Return of the rains: What is planned for Cotonou

The rains are back in this year and, with them, the specter of floods, especially in Cotonou, Malanville and other vulnerable localities. More, this season 2021, it was the cities of Ouidah and Grand Popo that opened the ball of disasters, what prompted members of the government to come into action. So, the minister in charge of social affairs accompanied by her colleagues from the interior and foreign affairs, native of the locality, visited on 24 last June Grand Popo to relieve the victims.

According to experts in the field, the flooding problem is not specific to Benin. Several countries of the world, even among the most desert, suffer the same catastrophes that, would be due to global warming. However, this is no reason to sit back and hope that the floods will stop by providence.

And in fact, the government has set up an initiative, the Cotonou Pluvial Sanitation Program (PAPC) whose objective is to put an end to the phenomenon which has become unbearable in Cotonou. The hope raised by this program has prompted an official to promise an end to the floods by the end of December last year.. It was in an interview with, in January 2018, daily public service.

More concretely, the development of the banks of the Cotonou lagoon and the progress of the Cotonou asphalting project have relieved a large part of the inhabitants of the economic capital. For the term that began the day after the April presidential election 2021, the candidate duo Talon - Talata announced major works which will aim to make Cotonou passable in all seasons.

In this program, we discover that "the PAPC covers 34 watersheds on 50 what Cotonou counts, is 70 % of the city's territory. It will make it possible to achieve 54 kilometers of collectors and 48 kilometers of roads and will promote the creation of 12.000 direct jobs. After setting up its management unit and selecting various service providers, the start of physical work is set for June 2021 with the objectives of reducing the agglomeration's vulnerability to flooding by creating sustainable socio-economic infrastructure ".

This program will ensure correct water drainage, to improve the quality of life of residents of disadvantaged neighborhoods bordering on additional urban development, dredging of water flow corridors. For that, new primary collectors will be built and the old ones will be priests. Likewise, streets will be better equipped to improve water drainage.

Damien TOLOMISSI