The World Bank approved, last week, financing in the amount of 135 million dollars, intended to support Senegal to reduce the risks of flooding in the peri-urban areas of Dakar and to anticipate them thanks to the strengthening of planning capacities. and urban management, she said in a press release.
This funding, the second granted to the Rainwater Management and Climate Change Adaptation Project 2 (PROGEP 2), should make it possible to strengthen resilience to floods in targeted areas, specifies the same source.
The World Bank’s Director of Operations for Cabo Verde, Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Mauritania and Senegal, Keiko Miwa, quoted in the press release, explains that “the initial financing of PROGEP 2 has already enabled the construction of more than 14 km of primary and secondary canals, protecting 55,000 people and 345 ha from flooding”.
“In the wake of these positive results, she continues, we are confident that this additional funding will be able to provide structural solutions to mitigate the impacts of heavy rains in the priority urban areas identified by the government”.
Epicenters of the floods in 2022, the northern part of Keur-Massar and the Lac Rose watershed are the two areas newly integrated into PROGEP 2. The number of project beneficiaries in these new urban expansion areas of the Dakar region should thus increase significantly, from 120,000 to 184,000 people protected from flooding, the Bank also asserts.
According to Isabelle Celine Kane, project manager at the World Bank, “through this additional financing to PROGEP 2, the realization of additional drainage works at Keur Massar Nord in the Mbeubeuss watershed is planned with 11.7 km of primary collectors and secondary and 10 rainwater retention basins for a storage capacity of 165,200 m3”.
And to add, “in the Kounoune-Sangalkam sub-watershed which is an integral part of the Pink Lake watershed, 27.35 km of primary collectors, 6 retention basins for a total capacity of 120,000 m3 as well as a outlet to the sea will be built”.
The press release stresses that the works to be financed will integrate, as far as possible, nature-based solutions, such as green corridors or green spaces, around urban drainage works. This should also make it possible to preserve wetlands from future construction with beneficial effects in relation to adaptation to the effects of climate change.
The project’s closing date, initially scheduled for 2026, will be extended by three years, until July 2029.
By OMA Newsletter N° 1234 of 03/07/2023
Article published under the direction of Dr. Najib Kettani
The OMA, NGO with an Intercontinental vocation
For the development of cultural exchanges
Valuing human potential
The promotion and consolidation of Africa’s development, and
Inter-African integration
