Chad’s heaviest seasonal rainfall in over 30 years has left parts of the capital N’Djamena navigable only by boat and forced thousands to flee their flooded homes over the past month, according to aid groups and the state weather agency.
In N’Djamena’s eighth district, families have piled into wooden boats to cross streets that have been awash with fetid flood water since the end of July.
Floods are not uncommon during the central African country’s rainy season, which usually runs from May to October in its central and southern regions. But this time, the rains came early and were more abundant, quickly overwhelming drainage channels and ponds.
“None of the (eighth) district’s neighbourhoods were spared by the floods this year, it’s really sad to see so many people suffering,” said resident Hassan Hissein Acheik, 38, standing by a vast stretch of riffling floodwater.
Across West and Central Africa from N’djamena to Dakar in Senegal, above-normal rainfall in several countries over the past month has left vast areas submerged under water.
In recent years, intense rainfall, land degradation and poor urban planning have led to more frequent flood disasters in the region, whose countries are among the most vulnerable to climate change, according to the Notre Dame Global Adaptation Initiative index.
“The country has not recorded such a quantity of rainwater since 1990,” Idriss Abdallah Hassan, a senior official at the state weather agency told Reuters on Monday, describing the situation as catastrophic.
“Entire towns have found themselves under water,” he said.