EFFECTS OF ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION ON KNOWLEDGE, ATTITUDE AND PRACTICES OF FLOOD DISASTER PREVENTION AMONG RESIDENTS INTHE IBADAN METROPOLIS, NIGERIA

Abstract

Flood disaster prevention is vital to avoidits grave consequences on individuals, communities and the nation. However, reports have shown that residents of the Ibadan metropolis had poor knowledge, with bad attitude and practices ofFlood Disaster Prevention (FDP), which mostly accounts for their inability to prevent floods. Previous studies focused largely on the causes, vulnerability factors and its effects on lives and properties, with little attention paid to intervention throughEnvironmental Education (EE). This study, therefore, examined the effects of EE on knowledge, attitude and practices of FDP among residents in the Ibadan metropolis, Nigeria. The moderating effects of gender and Flood Disaster Experience (FDE) were also examined. Health Belief Model provided the framework, while the pretest-posttest control groupquasi-experimental research design of 2×2×2 factorial matrix was adopted. The multi-stage procedure was used. Two Local Government Areas-LGAs (Ibadan South East and Ibadan South West) with high flood vulnerability were purposively selected. Ten flood–prone communities were purposively selected from each of the two LGAs including Kudeti, Oranyan, Elere, Believers stream, Idi-Odo. The simple random sampling technique was used to select 120 participants from volunteered members of Landlords’ Association of the 20 communities. The participants were randomly assigned to EE (60) and control (60) groups. The treatment lasted eight weeks. The instruments used were FDP Knowledge (r=0.88), FDP Attitude (r=0.76) and FDP Practices (r=0.79) scales, and instructional guides. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics and Multivariate Analysis of covariance at 0.05 level of significance. Most of the participants were male (56.0%). The participants that experienced direct and indirect FDE were (57.0%) and (43.0%) respectively. There were significant main effects of treatment on FDP knowledge (F(1,108)=25.56, partial ᶇ2=0.19), attitude towards FDP (F(1,108)=24.22, partial ᶇ2=0.18)and practices of FDP (F(1,108)=7.36, partial ᶇ2=0.06). The participants exposed to EEon knowledge of FDP (x ̅=23.61), attitude towards FDP(x ̅=30.30) and practices of FDP (x ̅=15.15) outperformed their counterparts in control group on knowledge of FDP (x ̅= 20.21), attitude towards FDP(x ̅=19.86) and FDP practices (x ̅= 13.31) respectively. Gender had a significant main effect on knowledge of FDP (F(1,108)=5.52, partial ᶇ2=0.05). The male participants (x ̅=22.61) outperformed their female counterparts (x ̅=21.22) in knowledge of FDP. FDE hadsignificant main effect on knowledge of FDP (F(1,108)=10.85, partial ᶇ2=0.09)and attitude towards FDP (F(1,108)=13.929, partial ᶇ2=0.11). The participants with direct FDE (x ̅=22.88; x ̅=28.55) outperformed their counterparts with indirect FDE (x ̅=20.94; x ̅=21.62) on knowledge and attitude respectively. The two-way interaction effects of treatment and FDE was significant on FDP knowledge (F(1,108)=8.63, partial ᶇ2=0.07) in favour of`the participants exposed to EE with direct FDE. The two-way interaction effects of treatment and gender, and FDE and gender were not significant. The three-way interaction effect was significantonthe practices of FDP (F(1,108)=2.104, partial ᶇ2=0.02) in favour of female participants exposed to EE with direct FDE. Environmental education enhanced the knowledge, attitude and practices of FDP among residents in the Ibadan metropolis. Therefore, EE should be provided for residents in flood prone communities for improved FDP.