Hope in the horizon: WACA ushers in the promise of a new era for families devastated by flooding in The Gambia

Peter Mendy lives on the edge of the Kotu Stream, the primary intervention area of the WACA Project in The Gambia. He lives with his family and cultivates rice in the Stream. It is a trade he inherited from his father many years ago. Located in a swampy area of the Stream, his fields were ideal for rice cultivation until new structures began appearing on the opposite side, pushing the water into his fields.

“I used to survive on these rice fields, but they are now inundated,” Mr Mendy said as he waved his arm in a semicircle. “All my rice fields have been destroyed due to the blockage of the water on the other side of the stream.”

The Kotu Stream is a major flood hotspot in the Greater Banjul Area and is inhabited by relatively low-income communities with a high flood vulnerability. The stream, which spans 1,881 hectares and stretches 11.2 km, passes through 11 and is home to 201,044 people as of 2020.

Across the Stream, human activity has severely constricted the waterway leading to an increased risk of flooding. In some places, physical structures have pushed the boundaries of the stream exposing nearby families to the risk of fluvial flooding.

It is these and other challenges faced by Mr Mendy and hundreds of thousands of others in the 11 communities along the Kotu Stream that the WACA Project seeks to alleviate.