Flash Flood Displaces Thousands in Mauritania

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=73664

Heavy rainfall in the southeastern town of Titane in Mauritania has killed a few (so far), damaged houses and displaced thousands of people. Starting Aug 7, the country received 81.5mm of rain in a 24-hour period. Just a few days ago, the country was still facing the fear of drought, and President Abdullahi urged its religious leaders to pray for rain (http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=73534). Their prayers were definitely answered- way too much indeed. It's rare for this country to get so much rainfall in one day. The damages of such natural disaster are intensified when the mountain chain in the region have no trees to hold the rainfall, accelerating the rate of the water traveling to the town in the lowlands; the soil in the region is impermeable, lowering the rate of the dissipation of water; and many houses are made of dried mud, which collapsed easily when confront such heavy downpour.

No matter how developed a country is, it becomes vulnerable when confronted with natural phenomenons, which are out of its control. Even strong nations like the U.S. can be defeated when faced with a disaster like Hurricane Katrina. This article reminds me of how important it is for a country to consider natural disasters when making development plans. If the infrastructure, houses, and other projects cannot withstand the challenges of natural disasters, which can come anytime, then not only will it be a waste of resources and money, it will also devastate the lives of its people (or even make their lives worse than before). For example, the article mentions that the rain has knocked down more than 1000 date palm trees. I posted an entry at the end of July about Qatar's donation to a project to plant 50 hectares of trees as an effort to combat desertification. If such a project was implemented in this region, the rainfall would have destroyed the planted trees, then all the resources would have been wasted. Also, the country should have emergency management plans for natural disasters in order to expedite the process of helping, saving, delivering food to and providing shelter for the people affected and minimize the damages.