Community awareness and perception on hazards in Southwest Ethiopia: A cross-sectional study Kifle Woldemichael Hajito a , Hailay Abrha Gesesew a , Negalign Berhanu Bayu b , Yohannes Ejigu Tsehay b,n a Department of Epidemiology, College of Public Health and Medical Sciences, Jimma University, Ethiopia b Department of Health Services Management, College of Public Health and Medical Sciences, Jimma University, PO. Box 378, Jimma, Ethiopia article info Article history: Received 16 April 2015 Received in revised form 17 July 2015 Accepted 17 July 2015 Available online 31 July 2015 Keywords: Awareness Hazard Disaster Coping strategy Southwest Ethiopia abstract Natural and human made hazards and associated disasters continue to pose a serious threat to Ethiopia. The objective of this paper is to assess awareness level of rural communities about hazards and their perceived vulnerability to cope with disasters. Cross-sectional survey was conducted in randomly se- lected districts of Jimma zone, Ethiopia. Quantitative and qualitative data was collected. Flood (66.2%), fire (61.2%), drought (51.2%) and disease outbreaks (45.3%) were the commonest hazards/disasters. Most (85.5%) of the respondents had awareness about at least one hazard/disaster. More than 36% of re- spondents perceived that they are vulnerable to one or more natural or man-made disasters. Re- spondents in age ≧50 yrs were less likely to have awareness about hazards compared to respondents in age category 18–24 (AOR ¼0.274, CI: 0.102–0.730). Moreover, those who participated in disaster related trainings were more likely to have awareness compared to those who did not (AOR ¼2.074, CI: 1.040– 4.136). Similarly, respondents who could read and write have more perceived ability to cope with future disasters as compared to illiterates (AOR ¼2.53, CI: 1.76–3.65). Respondents had some awareness about hazards/disasters. Training and education have positive association with the level of awareness and perceived ability to cope with disasters. Therefore, community based training on disaster preparedness and response is recommended. & 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Natural and human induced hazards and associated disasters continue posing a serious threat to Ethiopia, a country with one of the world's fastest growing economies despite being one of the world's poorest countries [1]. The country is affected by a range of natural hazards, such as drought, floods, landslides, human and animal diseases, pests, earthquakes, and forest fires [2]. But by far, the most common natural hazards are droughts and floods [1]. Ethiopia has experienced many localized and seven major droughts over the last twenty years. A database on impacts of natural disasters in Ethiopia from 1900 to 2012 revealed that a total of 66 million and 1.7 million people were affected by droughts and floods respectively [3]. Similarly, a recent report in 2013 uncovered that flooding, landslide and hailstorms resulted in destruction of 4600 ha of crops, demise of 29 people, displacement of many more and death of lots of livestock through out the country including Jimma zone [4]. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) report revealed that flash flooding affected more than 702 people in Somali, 5000 in Afar and 131,026 people in Amhara regions of Ethiopia [5]. Overall, Ethiopia is grouped under very high and stable risk of humanitarian crises and disasters with an overall rate value of 5.34%, 6.36% and 7.71% hazard, vulnerability and coping capacity respectively [6]. Few available studies on knowledge and perception of the communities about common natural hazards reported the pre- sence of difference in perception. For example, a study from Bahir- Dar showed that the perception of flooding risk between flood area residents and their counterparts was different although not significant. This study also showed that the risk perception dif- ference was noticed among senior, local and non-governmental institutional representatives [7]. Another study done in Balochi- stan of Pakistan in 2013 pointed out that the climatic and en- vironmental factors such as increased temperature, decreased precipitation and change in the timing of rainy season were also recognized to aggravate the drought severity in the area. But the perception varies on status of being victim or not [8]. In general, people's behavior or perception towards disaster is influenced by gender, ethnicity, spatial location, magnitude, degree of the hazard Contents lists available at ScienceDirect journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ijdrr International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijdrr.2015.07.012 2212-4209/& 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. n Corresponding author. E-mail addresses: yohannesejigu@yahoo.com, yohannes.ejigu@ju.edu (Y.E. Tsehay). International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction 13 (2015) 350–357