Climate change is forcing people to flee their homes. Senegal is not standing idly by in the face of this phenomenon, but it has not escaped criticism.
On the edge of the busy motorway leading out of Saint-Louis, in north-western Senegal, lies a site known as Khar Yalla. Its name means ‘waiting for God’ in Wolof. A thousand people have been living there since 2016. Ten years ago, these families lived in houses on the beach, just a few steps away from their closest friends and relatives. However, in 2015 and 2016, coastal flooding destroyed their homes, turning them into internally displaced persons.
Of course, they received emergency assistance, but ‘the Senegalese authorities have still not facilitated a durable solution for the displaced persons by allowing for planned, rights-respecting resettlement, nor have they consulted them meaningfully about their needs and hopes for the future,’ according to a lengthy report by Human Rights Watch.
“Instead, for nearly a decade, the Senegalese government has left the displaced in a precarious situation and in conditions that violate their economic, social, and cultural rights, including their rights to an adequate standard of living, adequate housing, education, health care, and to participate freely in cultural life. ”
The living conditions of Khady and others in Khar Yalla violate their right to adequate housing. Overcrowding is extreme, most houses have no electricity, and there is no waste collection or disposal system. During the rainy season (June to September), Khar Yalla is regularly flooded, and sewage and household waste seep into homes. The report contains numerous testimonies from residents of this area.
Senegal takes the issue seriously
The authors also deplore the fact that residents suffer ‘persistent violations of their rights’ because of their living conditions. For example, there is no affordable transport to get to school, health facilities or work in the city centre of Saint-Louis or in the Langue de Barbarie.
Coastal flooding in 2017 and 2018 displaced hundreds more families. Following these floods, the Senegalese government obtained a loan from the World Bank to launch the Saint-Louis Emergency Recovery and Resilience Project (SERRP). Thanks to this project, the government has now permanently relocated the families displaced in 2017 and 2018 to new homes built by the government on a site 10 kilometres inland, called Djougop.
While many families are still abandoned, ‘the SERRP does not yet offer a sustainable and viable solution for those resettled under the programme,’ HRW notes.
The NGO considers that Senegal is obliged, under national and international law, ‘to respect and fulfil the economic, social and cultural rights of its population and to protect them from reasonably foreseeable risks, including the impacts of sea level rise and other hazards intensified by climate change, in a manner that does not impair their rights.’
However, it acknowledges that ‘Senegal has taken these issues more seriously than most other states.’ Nevertheless, its measures should lead to sustainable solutions for people displaced by climate hazards, rather than prolonged displacement resulting in human rights violations. It therefore considers that the Senegalese government ‘should become the first African country to develop a national policy on planned resettlement aimed at protecting the rights of internally displaced persons and facilitating the establishment of durable solutions’.
It should also ratify the 2009 African Union Convention on the Protection and Assistance of Internally Displaced Persons in Africa, the ‘Kampala Convention’. By adopting these measures, ‘Senegal can become a regional leader in climate change adaptation and the protection of internally displaced communities’.
The report does not spare the World Bank, which, while financing major infrastructure projects, has ‘policies that do not reflect the unique nature of planned climate-related resettlements.’
HRW issued a series of recommendations to both the national and regional authorities in Senegal and to the World Bank. These recommendations aim to plan the resettlement of the populations concerned, provide compensation, consult citizens more effectively and protect the most vulnerable.
The NGO suggests that the World Bank extend funding for the SERRP or provide new funding if requested by the Senegalese government. It also recommends that the World Bank take its own reports into account when ‘developing a new stand-alone policy on planned climate-related resettlement or adding an annex to the existing policy on involuntary resettlement’.
