Rising Waters

Abdi Ali Salad, a father of five young children, has been eyeing the rising water level in the river Shabelle from the fragile shelter of his makeshift hut in the Dagah-Jebis neighbourhood of Belet Weyne.

This is the time of year when widespread flooding is likely to occur. This year in Belet Weyne the river has started to rise alarmingly early. The seasonal Deyr rains, due any time from October to December, are yet to fall, and Abdi's house may soon be washed away.

The Dagah-Jebis families are among the poorest citizens of Belet Weyne and they have nothing to fall back on. Abdi has had to quit the casual labour job he's recently had to guard his children, their home and meagre property hour by hour.

"There is only one narrow path open to leave," he told IRIN Radio. "So we hardly sleep, keeping a watchful eye in case that escape route is sealed off by water, because if the floods submerge us there's nobody to come to our rescue."

Photo: Liban Warsame/IRIN

Residents of Dagah-Jebis use their bare hands to try to shore up part of the bursting banks of the river Shabelle, where rising water levels threaten to flood their homes

The banks of the swollen river, a tributary of the main river, are broken in many places and local people are helping to try to shore them up as best they can. But they have no machinery, just their bare hands in most cases. Their work seems to them to be a losing battle - and there is no help from outside.

Widespread flooding will worsen the already critical nutritional situation facing large numbers of people in Somalia's south and central region. Poor rains have contributed to crop failure in the Shabelle 'breadbasket' area, and almost one fifth of all local residents are suffering from malnutrition. Flooding also poses huge health hazards, such as cholera, acute watery diarrhoea, and malaria.

Abdi Ali and his family spent several harsh weeks displaced to higher ground during the flooding season last year. "We are the most flood-prone neighbourhood in this town," Abdi said. "We beg the authorities and international community to sort out this threat before it ruins our dwindling livelihood again."

IRIN Radio provides humanitarian information to Somalis and, at the same time, acts as a channel for Somali voices to be heard by a wider international audience.