Flood management in the Lower Incomati river basin, Mozambique: Two alternatives

The aim of this paper is to compare two views of flood management and thus add to the present thinking of living with floods as opposed to the traditional approach of flood control. The traditional pathway has widely been adopted in developed countries and aims to control floodwaters by means of dams and dikes. The alternative pathway tends towards a policy whereby society lives with the floods by being prepared and having the right damage reduction measures in place. In this paper two pathways are tentatively compared for the Lower Incomati Basin, Mozambique. In the design cultural theory is considered, as is how the design of each path may look according to different management perspectives. The Lower Incomati Basin provides an interesting case study as it is in a relatively undeveloped state. Hence, it is an ideal area for conducting research into the application of alternative flood management strategies. The preliminary results suggest that both pathways are feasible. However, considering recent hydrological extremes such as the 2000 floods, the resilient pathway may ultimately be a more appealing flood management strategy.