INVESTMENTS in the drainage and flood protection infrastructure has decreased in recent years, particularly since 1987, states the IUCN report. As a result, poor infrastructure maintenance has not only affected sugarcane farmers and the industry but has also caused externality costs on the urban and peri-urban residents downstream.
Based on this finding and its effort to identify policy options for minimising flood-related disaster risk, the IUCN report has recommended that a pro-poor development strategy targeting the poor communities living in areas prone to natural hazards be adopted.
Further recommendations made in the IUCN report at the national level includes a call for the Government to investigate appropriate insurance and other financing schemes for risk reduction and disaster management. "The Government needs to seriously consider establishing a disaster risk financing scheme that takes the responsibility of maintaining all drainage infrastructures in the sugar belt area," said the report.