Flood Resilience and Water Safety Management: Assessing Community Preparedness in Paju Village, Indonesia

Abstract

Recurrent flooding poses interconnected risks to community safety, environmental quality, and the continuity of safe water supplies. This study assesses community flood preparedness in Paju Village, Ponorogo Regency, Indonesia, focusing on water-safety practices and their implications for environmentally sustainable flood resilience. An explanatory mixed-method design combined a cross-sectional household survey (n = 105; 20-item, three-point Likert scale) with semi-structured interviews and field observation. Quantitative data were analysed descriptively across age, gender, length of residence, and education, while qualitative data were analysed thematically. Overall reported preparedness was high (93.3% highly prepared; 6.7% moderately prepared), yet interviews and observation identified persistent operational gaps in water-sensitive preparedness: limited access to personal protective equipment, uncertainty about evacuation routes under high-water conditions, and insufficient guidance on drinking-water protection and post-flood sanitation. High cognitive preparedness therefore does not automatically translate into comprehensive water-safety readiness. The study proposes water-sensitive early-warning messages, contamination-aware evacuation mapping, targeted training, and household water-safety measures, positioning community preparedness as an upstream risk-management mechanism linking disaster risk reduction with integrated water resources management.