Every rainy season, the natural drainage channel of Missabougou overflows and water floods the homes, shops and streets of this former market-gardening village, now a peri-urban neighbourhood of Commune VI in Bamako. This study examines how households and institutions cope with these floods and how effective they perceive their responses to be. It uses a mixed-methods design: a questionnaire survey of 50 households conducted in August 2026 and stratified into five zones of ten households, including a control zone on sloping ground, semi-structured interviews with five institutions, and field observations. All households report that the neighbourhood floods every year; 76% have been flooded in their own homes, none in the control zone. The causes cited are primarily human: drains blocked by waste (86%) and inadequate drainage (60%), ahead of heavy rainfall (58%) and the low-lying location (44%). Loss of belongings (74%) and illness (62%) dominate the reported impacts. To protect themselves, households raise their belongings off the floor (74%), build seasonal low walls (46%) or clear the drains (34%). They rate these strategies as of little effectiveness (50%) or ineffective (26%), and none find them very effective. Lack of money (68%) and of support from the authorities (56%) are the main obstacles, and 84% of households consider public action insufficient.
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Guindo et al. (2026) studied this question.
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