Assessment of the Awareness of Primary School Pupil’s on the Impact of Flooding in Ouagadougou
Volume 10, Issue12 (10 - 2024)
Abstract
The study assessed the level of knowledge of primary school pupils in the Ouagagadougou
municipality about the impacts of flooding. In a context marked by an intensification of the
impacts of the phenomena resulting from climate change and low levels of formal education, the
aim of this article is to assess pupils' knowledge of flood impact prevention and risk management.
Furthermore, it assessed pupils' understanding of the impacts of flooding, including the loss of
life, animals and property, the risks to their safety, the disruption to daily life and the
environmental impact. To achieve this, we developed a questionnaire adapted to the level of the
pupils. The questions cover the definition, causes and impacts of flooding, as well as pupils'
vulnerability to the effects of flooding, their level of training and awareness of disaster risk
reduction. The questionnaire was developed on the KoboToolbox platform and deployed on
smartphones using the KoboCollect application. A total of 387 pupils were surveyed, including
193 boys and 194 girls. The classes surveyed were year 4, year 5 and year6.
Analysis of the pupils' results shows that they have a vague but very accurate knowledge of the
definition, causes and impacts of flooding. For 95%. 76.44% and 98% respectively answered
correctly to the definition, causes and impacts of flooding. These results bear witness to school initiatives to raise awareness of disaster risks. However, this work shows that the authorities
must not only raise awareness but also integrate disaster risk reduction into the curriculum in
order to prepare future generations to mitigate the effects of disasters.
Key words: Raising awareness, Impact of flooding, Pupils, Primary school, Ouagadougou
(Burkina Faso)