FLOODING IN THE DJIBOUTI COUNTRYSIDE

Last night it rained a little at our house in the Salt Investment compound, located above the Goubet near Lac Assal. I thought I heard thunder in the night. And this morning it began raining a lot. So, much, in fact that the rain leaked through our windows flooding part of our tile floors. A lake quickly formed outside our front door. We were leaving the compound and driving back to Djibouti City for the weekend and heard that the road was covered with water at Karta, a small village about 20 miles from the compound on the way to town.

We left about an hour earlier than expected and when we reached Karta, a low area in the road was covered with rushing muddy water. Our chef, Ali, is pictured standing in front of the racing water. Cars, trucks and minibuses were backed up waiting for the water to recede. But, the rain kept coming. One foolish driver decided to brave the current and was swept off the road and down the streambed. He was finally pushed to safety. Only the large tanker trucks and military carriers could get through. We all stood out in the pouring rain, soaked to the bone watching and waiting for the water to recede. Our clothing dried quickly in the warm air once we got back into the truck and were on our way. About an hour later, the water had slowed down and was low enough for our 4-wheel drive Toyota Hilux truck to get across. But, for the rest of our journey, we saw vast flooding in all the lowlying areas, along the roadside. We saw little waterfalls coming down the mountainsides and in one area, we came across a powerfull waterfall careening over a cliff down into a wadie (wash). The last picture shows our colleague, Mirgan, standing in front of this gorgeous waterfall.

Tonight, we had planned to play some night golf with some other Rotarians on our all sand golf course just outside of town. However, it has been cancelled since there is 30 cm of water on the course!!! Rain, Rain everywhere. These past two years have seen a remarkable amount of rain in Djibouti. Prior to 2009, there were three years of total drought - not a drop of rain. What a change! Too bad the rain comes in such powerful downpours, floods the land, and cannot be harnassed. There is so much silt in the floodwaters that dams cannot even be built to catch this precious of all life giving commodities for the residents of Djibouti.