Thousands of Mauritanians have been forced from their homes by floods in the southeastern town of Tintane with water levels reaching two metres in some areas.

Two people are known to have died and 25 others are missing and feared drowned, Nicole Jacquet, deputy country director for the World Food Programme (WFP) in Mauritania, told IRIN on 9 August.

“When the rain falls from the hills there is nothing to stop it. No trees, nothing,” Jacquet said of Tintane, a Sahelian town in a valley at the foot of the El-Aguer mountain chain in Mauritania’s Hodh El-Gharbi region. “It falls very, very abruptly and very strongly and it gets into these lowlands,” she said.

Jacquet said the town received 81.5 mm of rain in a 24-hour period starting 7 August, the most anyone in the area can remember.

Studies had shown that heavy rainfall could cause flooding in this area, she said; however the degree of downpour was unexpected.

“It’s incredible for this country to get so much rain in one day,” Jacquet said. In late July, Mauritania’s president Sidi Mohamed Ould Cheikh Abdallahi had called on religious leaders to pray for rain because of fears of drought.

Who’s helping?

To assist in the relief effort, local and regional authorities, the WFP and other organisations were providing boats and trucks to transport people to dry land. Many people were still arriving at temporary centres seeking refuge, Jacquet said.

She said that WFP would provide food to as many as 2,000 displaced families sleeping on mattresses in three public schools and centres. Up to two-thirds of the town’s population of about 15,000 people have been affected, most of whom were living around the central market, which was home to traders and shopkeepers.

Mauritanian authorities have already provided emergency food provisions to the stranded people.

Houses made of dried mud in Tintane have collapsed under the heavy rainfall, Jacquet said. According to local press, the rains have also destroyed a dam and knocked over more than 1,000 date palm trees.

By 9 August the rain had eased and people lined up along dry paths heading back to their homes to try to collect their belongings.

Logistical problems

President Abdallahi went to Tintane on 9 August and met with government ministers and humanitarian workers there to decide on a strategy to cope with the flood.

Almost all the dwellings of the town had been damaged and were no longer suitable for habitation, he said in a statement to the press.

The WFP food warehouse for Tintane had also been flooded, Jacquet said, so the organisation would have to transport food from warehouses in the neighbouring cities of Aioun or Kiffa.

Jacquet said the water is not likely to dissipate quickly as the soil in the region is impermeable. It could be two or three months before families are able to return to what is left of their homes and in the meantime there is a high risk of waterborne diseases such as cholera, she said.