For several decades, rainwater management has been the subject of numerous, often heated, debates, but concrete solutions are still struggling to materialize, particularly during the winter period.

Climate change is certainly one of the major factors behind natural disasters worldwide. However, anarchic, sometimes even uncontrolled, urbanization also highlights human responsibility, imprisoned by materialistic desires and driven by an excessive appetite for well-being.

In this context, infiltration zones, which are essential for allowing rainwater to naturally reach groundwater, are shrinking in a worrying manner. At the same time, natural drainage zones are gradually becoming obstructed, thus increasing flood risks and accentuating the vulnerability of territories.

Furthermore, the rainfall, now characterized by exceptional intensity and unpredictability on a multi-decadal scale, reveals the limits of the meteorological systems in force in our tropics. Rainfall projections, still insufficiently precise, remain limited both in space and time. Consequently, it is no longer rare to observe short-term rainy episodes of extreme violence, striking certain areas with unprecedented brutality. The major difficulty with water in general is that it can never be destroyed; it is its state that changes.

Thus, sustainable and effective flood management is urgently needed for the whole of Senegal, and particularly for the most exposed areas. It calls for a break with short-term and ad hoc approaches, often dictated by urgency, in favor of an anticipation and prevention approach, based on consultation and resilience.

While anticipation refers to forecasting and strategic planning, prevention translates into concrete measures: suitable infrastructure, a coherent legal framework and efficient governance tools.

In a locality like Touba, the development of a Storm Drainage Master Plan (PDAP) is becoming a strategic imperative. Its implementation should be accompanied by the creation of a permanent technical unit responsible for coordinating actions. This plan must integrate the religious, demographic, and urban specificities of the holy city. Furthermore, for Touba, it is urgent to establish a clear and operational legal and institutional framework and early warning and crisis management mechanisms.

Furthermore, a strengthened partnership between the State, local authorities, and community organizations is essential. This partnership should promote consistency between the existing legal framework and the Environmental Code and the Urban Planning Code, in order to ensure integrated and sustainable risk management. This synergy would make it possible to put an end to housing developments without environmental impact studies.

In this perspective, flood governance should evolve: it would be appropriate to transfer the competence currently entrusted to ONAS to a National Flood Control Agency.

Unlike a simple reactive fight, this new structure would place its action in a proactive approach, oriented towards urban planning and the concerted management of risk areas.

Political boldness must also lead to strong measures:

1. the relocation of populations established in the most vulnerable areas
2. freezing of construction in exposed areas;
3. the development of a precise map of risk areas, highlighting infiltration zones and natural flow axes.

From now on, any subdivision project will have to take infiltration basins into account in its design, in order to guarantee sustainable and rational management of rainwater across the entire national territory.

The roadmap for the new structure responsible for flood control will have to be structured around priority operational measures, including:

1. the construction and rehabilitation of retention basins;
2. systematic and regular cleaning of gutters;
3. the establishment of an integrated drainage network;
4. the construction of efficient pumping stations adapted to the most vulnerable areas.

Rigorous implementation of this roadmap should help gradually reduce the socio-economic impacts of flooding. These impacts go far beyond forced displacement and loss of housing: they also include reduced agricultural yields, disruptions to commercial activities, contamination of groundwater, and, ultimately, the deterioration of public health.

It is clear from the above that the problem of rainwater management in Senegal today goes beyond the purely environmental framework: it is multifaceted. Faced with increasingly unpredictable climate change, combined with anarchic urbanization and inappropriate development practices, the urgency of renewed governance is essential.

The implementation of a coherent national strategy, based on planning, anticipation, and prevention, appears to be the only sustainable way to reverse the trend. It is no longer just a matter of reacting to disasters, but of preventing them in advance, through ambitious and integrated public policies, mobilizing all stakeholders: the State, local authorities, community organizations, and citizens.

Thus, the creation of a National Flood Control Agency and the development of stormwater drainage master plans are essential levers for rational and sustainable rainwater management. This is the price to pay for Senegal's ability to preserve its ecosystems, protect its populations, and ensure harmonious and resilient development in the face of tomorrow's climate and urban challenges.

Amadou Touba NIANE,

Commissioner for Economic Investigations

President of the Political and Citizen Movement Wakh Jeuf