Flooding

I read on the BBC website about flooding right across Africa. We have had our own share of that in the north of Rwanda, where 15 people have died and 500 homes have been destroyed. We saw a little of that on a recent journey – mud houses which had apparently “dissolved” in the rain, leaving only the roof lying on the ground. Others were surrounded by fields of muddy water where there had once been crops. It is hugely depressing to see people in such poor circumstances hit by further hardship. In some cases the road appears to have been a contributory factor, holding back water which had run off the hills because of the lack of adequate drainage facilities.
This area of Rwanda, under the volcanoes, appears to have well organised agriculture, on a bigger scale than the southwest where subsistence farming on tiny plots is the norm. There are also some considerable areas which are reasonably flat, which makes agriculture easier most of the time, but of course is a problem in heavy rain because the water can gather and lie. The obviously fertile volcanic soil and the better organisation don’t appear to result in great prosperity, however. There is still widespread poverty and need.