“My name is Ousséni Sayaogo and I am a farmer from Niessega. On Monday, 13 May 2013, I was in Gourcy when I received the call informing me that my house had been destroyed in a heavy rainstorm. When I arrived home, I saw the damage: the house had been torn apart and the roof sheeting scattered by the wind. I had just built this house for my family. Fortunately, there was no loss of life. At the moment, I do not have any money to rebuild the house. So I will have to wait until next year to hopefully be able to rebuild it. I wonder where my family and I can stay in the meantime. This is the first time I have witnessed something like this. It is unusual for our village, as it happened in May and the rainy season normally starts in mid- June at the earliest.”
– Ousséni Sayaogo, Farmer from Niessega (2013)
INCREASED RAINFALL IN THE SAHEL
Burkina Faso is heavily affected by climatic changes, particularly fluctuations in rainfall patterns. While the rainy season in the Sahel traditionally lasted from June to September, its start and end have increasingly shifted in recent decades. Rainfall has become more irregular, with more frequent droughts and short, extreme rain events.
Climate change is intensifying the severe rainstorms in the Sahel, whose frequency has tripled since the 1980s. An increasing portion of seasonal rainfall now falls in heavy storms, causing more frequent flooding in Burkina Faso, especially in poorly drained urban areas.²
“The impacts of climate change on the economy and society in my home country are felt both in the villages and in agriculture, livestock, and forestry. People in rural areas notice that rainfall is decreasing while extreme weather events such as heavy rain, dust storms, and unusually high temperatures above 45 °C in the shade occur more often—even in months that should be cooler. In recent years, severe floods have become more frequent, leading to (temporary) relocations and putting many people in humanitarian distress. This affects women and children in particular.”
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– Parfait Saka, 59 years old, from the capital Ouagadougou
Quoted from “Klimabrief aus Burkina Faso”, Misereor, 2023