By Fatoumatta J Camara
West Africa Coastal Areas Resilience Investment Project 2 (WACA ResIP 2), Tuesday 25th June provided 34 flood water pumping machines for communities and National Disaster Management Agency.
WACA ResIP 2 is a project under the Ministry of Environment, Climate Change and Natural resources is part of the West Africa Coastal Areas Management Program (WACA) – a regional program funded by the World Bank and implemented in 9 countries.
Monitoring and Evaluation specialist, MasannehLanding Ceesay highlighted that they handed over 34 floodwater pumping machines to communities along the Kotu Stream, the National Disaster Management Agency, Kanifing Municipal Council and Brikama Area Council.
He noted that in The Gambia, the project was launched in May 2023 for a period of five years (2023 – 2027). It is implemented by the Ministry of Environment, Climate Change and Natural Resources.
“Among other things, the project is designed to restore and reprofile the Kotu Stream, a land area of 1,881 hectares stretching 11.2 Km from Nema Kunku to Kotu on the Atlantic Ocean,” he said. “An estimated 201,044 people were living along the Stream as of 2020 – that is a huge percentage of our country’s population whose lives this project could change, the pumping machines we are delivering today come in varying sizes – 30 portable pumps with a capacity to pump 60,000 liters of water in an hour for the 11 communities along the Stream and four heavy-duty machines with a capacity to pump 522,000 liters of water in an hour: two for the National Disaster Management Agency and one each for KMC and Brikama Area Council,” he added .
