Tuesday, August 10, 2021

Burundi ravaged by flooding from rainfall, swollen Lake Tanganyika

TUESDAY AUGUST 10 2021

People walk through Buterere, northwest of Bujumbura, in March 2017, after torrential rains destroyed more than 100 houses, resulted in six deaths, flooding and triggered landslides. 
PHOTO | AFP
Summary

Parts of Burundi are ruing floods that have destroyed property and displaced people in the past two years.

Lives in the sub-region bordering Lake Tanganyika have been disrupted but Burundi bore the greatest brunt of the floods as it is among the world’s 20 most vulnerable countries in terms of both preparedness and emergency response to natural disasters

By KENNEDY SENELWA
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Parts of Burundi are ruing floods that have destroyed property and displaced people in the past two years.

The floods, due to rising water levels on Lake Tanganyika and heavy rainfall, engulfed farmland, roads, markets, school playgrounds and churches.

About 52,000 people have been affected by floods since March 2021 according to United Nation’s International Organisation for Migration (IOM) Displacement Tracking Matrix.

The tracker has identified 127,775 internally displaced persons in 28,569 households, of which 85 per cent have been due to natural disasters and 15 per cent from other reasons across the 18 provinces of Burundi.

The IOM said devastation linked to effects of heavy rain on the world’s second-deepest lake has affected Tanzania, Zambia and the DR Congo which share about 600 km of the water body.

Lives in the sub-region bordering Lake Tanganyika have been disrupted but Burundi bore the greatest brunt of the floods as it is among the world’s 20 most vulnerable countries in terms of both preparedness and emergency response to natural disasters.




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