Heavy rain leaves Mogadishu flooded

Some residential areas and major roads in Mogadishu are submerged under flood waters after heavy rains on Wednesday night and Saturday nights.

Supermarkets, shops, and schools were flooded, leaving traders at several suburbs in Mogadishu especially the main market Bakaro with no option but to close their businesses.

Roads in the area were impassable, with motorists using Ex-control-KM4 Road being the worst affected.

Many of autorickshaw riders said there was no business as roads were flooded.

Ali Omar Farah, who was cleaning his motorcycle after riding through the flooded road to the Ex-control-KM4 Road,  said on Thursday evening that he had not made any money.

“Normally, I would have 70 in my pocket at this time but today I do not even have a penny, and I have been roaming around since morning. The government should do something about this road,” he said.

The Turkish road-building company, which constructed roads in the area, has been accused of carrying out shoddy work and exposing residents to floods and diseases.

“We are struggling,” said Ms. Fatuma Abdi, a resident who blamed the floods on poor drainage systems caused by construction work carried out by a Turkish road-building company.

Another resident, Mr. Hussein Abdallah, blamed the Turkish constructors for the poor drainage system.

“I have lived here for five years but I have never experienced something like this, it always rains and the water is carried away but since these roads were constructed, we have had problems with floods,” said Abdullahi.

Mulki Abdi Ali an NGO worker said the floods had affected many families whose houses were swamped by water.

Halima Muhammad Aley, who was one of those affected after their houses was washed away in Badbaado camp, said that she and his nine-year-old son had nowhere to sleep.
“I do not know where to start. I don’t know where I will sleep tonight. The whole hut  has been destroyed by the rain,” she said.

While other businesses were stopped by the heavy rains, umbrella traders did brisk business as commuters grabbed them. On a normal day, an umbrella costs 3.5US dollars or less, but yesterday, the cheapest was selling at Sh4 US dollars.