Thunderstorms once again hit Dakar, the south and the center of the country on Monday 5 September. The torrential rains of the past few days have officially killed three people. They caused flooding, property damage and road disruptions. A phenomenon related to climate deregulation according to President Macky Sall.
With our correspondent in Dakar, Charlotte Idrac
Waterspouts several days in a row, especially in the capital. The rainy season is particularly intense this year in Senegal. Is it normal ? ” Today, we are at more than 200 % of normal in Dakar “Said Dr. Ousmane Ndiaye, Director of Meteorology Operations at the National Civil Aviation and Weather Agency (ANACIM).
” It is exceptional in speed and intensity of the rain. In some places, we had 55 millimeters in an hour, at least. It is exceptional at water level and of course the succession of precipitation also means that the ground was already wet, which therefore leads to problems. »
And we will have to get used to it, according to the expert, also focal point of the IPCC in Senegal, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Climate change will go hand in hand with more and more so-called “ extremes “.
” It is a global phenomenon. We had an over-precipitation in Niger, we had it in Sudan. There will be heavy rains in the coming years for sure, according to the IPCC report. Unfortunately, we cannot, a year or six months in advance, have a fairly accurate forecast for that. There is a phenomenon that is there, which is due to this increase in the anthropogenic greenhouse effect. We have to live with it. The only thing to do is in the programming, in the planning, to try to integrate this new deal to have something that is resilient in relation to this extreme phenomenon “, adds doctor Ousmane Ndiaye.
In the immediate future, a little respite: a lull in the rains is expected for the next three days.
During the opening, Monday, September 5, of the summit on Africa’s adaptation to climate change in Rotterdam – in the Netherlands – the Senegalese president called for ” save ” the continent ” by mobilizing resources to finance its adaptation to the devastating effects of climate change. »
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