• Thu. Mar 28th, 2024

Reconstruction of the Gasenyi River drainage channel is urgently needed

ByWebmaster

Sep 30, 2021

BUJUMBURA September 30th (ABP) –Much of the Gasenyi River outlet is in a state of disrepair. Its reconstruction is urgent, we observed on the spot Tuesday, September 28, 2021.

That infrastructure was built as part of the Gasenyi-Nyabagere river pipeline project, “Emergency Infrastructure Resilience Project (PURI)”, which was funded by the World Bank (WB), via ABUTIP. It was a response to the inundations which caused human and material damage in the Gatunguru, Gahahe, Gasenyi (Mutimbuzi commune) and Carama (Ntahangwa urban commune) neighborhoods.

Residents of the neighborhoods encountered on the spot fear that they will be flooded again as soon as the first rains fall if nothing is done to rebuild that infrastructure. They thus call on to its reconstruction.

That structure was demolished by the large blocks of stones which were carried by the waters of that river from the section of the Gasenyi river, upstream of the RN1, following the rain which poured over the watersheds of the Gasenyi river two years ago. Those stone blocks first destroyed the temporary embankment reinforcement structures that had been built upstream of the RN1 with a view to mitigating flooding and the phenomenon of the load of solid materials (rocks, rubble, gravel, sands and so on).

The management of the Burundian Agency for the realization of works of public interest (ABUTIP) indicated that the studies which have already been made show that the budget necessary for the realization of these works in order to definitively solve the flooding problems caused by the Gasenyi River is estimated at US $ 15 million.