1.5 million people displaced in Malawi, Zimbabwe, and Mozambique.  A concerned community organizer deployed Ushahidi to inform the community of the events going on around the floods https://freddymalawi.ushahidi.io/views/map. Floods are ravaging different parts of the world, with the number of those affected on the rise. The case is not different in Uganda and Kenya, which has left many dead and even more displaced. 

The Earth's climate system is a delicate balance that sustains life as we know it. However, in recent decades, we have witnessed a surge in extreme climate events, such as hurricanes, droughts, heat waves, and floods. These events have far-reaching consequences on ecosystems, economies, and human lives.

In 2022, many countries in the world witnessed one of the most severe droughts in history. Out of the many times Ushahidi was deployed in 2022, about 20% of the deployments responded to climate change. One of the famous deployments is by World Vision Kenya, which sought to build the resilience of women and youth as the direct beneficiaries to better adapt to climate change in Tana River County. Tana River County is one of the four counties in which the Kenya government had declared a disaster emergency due to climate change. With four consecutive failed rainy seasons, this community was experiencing its worst drought in at least 40 years. 

The project leveraged Ushahidi’s geo-tagging and crowd-mapping ability to aid in a citizen-centric evidence-generated advocacy. One highlight from the pilot project in Tana River County is that the community’s collective intelligence surfaced a paradox in one of the local taxation ordinances. Tree nursery owners were being taxed more than their peers who engaged in cutting trees to produce charcoal and firewood. The local leadership responded by tabling this as a county assembly discussion to amend this local tax ordinance.

Figure 2: World vision deployment https://tclirp.ushahidi.io/views/map

Fast forward to 2023, Turkey and Syria experienced one of the deadliest earthquakes, with more than 55,000 people dead, 130,000 injured, millions displaced, and over 10 million left in need of urgent aid. Support to life, an organization that works in emergency assistance, deployed Ushahidi to collect information about the extent of the damage and the type of support needed by the communities. This was mainly collected through a call center based in Turkey, and the information was recorded on the Ushahidi instance. All these efforts were geared towards the coordination of response in different parts of Turkey and Syria. The deployment collected about 7000 reports that were shared with emergency coordinators within Turkey.

Figure 3: Support to Life Deployment https://stl.ushahidi.io/views/map  

Recently the North Island part of New Zealand experienced floods and landslides that reported 11 people dead and heavy destruction of property. A group of individuals came together and deployed Ushahidi to aid communities in the collection and archiving of data around the floods. The idea was to have a platform where communities can share information that aids in coping and recovering from the floods.  Data collected was mainly around shelters, resources, open/closed roads, water issues, and post-floor recovery works.

Figure 4: New Zealand floods https://aklfloodsjan23.ushahidi.io/views/map

Floods and storms in the recent past have affected different parts of the world. We recently saw Cyclone Freddy saw more than 1000 people dead and 1.5 million people displaced in Malawi, Zimbabwe, and Mozambique. An individual deployed Ushahidi to inform the community of the events going on around the floods https://freddymalawi.ushahidi.io/views/map. 

Floods are still ongoing in different parts of the world, with the number of those affected on the rise. In Rwanda, at least 130 people have died in the continuing floods and landslides, while thousands have been displaced as entire villages were engulfed. Beyond the 5000 homes, 17 roads, and 26 bridges destroyed, a whole hospital was lost amid torrential rain. The case is not different in Uganda and Kenya, which has seen the death of several people and thousands displaced. 

Amidst the crisis taking place in the world, Ushahidi offers the technology that helps communities to mobilize and self-organize during a crisis. In its 5 year strategic plan, Ushahidi adopted climate change as one of its focus areas due to how we have seen our technology being used by different players in the climate change space. Communities have used our technology to; 

➡️Crowd-sourcing information: Ushahidi is designed to allow anyone with a mobile phone or internet connection to submit reports, photos, and videos, making it an ideal tool for collecting real-time information from a large number of sources.

➡️Mapping data: Ushahidi’s mapping tools allow users to create and display maps that visualize the location and severity of events, helping responders and decision-makers to quickly understand the scope of an emergency or crisis.

➡️Data analysis: Ushahidi’s data analytics tools make it easy to filter, sort, and analyze the information collected through the platform, helping users to identify patterns and trends that can inform their responses.

➡️Collaboration: Ushahidi is designed to facilitate collaboration and information-sharing among users, making it easy for teams to work together to analyze data, make decisions, and coordinate their responses.

In case you may need a platform that can perform all these services at once, go to create deployment on our website, and our support team will be on standby to help you.