Two people have died and 35 have been secured, according to the Grouping of firefighters, military in Abidjan, but a reporter saw a third body without life. These deaths are in addition to the 16 others that occurred during a landslide last Thursday in a neighbourhood homeless man, already following torrential rains. “In half an hour, the water is rising one meter and a half. We had to take refuge on the roof of the house, a torrent dévalait the street, “testified to AFP Thomas Diego Badia, a journalist whose production company is located in the” City of Reconciliation “, a place affluent Cocody Riviera.
Read also The climate change has cost several billion dollars in 2019
A city marked by torrential rains
The streets of this city and the “City Allabra” nearby were covered in mud and plant debris household or carried along by water and strewn with many cars full of potholes, some returned to the roof. The entrance portal of the City of Reconciliation, a piece of metal four meters high, was torn out and thrown to the ground. The walls have collapsed. A lamp post fell on a house.
The shops, the interiors of houses, sidewalks : nothing has been spared. © SIA KAMBOU / AFP
images broadcast by Abidjanais on social networks, at the height of the storm rains which have lasted three hours in the middle of the day, are impressive, showing the arteries of the economic capital of côte d’ivoire turned into torrents of muddy water. Armed with buckets, brooms and mops, residents worked together Thursday afternoon to clean out their houses to the ground, covered in mud, both good and bad, noting the damage. “Everything’s fucked up inside,” says a resident, Mr. Acket. “We do not know where to go, you can’t sleep in, we return to God “, laments another, Kevin Brou.
also Read The right to water and energy is well worth the combat of climate change
A normal phenomenon during the rainy season
The rainy season began in may and usually lasts until the end of July in Abidjan, which has a climate subéquatorial. The scenario of torrential rains followed by devastating floods is a recurrent one in this metropolis of five million inhabitants in continued growth, including infrastructure, are inadequate. After the deadly floods of 2018, which had struck the same areas and 18 dead, the authorities had yet begun significant work to clean the channels of evacuation of water and destroy the illegal constructions, which sometimes hinder.
In Adjamé-Williamsville, a popular area, another channel of evacuation of the waters overflowed, the water rising about three meters and turning a large artery of traffic in a torrent, according to the testimony of merchants. “We had the time to get to the shelter with our goods,” said Steve Benjamin, a seller of clothing. Thirty minutes after the waters fell back, all the informal vendors with their goods laid on the floor were back, a multitude of garbage and a few stumps of trees present in the street, testifying to the level reached by the waves.
writing will advise you
climate change has cost several billion dollars in 2019 The right to water and energy is well worth the combat of climate change
