BUJUMBURA May 18th (ABP) – Works planned under the Emergency Infrastructure Resilience Project (PURI-P 150929) entrusted to the Burundi Agency for Public Works Achievement (ABUTIP) are carried out at more than 95%, according to the Director General of the ABUTIP, Ms. Catherine Bucumi.
Funded by the International Development Association (IDA) as part of the assistance to the victims of the disaster that occurred in the Gatunguru-Gasenyi neighborhoods (Mutimbuzi commune) on February 9 and 10, 2014, this project included two components, namely the transport component and the urban component.
The activities planned under the Urban component, which was carried out through the ABUTIP, included the drainage of the Gasenyi, Kinyankonge and Nyabagere rivers, the sanitation of the Carama quarter over 2 km, and the protection of the Buterere wastewater treatment plant and Disaster Risk Management in project areas, said the Director General of ABUTIP, ASBL.
The ABUTIP Director General is therefore delighted that the works of drainage at the river have already been completed and that in addition the works of drainage at the Gasenyi River have a rate of execution which turns around 95%. She also states that within three weeks all the works planned for that project will be received. The project is scheduled to close on June 30, 2019, she said.
Currently, said Ms. Bucumi, all that remains is the work that will contribute to stabilizing the banks of the Gasenyi River, which will have to end by June 15, 2019.
Those works consist of anti-erosion ditches that will reduce the flow of runoff from the Gasenyi River, the opening of the throttling zone of the river bed and the installation of a gabion-like retaining wall to limit landslides and collapse of the banks; and the construction of three gabion-like retention structures to retain solid materials that are dumped and destroy structures built downstream.
Regarding the impact of that project on the lives of communities, the director general of ABUTIP is pleased that the drainage at the three rivers has prevented this year, the floods that had become recurrent in Kamenge, Carama, Gatunguru and Gasenyi neighborhoods.
The ABUTIP director general also notes that the owners of the rice plantations of Buhinyuza neighborhood in the Kinama zone benefited from the canalization of the waters since the project financed works that contributed to the regulation of the water that was invading rice crops.
The project also includes the construction of several large scuppers and the rehabilitation of Muka, Taba and Kinyami Avenues, which were in a poor state.