“This problem has lasted since 2017, the repetitive floods… because the corner of the water passage, which was towards the 35th arrondissement, has become a city. The place where the water gathered is blocked by villas. So the water makes its way by force”says David N’Guessan.
David N’Guessan lives in a housing estate in the Riviera Palmeraie district, in the commune of Cocody. He and his neighbors saw their homes flooded or their belongings washed away.
Because the district of Abidjan in Côte d’Ivoire has been under water for several days and, unlike previous years, the most significant damage was recorded in the residential commune of Cocody, where 205 millimeters of rain fell in 72 hours , or a quarter of the precipitation expected over the entire three months of the rainy season.
Urbanization problems
If flooding is significant in this chic and residential town, it is largely because urbanization rules are not respected. The real estate pressure is such in these neighborhoods that large villas or buildings are built on sanitation works, or near drainage basins.
Listen to the report by Julien Adayé, the correspondent in Abidjan
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Bernard Boitini, a retired executive, lost everything in his house which collapsed. He estimates the damage at more than sixty million CFA francs. He knows well the causes of these floods.
“Before 2018, we did not have any flooding in this city. And since these buildings were built, everything has changed. First, when there was this construction site, we attracted the attention of those who were on the site to tell them that this is the area where the water passes. Unfortunately, we were not heard. We installed buildings and today, we are at the second stage of damage.
If in the past, floods were reserved for working-class neighborhoods, due to a lack of asphalt road sanitation works, today, incivism, the concreting of green spaces, anarchic constructions and the absence of expertise in the construction works made Cocody the most flooded commune in the Abidjan district.
Here, the sewers and gutters are in places transformed into dumpsites. Joseph Amon, the president of the Order of Architects of Côte d’Ivoire, noted this.
“The population built on the pipes, that’s for sure. And so it obstructs, it slows down the flow of water. And the networks which were designed are automatically obstructed, modified by the population and they are today unsuitable. We have to take them back. And I think we have to agree to free up these spaces.”
Deadly floods
Joseph Amon explains that the old neighborhoods of the city of Abidjan are the safest during this rainy season.
“When you look closely at these different old neighborhoods, after the rain, in a very short time frame, all the water is evacuated. This means that the networks have been sufficiently sized.”
In this same commune of Cocody, it is not surprising to see supermarkets built in the wrong place, or the headquarters of a mobile operator installed at the outlet of water drains.
The consequences of the floods are dramatic: at least two buildings collapsed in less than a week, including one in Cocody which caused a death.
Landslides occurred in several neighborhoods, causing extensive material damage, while more than 368 people had to be rescued by firefighters.
To date, the toll is 21 deaths and five missing throughout the Abidjan district.
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