A few weeks after about 6,000 residents from areas submerged by dangerous floods due to heavy rains were relocated elsewhere in Kigali, the city’s municipal authorities are looking at a new scheme to tame the overflowing of a nearby river after recent floods.
They hope it will stem, collect and sometimes drain the flow of water along the Nyabugogo, one of the steadily rising rivers being fed water from small natural springs dotted around this city of an estimated 1.3 million inhabitants.
Geographically, Kigali’s steep slopes render it dangerously vulnerable to natural disasters especially floods.
The implementation of a $2,7 million project to contain flooding in the so-called Nyabugogo catchment area is expected to start later in February following the appointment of a contractor to oversee the scheme whose exact details are yet to be fully explained.
The project funded by the Rwanda Green Fund (FONERWA), is seen by officials as a long term solution to recurrent flooding, which has claimed scores of human lives, damaged property and incurred business losses for years.
The decision to deal with the floods by a catchment scheme comes after experts from the Rwanda Environmental Management Authority (REMA) warned that small businesses around Nyabugogo River, Gatsata and other water catchment areas in Kigali could face further losses thanks to future flooding if no urgent actions are taken to address the problem.
The warning follows a survey on how small businesses in Kigali are being adversely affected by recurrent flooding.
The losses to those small enterprises are being estimated at around $196,000 in direct and indirect damages caused by floods.
The height of the Nyabugogo River which slices through the city has been rising to unprecedented levels in the last two weeks, threatening to overflow and perhaps wash away the main bridge which is about 10 meters high.
For many residents in the area, it is the first time they are seeing the river destroying properties after overflowing its banks during recurrent floods.
Various parts of Rwanda have in the last two weeks been receiving rains of up to 100 mm in a day, according to the country’s meteorological agency.
The rainwater, which ends up in rivers, has made them burst their banks leading to deaths and destruction of property.
At least 19 people have been killed and several others wounded after a downpour led to widespread floods and landslides in the suburbs of the Rwandan capital, recently.
CU/as/APA