Flood victims in Burkina Faso suffer as climate changes

By Christophe Parayre OUAGADOUGOU (AFP) – A world away from the heated negotiations for a critical deal on stopping climate change at the UN summit in Copenhagen, Burkina Faso inhabitants are suffering the direct consequences of global warming. Jacqueline, Noroudine and Guy-Prosper are among the 150,000 made homeless by floods after the heaviest rainfall in decades hit Burkina’s capital Ouagadougou last month. On September 1 some 30 centimetres (one foot) of rain fell in the space of 10 hours, the heaviest rainfall in the west African country since 1919. In central Ouagadougou the flood victims live in a makeshift tent village set up on a sporting pitch in the middle of the capital. At first glance the site, which houses 1,600 people –mostly women and children– looks like a warzone refugee camp. For these victims of climate change September 1 is a day that remains etched in their minds. “I was very scared, we had never seen that kind of rain. We managed to get some of our stuff out but suddenly the house caved in,” student Noroudine Maranga, 25, told AFP. The rain started a little before daybreak. “I was sleeping, they told me it was raining and that it wouldn’t stop,” 21-year-old student Guy-Prosper Ouedraogo, said. “There was a lot of water in the houses in the lower parts and the people did not know how to swim so we rescued them.” “After we saw that the dam (close to the neighbourhood that was hit) had overflowed. The water was rising and flowing into the houses. We tried to block the entrances with sandbags but the water kept coming. We got out our stuff and the family and then the house fell down,” Ouedraogo said.  … Seydouben Traore managed to save himself after being swept away by the water when he stepped outside his house. “I climbed in a tree and stayed there the whole day. I saw chickens, cows, bulls and goats swept away by the flood,” he said. “I also saw three bodies but I couldn’t do anything. It was every man for himself, it was horrible,” the 43-year-old musician told AFP. …

Flood victims in Burkina Faso illustrate the effects of climate change via The Oil Drum