With its unique layout surrounded by water, Saint-Louis is on the frontline against rising sea levels and coastal erosion
In the northern Senegalese city of Saint-Louis, excavators are ripping up the beach to lay giant blocks of basalt, in an eleventh-hour effort to keep the sea at bay.
When work is finished, a black sea wall will stretch for kilometres along the coastline of the West African country’s former capital, famed for its colonial-era architecture.
But the sea wall is a stopgap. And some are sceptical that the historic city of 237,000 people can be saved at all.
Its unique position — near the mouth of the Senegal River, with both the swollen waterway and the ocean on its shorelines — means that its long term existence has always been in doubt, he said.
Founded by the French on an island in the mid-17th century, Saint-Louis became a hub for European traders, playing an important economic and cultural role in the region.
From the original island, the city spread on both sides, onto a long, thin sandy strip of land known as the Langue de Barbarie to the west and eastwards onto the mainland.
But Saint-Louis stands only a few metres above sea level.
Coastal erosion is also eating away at the shoreline.
The sea barrier is Senegal’s attempt to manage the compounding problems.
– Night terrors –
Six of the seven rooms in her house are gone, washed away by the ocean.
Destructive flooding has increased since 2010, according to the 43-year-old, who said that she can no longer sleep at night for fear of the intemperate waters.
They miraculously survived.
The city is a particularly acute example of problems common across several coastal metropolises in West Africa, Sy said, pointing to Ivory Coast’s main city and economic hub Abidjan, or Guinea’s capital Conakry.
Likewise, the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change said this year that sea levels on the West African coast are rising by between 3.5 and four millimetres (0.14 and 0.16 inches) annually.
Nearly two decades ago, an ill-fated attempt at flood control after heavy rainfall saw authorities widen a water channel on the Langue de Barbarie between the river and sea.
– Displacement camps –
Flooding in 2017 and 2018 left more than 3,200 people homeless — about 1,500 of them now live in a displacement camp in Djougop, further inland.
The project is worth some 100 million euros ($117 million) and also includes a rehousing programme.
However, the project also requires home demolitions in a 20-metre-wide strip behind the barrier.
Some will end up in Djougop and nearby neighbourhoods where the World Bank is co-funding the construction of 600 homes, he said.
But residents appear decidedly unenthusiastic about the prospect of Djougop — a bland expanse of blue-roofed bungalows built in the desert, far from the sea.
Fishermen in Djougop, whose livelihoods already are physically demanding, must rise even earlier in the morning to reach the distant sea.
“They are very tired,” says 65-year-old local resident Thiane Fall.
The sea barrier is a short-term emergency measure and not even designed to be impermeable.
Sy, the geographer, suggested structures called groins, built perpendicular to the shoreline, which force sediment to settle in such a way as to reverse coastal erosion.
Alioune Badara Diop, one of Saint-Louis’ deputy mayors, said these options remain viable.
He isn’t convinced that his city has met its end, however, highlighting Senegal’s nascent oil and gas sector and all its potential.
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Originally published as Senegal’s old capital on the frontline against rising sea