Economic, geoecological and social problems of flooding in the Republic of Benin

The publication is aimed at solving the problems of floods, which annually claim about 20000 lives in many countries of the world. The object of the study is the districts of Adoglet and Midombo, the city of Cotonou in the Republic of Benin, which are typical territories exposed to natural floods on the African continent. Choosing participatory research as the main method of scientific work, the authors studied and analyzed the judgments of residents of areas exposed to the negative effects of systematic flooding as the subject of research. The results of the study were analyzed in the following main areas: the perception of floods by residents of flooded areas from the perspective of their vital interests; their opinion on the causes of floods and the assessment of their accompanying social and economic consequences. The problems of population migration from flooded territories were analyzed separately. The research results have shown that there are significant differences in the perception of flood danger: 82.5% of residents in the Midombo area consider them dangerous or very dangerous, only 50% in Adoglet, while in both areas (60%) residents consider themselves vulnerable or very vulnerable to their influence. Among the causes of floods, 85% of recipients cite the unsatisfactory condition of drainage systems and only 11% – population growth and heavy rainfall. Among the reasons for living in periodically flooded territories, the lack of funds to purchase other housing is in the lead, including unwillingness to leave inherited housing (86%), followed by the lack of another place of residence (10%). The problem of migration turned out to be the most painful for the majority of the surveyed population. Thus, 52% of them cite adaptation to flood risk and attachment to the territory as their place of birth as the reason for living, the rest (48%) solely because of the low cost of housing. At the same time, of all the respondents, a significant majority (63%) expressed a desire to leave these areas forever, however, 81% of them refer to the lack of material resources for such migration. In conclusion, the authors conclude that the consideration of flood risk in the State development policy of Benin should be a national and regional priority to reduce the vulnerability of the population, and its solution should largely be carried out within the framework of comprehensive territorial planning. Among the urgent measures recommended are: to identify and map areas that are dangerous to human life in flood conditions; to develop and implement a flood monitoring and forecasting system, as well as flood prevention and evacuation; to prohibit capital and other construction in areas of increased flood risk and other measures.