Spatial Relationship between Floods and Poverty: The Case of Region of Dakar

Abstract

Since 2005 in Senegal, progress in reducing poverty has stagnated. Successive exogenous shocks and a slowdown in reforms have, in part, reduced average growth to 3.3%, a rate barely above that of population growth (2.5%). Exogenous shocks include floods, which have become recurrent in the country’s major cities, but especially in the capital Dakar, where they remain an omnipresent reality. These floods, with heavy consequences sometimes even disastrous (damage and loss of human life), are one of the main reasons that push and/or keep poor households in a vicious circle of poverty. Indeed, thanks to the geographic information system implemented in this paper, the analysis of the spatial relationship between floods and poverty has made it possible to oppose the multidimensional and dimensional poverty rates of the department of Dakar, the least affected by floods, to those in Pikine, the most affected by the floods. It has also shown that the poorest populations in the region of Dakar are those affected by floods and are mainly located in the departments of Pikine, Guédiawaye and Rufisque. In Pikine, where floods were experienced in 2005, 2009 and 2011, multidimensional poverty rates crossed the 50% line while they are around 30% and 40% for Guédiawaye and Rufisque respectively. Multidimensional poverty rates derive primarily from indicators such as nutrition, level of education, cooking fuel and holding of assets.