Recovering from the floods

In the Kigaramango site for internally displaced persons on the outskirts of Bujumbura, Jeannette Niyibigira is easy to find. Sitting near her hut under a shelter made of tarpaulins, she is the lady with the sewing machine, always surrounded by colourful fabrics and joyful women.

“People like it when they can wear nice clothes, and they know I am a good tailor,” she says. “So, when they have a good piece of fabric, they come and ask me to sew something for them.”

Jeannette, 40 years old, is a mother of five. With her husband, she also raises an orphan child. With the children aged 7 to 16, they had a happy and busy life in Gatumba, until one night in March 2020.

“We woke up in the middle of the night. Suddenly, there was water everywhere in the house. We were in a panic, trying to save our children while the house was swept away,” Jeannette recalls. “I finally managed to grab my kids and flee, and ended up on the main road, empty handed, soaked, cold, thinking it was Noah’s flood and the end of the world.”

Fifty thousand people were affected by the floods at that time. The Ruzizi river had swollen due to heavy rains and landslides upstream. On its final stretch to Lake Tanganyika, while crossing the densely populated city of Gatumba near Bujumbura, it suddenly left its banks, wreaking havoc on the whole neighbourhood. Lake Tanganyika itself was higher than it had been in decades and could no longer absorb the flow. The water remained where it had spilled over, and it is still there a year later.

Jeannette and her family no longer had a house. They had no choice but to join thousands of others on a site nearby. For weeks, she recalls, they were just sitting there, wondering how to restart their life.

UNICEF and partner Faith in Action then started helping, with the financial support of the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency. They first worked on how to assist people to overcome the trauma, and then advised them to join a solidarity group. These community-based groups have proven to be very effective – UNICEF supports over 5,000 of them across Burundi. Usually, people get together and contribute every week, using the money for micro loans, community investments and support to the most vulnerable children in the community. In Gatumba, since most people had no money to contribute, the solidarity group was provided with cash, while letting its members decide how to best use the money, and how much they should lend to each member.

Jeannette’s sewing machine had been damaged by the water, but it was salvageable. She borrowed 50,000 BIF to have it repaired and to build a small shelter so she could start working again. Over time, she has managed to send her children back to school, and was even able to invest in a small palm nut business. It is too early for Jeannette and her family to think about a new house – their plot is under water, and the rent for the few houses that are still standing has risen dramatically. But at least, she says, the children are no longer hungry.

The children still get anxious when it rains, though, as they should. In March 2021, another episode of rains and strong winds hit the camp. Jeannette’s sewing machine was damaged, again. This time, thanks to her small palm nut business, she was able to pay for the repairs.

Lake Tanganyika, along the western border of Burundi, has risen dramatically over the past year. Scientists have yet to determine the exact causes of this phenomenon, but the second largest cool-water reserve in the world – after Lake Baikal in Russia – is waging a fierce battle against the humans living on its shores.

Jeannette's former neighbourhood is now almost entirely damaged by stagnant water, susceptible to all kinds of contamination. The families remaining in houses that are still habitable are constantly exposed to contamination from dirty water, a danger that is less visible but just as serious as the increasingly frequent encounters with hippos or crocodiles.

With increasingly heavy rains, massive deforestation preventing the soil from retaining water, and rapid and unplanned urbanization, especially around large cities, Burundi is hit hard by the consequences of climate change and population growth. As one of the poorest countries in the world, it has few means to protect its population. As always, children pay a heavy price during, and as a consequence of, these disasters: many must drop out of school because their parents cannot afford to pay for schooling, because they have to work to support the family, or because the school is simply no longer there. Children are vulnerable to poor hygiene conditions triggered by dirty water, and to malnutrition when the family has no income and therefore no food. Added to that is the potential exposure to exploitation, violence and abuse that so easily comes with displacement and extreme poverty.

Because these crises are recurrent in the country, UNICEF and humanitarian actors always aim to find sustainable solutions to the problems encountered and the needs expressed by the affected populations. The response to immediate needs, however, remains extremely limited, hampering the recovery capacity of the people affected and posing a high risk of protection for the most vulnerable, particularly children and women. It is estimated that UNICEF Burundi needs $6 million in 2021 to support families affected by natural disasters in the country.

By Donaig Le Du – Chief of Communication, UNICEF Burundi