Floods in Niger: 65 dead and more than 300,000 victims
The town of Naimey is under water after heavy rains, Niger, August 27, 2020. BOUREIMA HAMA / AFP
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3 min
The heavy rains that have been falling in Niger since June have left 65 dead and more than 300,000 affected, while several districts of Niamey, the capital, are still submerged in water, authorities said on Tuesday.
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34,000 houses and huts were destroyed and 5,768 hectares of crops submerged by water.
The previous report also reported the destruction of around sixty classrooms, around 20 mosques, 448 granaries and 713 drinking water wells.
The most affected regions are Maradi (center-south), Tahoua and Tillabéri (west), Dosso (south-west) and Niamey, but the desert north is not spared by these bad weather either.
Lawan Magagi's opinion
While water still invades the streets of Niamey this morning
, the Minister of Humanitarian Action and Disaster Management, Lawan Magagi, points the finger at the responsibility of local communities and part of the population for the non compliance with construction instructions, which would have tipped the country into the current environmental and health crisis.
“
Responsibilities are shared,” he
explains at the microphone of Victor Mauriat.
The government has made provisions since 2013, which were updated in 2018, with laws and implementing decrees for the ban on building in flood-prone areas.
Unfortunately, the mayors do not respect this when they do the subdivisions, when the plots are allocated.
Here there is a responsibility of the local authorities with regard to the allocation of land, which is already known to be floodable.
"
"
The population itself does not respect the instructions given to it,"
he continues, "
not to build in these areas, and if ever they should build, on the type of building that must be built.
Of course, with poverty we cannot require someone to build with reinforced concrete.
It is not possible, they do not have the means to do it.
But we believe that the population is jointly responsible for what is happening today.
"
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