In the past years, the low-lying area around the Nyabugogo river in Kigali has frequently been
affected by flooding. Most of the floods happened when it rained heavily in March and April or
September and October. There are several reasons for these floods: the rainwater flows down the hills where only little vegetation is left for slowing it down and the drainage system is not equipped for vast amounts of water. In some cases, the canals were blocked with garbage that stopped the water from being drained away. So the water rises in the streets and enters buildings, causing damages to cars, businesses and households in the area – even endangering peoples’ lives. During heavy rain the river and the wetland already hold so much water that they can hardly absorb the water from the streets and hills. To analyse the problem and gather solutions, researchers from the Institute of Policy Analysis and Research (IPAR-Rwanda) and adelphi conducted a survey among 360 businesses in the
area about the problem of flooding. The research was funded by the Climate & Development
Knowledge Network (CDKN). The results showed that the floods in 2013 led to damages among
these businesses that added up to at least 139,300,000 RWF. The requests these businesses had for what the local and national government should do were collected and communicated to public officials. This document now presents recommendations of what business owners in flood-prone areas can do to protect their enterprise from floods. It is based on the experiences gathered in the survey and on good practices in flood protection from all over the world.
