Mali: Floods Hit The Region Of Mopti

In Mali, the Niger River is considerably mounted in 2016, this is the biggest flood of the last 50 years. The most affected region is located in the center of the country around Mopti. Over 100 000 hectares of culture have borne the brunt of the rising waters.


Mopti is located at the crossing of the River Niger and Bani river. The officer in charge of raising the water level is amazed by the scale of measurement: 6.30 meters, we have not seen this for decades. First victim of the rising water, crops, for 120 000 hectares were destroyed. But the flood is not solely responsible this year climatic hazards associated themselves.




"There are several rice systems in the region, says Ousmane Camara who works at the Regional Directorate of Agriculture Mopti, so there is a system that was hit at the rice where there is no planning to control the water, it is the free submersion. So there, the water, the flood has been very strong and the plants were drowned. Also, the dry zone where it is cultivated mile and sorghum, there has been a late rainy stop September, early October, which caused losses of areas too.  "

Some 120 000 hectares, this amounts to nearly 10% of arable land in the region. A real disaster that can not really be measured in a few months. Abderamane Koné is Sofara farmer, a village 70 kilometers from Mopti, for him, "  the harder it will be in February, when the harvest is over and you will realize that in the end, we will 'have nothing to eat.  "

The scope of Abderamane now resembles a vast swamp. The river itself, began its decline.