Far North may be flood free this year - Military Eng. Corps

The population of the far north region and those of Begue Palam and Pouss especially would comfortably sleep well, this year, given the satisfactory work done by the Military Engineering Corps to rehabilitate a 22000m distance dyke between the two localities, in Mayo Danay Division.

This area was swamped last year especially when two portions of the dyke broke, and hundreds of villagers were flooded out of their locality. But with the work realized this year as experts say, the down pour will have to exceed that of the last two years in order to affect the population.

According to Col. Jackson Kamgain, Director of the Military Engineering Corps, who came to partially hand over the emergency work realized to curtail future floods in the area, to an evaluation commission led by the Technical Adviser in MINEPAT, it will be wrong to state categorically that there will not be floods because with Mother Nature, we cannot be so sure.

“If it rains more than what happened last two years, surely, we may have floods. However, we have constructed a solid and quality dyke that would withstand the water. If it rains until the water exceeds the crest, then we will be in problem. But because of the quality and compatibility of work done as prescribed by Labogenie, all is well”, Col. Kamgain said.

He said the work assigned to the Military Engineering Corps began on March 3O 2014 and consisted of reinforcing the dyke between Begue Palam and Pouss and because of the urgency, given the beginning of the rainy season; it was imperative for the Military Engineering Corps to meet the dateline set by MINEPAT. “We were given June 15 as dateline to complete work; luckily we finished June 14. Today we will do a provisional reception and after which we will do some repairs and hand over definitely after the rains.”

Hence, the rehabilitated dyke is at least 2m high, a large crest of 4.5m, the base is 9m while the distance is 22000m. According to the Colonel, this was done with the dynamic and conscious effort of a qualified military personnel, who made up 20% of the work force and civilians who made 70%.

Col. Kamgain said that “We think it is a solid dyke. I can assure the population. The dyke that we have done was under the supervision of geotechnicians from LABOGENIE and project managers from the Ministry of Publics, adding that the population has been told to avoid driving on the dyke, except during the raining season, when there will be no other option. We have constructed some passages for animals to avoid degrading the crest.”

According to Alahji Magra, Technical adviser and foreman of the commission sent to evaluate emergency works done, the Military Engineering Corpse has completed its part of the contract, adding that the population will soon actually come out of the anxiety as far as the rainy season is concerned.

Technically, he said, the works have been carried out within the norms and regulations, adding that the Military Engineering Corps has completed the work entrusted to them by 100%. “The populations as well as their local authorities are happy; we can hence say that the population can live peacefully. I say this because Labogenie has tested all the works realized and has approved them.” He said the remaining works on the dyke will be completed very soon.

Talking to the Lawan and chef of Begue Palam village, Domo Azao, he said the entire village is happy with the dyke which is far better off than earlier constructed ones. He said at first, during such a period, they would worry about the situation but that today, they sleep well. Begue Palam is made of 15000 inhabitants, who has as main source of living, the cultivation of rice, millet and fishing. Last year floods had caused many to resettle.

Since the destructive floods that occurred in 2012 in the Far North region, with instructions from the Head of State, an emergency relief programme was created, with the aim of providing lasting solutions to the problems of floods in the region. The emergency program for the fight against floods in the far north region, known by its French acronym PULCI, was created last year September, and is benefitting financing of the sum of 54 billion FCFA from the World Bank.

Works within the framework of the program include the rehabilitation of the dyke of the banks of river Logone and lake Maga, securing and relocating the victim population to a permanent site that will be provided them and to step up the rice production in the area.