Abstract
<title>Abstract</title> <p>This qualitative study examines how the community of Walmer Airport Valley, a flood-prone informal settlement in Gqeberha, South Africa, experiences and interprets early warning systems for floods. Drawing on Epistemic Injustice Theory, Trust Theory, and Spatial Justice Theory, the study analyses open-ended narrative responses from 36 participants using thematic analysis. Seven interlocking themes emerge from the data: institutional indifference (abakhathali), post-disaster timing (zange ibekho), infrastructural exclusion (no phone, no number), communication breakdown, perceived corruption ("chowing money"), epistemic withdrawal (andiyazi), and racialised discrimination. The findings reveal that warning failure in Walmer Airport Valley is not a technical malfunction but a compound relational and structural crisis. Warnings consistently arrive too late, reach only the community with mobile phones, and originate from institutions perceived as indifferent, incompetent, or corrupt. The isiXhosa terms used by participants appear to compress moral judgment, temporal critique, and epistemic assessment into forms that may not carry the same weight in English institutional discourse, a point developed in the discussion section. The study reveals that participants report simultaneous erosion across all three dimensions of trust, suggesting that no single technical intervention is likely to restore credibility without addressing the compound nature of distrust as the community experiences it. The article concludes with practice implications, arguing that trust repair should precede technological upgrade, that warning dissemination should be multi-modal, and that community consultation is a prerequisite for an equitable and effective early warning system.</p>