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Call for channelization of the Kanyosha River

ByWebmaster

Jan 11, 2023

BUJUMBURA January 11th (ABP) – The Kanyosha river, after flooding the Kibenga lac quarter and causing enormous material damage at the night of December 25, 2022, the observation is that the situation is beginning to recover little by little.

The leader of the Kibenga lac quarter, Mr. Oscar Bizimana, met on site on Tuesday January 10, 2023, said that after noting the damage caused by the diversion of the Kanyosha River, the community work done on Saturday January 7, 2023, consisted of bringing a cleaning machine and they removed the new bed that the river had created itself.

After that, they made a good diversion of the river towards Lake Tanganyika while also protecting the river by growing the bamboos on its banks. Despite all these efforts, he pointed out, the Kanyosha River needs strong protection. He explained that this river is threatened by the extraction of construction materials, namely gravel, stones, without respecting environmental standards, also destroying the banks of that river, which means that the water coming from the mountains overlooking the city of Bujumbura is coming at high speed to flood different neighborhood in the south of the city of Bujumbura. He added that this river is threatened by anarchic constructions which have not respected the 25 meters required, thus making it difficult to protect the latter.

For all those reasons, the neighborhood leader asks the State to intervene by developing an appropriate channel for that river, as has been the case for certain rivers that cross the city council of Bujumbura. He also asked the ministry in charge of infrastructure to carry out a trip around the Kanyosha river for the installation of the terminals and to see the measures to be taken for those who have already built their houses very close to it without leaving the 25 meters required.

The inhabitants of the Kibenga lac quarter still fear the return of the floods of that river and ask the State to intervene to protect the banks in order to avoid another disaster. They also ask to be assisted with food and non-food items because their belongings have been destroyed and others have been washed away by the floods of December 25, 2023, adding that there are families in the said neighborhood whose houses have been destroyed and moved to the police station where they languish in misery.