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People in Burundi are struggling to cope with flooding after months of heavy rains, with hundreds of thousands being displaced and many homes and schools damaged.
The relentless rain has resulted in the level of water in Lake Tanganyika rising considerably, causing chaos for communities living along its shores.
Lake Tanganyika’s rising waters have invaded the port of Bujumbura, Burundi’s economic capital, disrupting business there and elsewhere in the country
“The economic impacts are starting to weigh heavily. But why these floods? It must be said that they are associated with the climate changes that are affecting Burundi, like other countries in the region,” says Jean-Marie Sabushimike, a disaster management expert and professor of geography at Burundi University.
While climate change is the trigger, the impact of the flooding is exacerbated by poor land-use planning “that does not take into account areas at very high risk of flooding,” he said.
The United Nations estimates that, since September, over 200,000 people have been displaced by flooding as a consequence of the El Nino weather phenomenon.
Many people are living in difficult situations as the water has destroyed infrastructure, flooded fields, and impacted livelihoods.
“Since last year, the rain and the water levels have been rising here. Little by little, the land is getting waterlogged. Now, it has reached this level and we have never seen it this bad. It’s terrible,” says flood victim, Joachim Ntirampeba.
With forecasts predicting above-normal rainfall until May, the government has appealed to the international community for financial assistance to deal with the impact of flooding.
We are asking our development partners to combine efforts with the state of Burundi to help all people affected by these disasters,” said Interior Minister Martin Niteretse
This is against a background of our dear nation also facing a struggle to fight off its debt disease and turn the economy around gradually, with a projected 2.9 percent growth.
Evidently, this global trends in flooding that stronger economies are facing and has potential to infect weaker economies adds the woes of nations like Ghana also faced with spates of flooding that afflict economies of vulnerable communities.
That is why reports that a stormy downpour has battered the Jachie township, in the Bosomtwe district of the Ashanti Region, leaving hundreds displaced, for instance, should worry government in the light of threatening weather warnings.
Media report.
According to media report, last Thursday night saw a rainstorm that tore roofs of over 50 houses, destroying valuables and structures. Displaced residents were in awe as they watched their belongings soak in water and their homes crashed by the heavy winds.
Officials of the National Disaster Management Organization (NADMO) are assessing the devastation in the community for immediate intervention. As the report would reveal, the devastating effects of the rains in communities in Jachie Pramso reveal itself every year, manifesting in the roofing of hundreds of rooms could not stand the stormy winds, and have been ripped off.
As if it add insult to injury, most of the affected buildings we are told commonly showed signs of weakness, causing them to collapse, and reducing homes to rubble.
Global picture
The picture globally is that while it is better in Ghana, we cannot afford as people and government not to engineer solutions. Only last year, such a massive rainfall culminated in several homes and communities along the Volta River submerging in water, with threats to life and livelihoods.
It is normal for government officials at such times to assure citizens, with the Chief Executive Officer of the Bosomtwe District, Joseph Assuming, promising a swift intervention.
Intriguingly, we know that some of these our actions and inactions, including poor waste management and insanitary practices in homes and markets, are what is responsible for the tragedies that flow from flooding.
Considered that in most of these developed economies we have tighter laws, The Inquirer believes the relevant agencies of sanitation and local government ought to be more proactive in sanctioning miscreants who break the law.
As we have noted over and over again, these have been those who create slums in emerging business district centres. That most of them are migrants cannot be disputed, though that is no reason to discriminate against them as lawful economic actors.
What we cannot, however, ignore is that, by the nature of their activities, they create massive garbage that is difficult to track, but also which sources are difficult to know in applying sanctions.
That is why landlords and market queens as well as drivers’ union heads and street actors need to be identified in obligating them to be responsible.
Tree planting
However, as a long term solution to fighting rainstorms, Daily Statesman believes communities particularly in the Middle Belt need to organise in sustaining efforts at planting trees to enhance the ecology as a bulwark in minimising the year.
Certainly, it doesn’t take government alone to protect our environment. In the opinion of The Inquirer, it is a collective responsibility that involves ordinary residents and communities, planning their homes and communities by investing in tree planting to break the force of the winds.
