In the north of the country, the advance of water linked to the exceptional flood of the Senegal River continues to bring desolation and disaster along its path with massive destruction of homes, loss of human life and loss of crops and property. . In this infernal chaos, the rice growing areas were not spared. At the level of the Matam delegation, at the time when the decline of the river is far from being obvious, more than 700 hectares were wiped out by the waters plunging 1000 producers into the disaster.
“With the advance of the waters, we fear that the situation will get worse. Quite a tragedy, because we have already identified more than 1000 producers who are impacted by these floods which have destroyed more than 700 hectares of production,” warns Moussa Mbodji, head of the Support for Production and Rural Entrepreneurship division of the National Society for the Development and Exploitation of Delta Lands (Saed) of Matam.
Faced with the advance of the flood, the situation has today become more or less critical, even more and more critical. Indeed, as the technician announces, “due to the evolution of the flooded areas, during the first wave, with a height of 8 m.69 (river level), we recorded more than 400 hectares of rice flooded . With the resurgence of the flood, during these last days, where we are at a height of the water level of the river which is established at 8 m. 74, we are currently at 700 and some hectares which are flooded. As part of more alert management, the Matam delegation works spontaneously with its agents in position on the ground night and day, to inquire about the situation, evaluate it and provide a report.
From this additional evaluative monitoring of the damage suffered, the technician informs that apart from the crops which are lost, estimated at hundreds of millions, there are also risks of deterioration of the facilities. Under this register, “We will still have to make estimates on all the perimeters that exist. Those who were in the campaign and the perimeters which were not in the campaign, because the flooding is very large, and can impact other pigeonholes which did not go to the campaign at the level of the delegation,” he declares. Before adding: “the provisions relate to an assessment of the damage in order to plan to rehabilitate and repair, necessarily more than 2000 hectares of perimeters, for an upgrade. However, for the 1000 impacted producers who plunge into the disaster, it is also a strong psychosis which sets in for subsistence and in particular the investment credited by the bank.
PAPE MOCTAR NDIAYE
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