Living with Floods in West African Cities: Precarity of Housing and Forms of Resilience in the City of Bobo-Dioulasso in Burkina Faso

Abstract

This article addresses the issue of precarious housing and resilience strategies in the face of recurrent flooding, which is one of the most frequent and damaging natural disasters in West African cities. They are a source of deterioration in the living environment and damage to people’s health. The main objective of the study is to analyse the strategies developed to deal with flooding in the city. The methodological approach used combines quantitative and qualitative approaches through documentary review for the collection and analysis of secondary data, and direct observation and field surveys for primary data. The results show that flooding in the city of Bobo-Dioulasso is intrinsic to hydrogeomorphological conditions, climatic hazards, anarchic land use, precarious housing and the blocking of rainwater drains by the population itself. The combination of natural and man-made hazards has made it possible to determine the level of exposure and resilience of the population. The rainy season increases stress for residents of precarious neighbourhoods and has a negative impact on their health. These include the fear of seeing their houses collapse (100% of those surveyed), of seeing their possessions washed away by the rain, of contracting diseases due to the stagnation of rainwater (malaria, typhoid fever, diarrhoea, dysentery, bronchitis) and psychological problems (stress, trouble sleeping, anxiety, etc.) observed before, during and after a flood. Whatever the causes of the flooding, the state and local authorities have a duty to react.