A 10-day mission to Dakar to evaluate and strengthen GIRI projects
An approach that highlights the importance of cooperation between residents, public actors, and donors for resilient cities.
How can drainage infrastructure and community mobilisation transform flood management in Dakar?
The urbaMonde team spent 10 days in Dakar and its suburbs from 6 to 16 October on a mission to review various generations of Integrated Flood Risk Management projects carried out since 2019 in the suburbs of Dakar.
On 7 and 8 October, the team, accompanied by technicians from urbaSEN and GRET, and representatives of residents who are members of the FSH, accompanied pS-Eau in the field for a mission to evaluate the works carried out as part of the PING-GIRI project and financed by the Lyon Water Fund (Fonds Eau de Lyon) between 2020 and 2023. The visits provided an opportunity to see the benefits of the drainage and rainwater infiltration works delivered a few years ago, and to talk to local residents about their impact on living conditions and the environment, as well as the community management arrangements that have been put in place.
Following these field days, heavy rain at the end of the rainy season enabled assessment of the municipality of Medina Gounass’s sanitation needs, which is the subject of an upcoming GIRI project currently being developed for the period 2026-2028. Various low-lying areas — frequently flooded — have been identified and will be the subject of intervention proposals.
On 14 October, the team and its partners from GRET and urbaSEN brought together around 40 stakeholders involved in these GIRI projects for a workshop, including representatives from local authorities, public agencies responsible for sanitation, the Treasury, and residents. This collective working day aimed to identify obstacles and solutions to facilitate the mobilisation of financial contributions from local authorities to these projects. This participation is a criterion for international donors and a guarantee of municipal stakeholders’ involvement in the projects, but it is challenging to implement in practice due to administrative processes, from budgeting to Treasury disbursements. The lessons learned from this day will be put to good use in current projects (GIRI-PING2 and ASG-GIRI) and in future ones. This event highlights the efforts made by urbaMonde and its partners to ensure the replicability of projects and their integration into local public policies.
Finally, as a common thread running through this mission, activities were carried out to analyse the future of the Inondations-Dakar platform, and interviews were conducted with stakeholders potentially interested in discussing its development, in conjunction with the ASG-GIRI project. This platform, created in 2020 as part of the first PING-GIRI project and supported by urbaMonde, was intended to serve as a space for sharing resources and data among professionals and specialised researchers. The context has changed, and other digital media have been created in the meantime. Various options are therefore being explored to pool resources and consider transferring the platform to a Senegalese structure.
This mission reaffirms urbaMonde’s commitment to supporting sustainable and inclusive GIRI projects by promoting local participation and integration into public policy to protect urban populations from climate risks.
