‘There’s flooding, so we dig’

The informal urban settlements in Beira, Mozambique, lack architecturally engineered drainage canals. This could be attributed to the lack of space, political will and funds, and probably the perception that nothing can be done there now. However, the residents are responding to the absence of drainage canals with their own drainage systems. This research explored the social process of how and why these canals are built, and who are the actors who facilitate and impede the process. Through my Beira-based research assistants, we interviewed 47 participants from five informal settlements, comprising neighbourhood leaders and residents. The data was analysed using a thematic approach, and explained through four social concepts: social innovation, assemblage, bricolage and communing, as well as an interpretative methodology. The research found that residents are the main agentic actors who create handmade ditches and barriers using all materials and tools available at home and from their surroundings. They play a key role in making social rules, decisions and negotiations with other residents. The neighbourhood leaders guide and mediate when necessary. Through the research, I argue that the handmade drainage systems are an expression of community residents’ agency, or their capacity to choose to act by acquiring all resources within their limitations. It shows that exercising agency is possible in enabling social settings and institutions (rules and decision-making, primarily). I conclude with suggestions to development practitioners and agencies to avoid romanticising words such as resilience and ‘living with floods’ to consider often less-explored realities of agency and exhaustion of the ‘resilient’ community members. I suggest considering the complexities and messiness of community-driven socio-economic activities rather than relying completely on ‘expert’ and technological solutions.