The Living Lab-West Africa has organized, under the leadership of Dr Seyni Salack, project coordinator, a one-day workshop with the objective to carry out a participatory diagnosis of flooding in the city of Ouagadougou. This workshop falls within the framework of the dialogue with stakeholders.
At the opening ceremony, Mrs Ouedraogo Mamounata, nee Kiemtore, representing the Municipality of Ouagadougou, highlighted the difficulties and challenges faced by the urban population of Ouagadougou in flood situations. She, therefore, commended WASCAL for its valuable contribution to the quest for solutions to effectively address the issue of flooding in the city of Ouagadougou. Notably, she stressed the 21-sanitation-day organized, last year, during the rainy season, by the I-CHANGE project in the form of community service which enabled the cleaning of drainage canals along Bassawarga Avenue.
Also speaking at the opening ceremony, Prof. Kehinde Ogunjobi, Director of WASCAL Competence Centre, was grateful to all the stakeholders for their commitment and excellent work while encouraging them for maximum and effective results.
The workshop, which combined plenary and group sessions, focused on the assessment of past rainy season near-real-time flood data collection, the participatory diagnosis of flooding in the city of Ouagadougou and the launch of forthcoming data collection campaigns using ODKs, Meteorological Trackers (MTs), and Smart Citizen Kits (SCKs).
Participants also discussed ongoing initiatives, synergies and capacity building in relation to themes of the LLWA.
The participatory diagnosis of flooding in the city of Ouagadougou was carried out through mapping exercises. It consisted of three working groups. The first group included stakeholders in the waste management chain, the second group, technicians from the town hall, involved in both waste and flood management, and the last group was made up of stakeholders involved in risk and disaster management. Each group worked on a base map showing the sectors, watercourses and bodies of water, as well as the city’s drainage network.
The group work highlighted the potential causes of flooding in the city of Ouagadougou, ranging from lack of drainage channels, the proliferation of illegal dumps and informal settlements, and lack of civic responsibility. It is worth mentioning that silting up of dams has also been reported as a cause of flooding, as a result of the backflow of run-off water.
