BUJUMBURA, February 23rd (ABP) – The overflow of rainwater has causes a lot of damage in the Kajaga and Kinyinya neighborhoods of Rukaramu zone in Mutimbuzi commune of Bujumbura province (western Burundi).
In a visit made on Wednesday February 21, 2024 to those neighborhoods, a check by ABP noted that certain avenues of Kajaga have become impassable following the floods. This situation continues and worries the residents of those neighborhoods.
Almost 500 m from the Bujumbura-Gatumba road, not far from the Missionary Nuns of Charity known as Calcutta or Congoman Hotel, certain avenues have become impassable due to flooding. Water invaded the plots of homes and aquatic plants followed. Nature has reclaimed its rights, it is said.
Some places have been transformed into “small lakes” and young people practice fishing there. Some house owners have already emptied the premises. The portals are well padlocked.
The check by ABP also noted that other house owners are trying to manage to access their plots. They desperately installed or placed bags filled with sand to block the water.
“A costly job and wasted effort. It’s really very difficult. There I had to spend a lot of money trying to protect my house. The purchase of bags, sand and labor,” explained a resident from the locality of Kajaga, regretting that all those efforts came to nothing : “This unfortunately did not prevent the water from invading the house”.
The residents of the Kajaga neighborhood met on site ask the authorities to install water evacuation channels : “In any case, if we manage to channel the water to a single destination and control rainwater, surely our neighborhood would be protected’’.
Those residents also reported that one of the causes of those floods is the rising water which crosses a stream called Kunzoga towards Lake Tanganyika.
“This stream overflows and throws water into these neighborhoods,” lamented the same residents, urging the authorities to find solutions to manage that water and to rebuild that stream to a high level in order to avoid these inconveniences.
The expert in risk prevention and hydrometeorological disaster management, Dr. Athanase Nkunzimana, noted that the city of Bujumbura and its surroundings are located below on the slope of the conflict ditch. When there is torrential rain, neighborhoods are flooded few minutes later, he explains.
It was noted that the flooding in the Kajaga and Kinyinya quarters result from the lack of gutters, explains Dr. Nkunzimana. He advises the Burundian government to draw gutters in order to avoid the damage because, he specifies, certain factors which cause flooding in the quarters of Bujumbura are in particular climate change, the lack of gutters and the rising waters of Lake Tanganyika.