Language matters for disaster warnings – this community didn’t get useful flood alerts

In an age of instant communication, it is easy to assume that everyone receives disaster warnings. Smartphones buzz, sirens sound, alerts flash across screens. But for millions of people who speak minority or Indigenous languages, the message often stops short.

South Africa has 12 official languages, but disaster warnings are still sent out almost entirely in English and Afrikaans. Emergency SMS alerts, radio broadcasts, and social media posts are issued regularly, but these are one way communications – the municipal (local government) disaster management centres sending the messages don't check whether the people receiving them understand what they say. A warning that is sent is not necessarily a warning that is understood.

We study disaster management and languages, respectively. In our recent study, we wanted to understand whether people in an informal (shack) settlement in South Africa had received early warnings of disaster, and how readable and understandable these messages were.

We spoke with 300 residents of Walmer Airport Valley in Gqeberha, Eastern Cape. We thought it was an ideal setting because it's located in a flood-prone area with warnings of floods sent out regularly. With 27,000 residents, Walmer Airport Valley is a dense informal settlement of corrugated-iron shacks set up just metres from the local airport's runway, where narrow dirt paths wind between homes. All residents there speak isiXhosa, one of South Africa's official languages.

Our research found that the clearer a warning message is, the more likely people are to act on it. This matters especially for people with less formal education, who get messages in languages they may be less likely to understand.

We argue that if disaster warnings are not reaching the people intended to receive them – a community highly exposed to flooding – then the system has a problem that costs lives.

South Africa's disaster management agencies, municipalities, mobile phone operators and community radio stations should work together to design plain-language warnings in local languages with communities, and make free emergency alerts reach every mobile phone. They should also formally make community radio part of the early warning system, because the current approach sends messages that millions of people simply cannot understand.

Why many isiXhosa-speaking residents miss life-saving alerts

Residents told us that the most common disasters in Walmer Airport Valley were thunderstorms, fires and floods. While most people had a basic understanding of disaster risks and emergency situations, many were not receiving official warnings from the municipality's disaster teams. Of the 270 people surveyed, 210 said they had never received an early warning message.

Even among the 258 people who owned mobile phones, only 90 had ever received a warning through their device. Many residents reported receiving warnings too late, often because of poor service delivery, weak communication systems and a lack of awareness about how to register contact details.

As a result, community leaders and ward councillors were the main source of disaster warnings for nearly half of respondents.

The study found that levels of trust in the municipality's disaster warnings differed depending on employment status. About 64% of people in full-time employment said they trusted the municipality's disaster communication, compared with 68% of unemployed respondents. This suggests that people's experiences and circumstances may influence how much confidence they have in official warning systems.

Community radio, by contrast, was trusted by 264 of the 300 people we interviewed. As the broadcasts are in isiXhosa and widely listened to, this proved the most effective way to warn people about looming disasters.

We also found that while most respondents enjoyed the simplicity of early warning messages, the need to offer plain, non-technical text was highlighted. For example, early warning systems in this area need simple, direct translations of terms like “flooding” or “evacuation” into isiXhosa. When a flood comes, the difference between a plain warning in isiXhosa and a jargon-filled English message can be the difference between reaching higher ground and losing everything.

This is “disaster linguicism” (the systematic exclusion of linguistic minorities from life-saving information) in practice. It is not an abstract concept. It is happening in a South African community right now, leaving many residents without timely warnings and reducing their ability to prepare for floods, fires and other emergencies.

As climate change intensifies, floods and storms will hit more frequently and with greater force. Informal settlements, already underserved by infrastructure, will be on the front lines of this devastation.

Our findings therefore highlight the complex relationship between language, message power, and the general strength of early warning systems within informal settlements.

Three fixes that cost far less than a disaster

The good news is that the solutions are not expensive. Simple language, local languages, trusted radio, and inclusive design are not costly technological upgrades. They are choices. And those choices can mean the difference between a warning that is heard and one that is not.

Based on our findings, we make several recommendations.

First, translation is not enough. Sending a message in isiXhosa is a start, but if the vocabulary remains formal or assumes high literacy, the message still fails. Warnings must be co-designed with communities, tested with small groups, and refined until they work for people with varying levels of education. This is especially urgent in informal settlements, where vulnerability is already higher.

Second, mobile operators and municipalities need to make sure disaster warnings actually reach people's phones. Free emergency alerts, better network coverage in informal settlements and a shared contact database are all possible. The main challenge is getting different parts of government and service providers to work together to make it happen.

Third, Community radio must become a formal pillar of South Africa's early warning system, not an afterthought. Municipal disaster centres should partner directly with local stations, providing pre-approved warning content in the relevant languages so broadcasts go out within minutes of a threat. This costs far less than a digital overhaul and delivers results immediately.

These are low cost fixes to the problem.

The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

By Mosekama Osia Mokhele, Lecturer, Nelson Mandela University And

Andiswa Mvanyashe, Senior lecturer in Languages and Literature, Nelson Mandela University

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