BUJUMBURA, September 23rd (ABP) – The permanent secretary at the Ministry of Environment, Agriculture and Livestock, Emmanuel Ndorimana, proceeded, on Friday, September 20, 2024, to the official launch of the project “Landscape restoration to increase resilience in urban and peri-urban areas of Bujumbura”, a check on the site by ABP has revealed.
In his speech, Ndorimana said that Burundi is one of the countries most exposed to the effects of climate change, which results in an increase in the frequency but also in the magnitude of natural disasters that occur. In addition, in recent decades, climate-induced natural risks have become more frequent, which led, according to him, to an increase in flooding especially around Lake Tanganyika, landslides, erosion of river banks. The destruction of houses, roads and other urban and peri-urban community infrastructure, human mobility, significant damage to crop fields, are the other consequences mentioned.
On that occasion, he explained that the government of Burundi, through the ministry in charge of the environment, draw up that project with the aim of increasing the resilience of communities in and around Bujumbura, and this thanks to integrated and resilient management of the Ntahangwa River sub-watershed, in its two ecological zones of Mumirwa in Bujumbura province and the Imbo plain in Bujumbura City.
Furthermore, he continued to say, the project, which is aligned with Burundi’s vision of “Emerging country in 2040 and developed country in 2060, was financed by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) to the tune of USD 8,932,420, on a grant from the Trust Fund and is spans over a period of five years.
Ndorimana announced that the Ministry in charge of the environment hopes that this project will allow the consolidation of the achievements of the previous GCRCCCBu project which ended in 2020. On the one hand, the implementation of the new project aims to build capacities in climate risk modeling and integrated planning in the Ntahangwa watershed and in the city of Bujumbura. On the other hand, the livelihoods of communities will be improved; the local and national stakeholders concerned will be able to integrate climate-resilient approaches into their land management activities, drawing on the experience of the Ntahangwa watershed area.
During the presentation, the coordinator of that project indicated that Burundi faces cyclical geophysical phenomena that cause extreme climatic situations, increasing the vulnerability of the country in different sectors such as infrastructure development, transport, housing programmes and urban planning. He revealed that climate-induced natural hazards have become more frequent in recent decades, with an increase in innovations and droughts, as well as major storms and landslides. This project will intervene in Bujumbura province, specifically in the Isare and Kanyosha districts, but also in Bujumbura city, Mukaza and Ntahangwa districts.