Emergency’ clean-up of a river recommended preventing flooding in Kinshasa

Kinshasa, April 24^th; 2025 (CPA) – The ‘emergency’ cleaning-up of the N’djili river, linking the central and eastern municipalities of Kinshasa (Limete, Matete, Masina and N’djili etc…), in the Democratic Republic of Congo, was recommended on Wednesday to the CPA by an administrative official in order to avoid flooding in the city. ‘The N’djili River has lost its normal bed and depth due to the accumulation of solid and plastic waste, which not only pollutes but also prevents the water from flowing. To avoid repeated flooding in Masina during the rainy season, we are recommending that this watercourse be cleaned up as a matter of urgency’, said Tarcice Luyungu, Inspector in charge of community development for the municipality of Masina.  The N’djili River needs to be cleaned up in two phases. Firstly, we are calling for the demolition of the unauthorised buildings lining the riverbed. We are asking for this as a matter of urgency to facilitate the next stage, which will enable the river to be cleaned up to restore its original bed and depth, with a bed at least 10 meters wide and 5 meters deep. Secondly, this clean-up work must start downstream (at the bottom) because if we start this work upstream, it will create a barrier with the risk of water overflowing in the event of heavy rain’. According to him, downstream, the sandy bottom that forms sedimentary debris will be carried downstream and will gradually restore the river’s normal bed. And during this work, it is imperative to prevent the water from overflowing by building 3-metre dikes. With these measures, local residents will be safer from flooding. ‘Nowadays, the marshes and floodplains that used to prevent the river from overflowing into inhabited areas are buried by sand and stones dumped by the despoilers and illegal occupiers of these sites. As the riverbed is only a few meters wide, it cannot contain the water coming from Central Kongo and passing through several communes, not to mention household wastewater. Those who built along the N’djili river occupied the public agricultural sites where there were ponds and plants that absorbed the water and kept the river in its normal bed to allow the water to flow down to the level of the Congo river’, he has explained. After the river N’djili flooded following rain that fell throughout the night of Friday 4 to Saturday April 5, several neighbourhoods in the central and eastern communes of Kinshasa through which the river flows were flooded, causing loss of life and extensive material damage. An entrepreneur decides to help improve urban sanitation. Faced with the insalubrity that is rife in the capital, a contractor from a local cleaning company expressed his desire on Wednesday to help improve sanitation in the provincial city of Kinshasa, capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). ‘It was several years ago that I was motivated to create Global Service Agency, following the persistence of insalubrity in several corners of the provincial city of Kinshasa, in order to help improve the situation there. I decided to create this company to offer professional and environmentally-friendly cleaning services, and thus contribute to improving the health and well-being of the inhabitants of Kinshasa’, said Jeancy Kisumu, head of Global Service Agency. According to the company’s founder, the motivation behind the creation of this company arose from frustration at the poor management of sanitation in the Congolese capital. For several years now, he has observed that many districts of Kinshasa suffer from insalubrity, while the services supposed to be in charge of it struggle to do so properly. The cleaning market in the DRC, particularly in Kinshasa, is undergoing significant growth and transformation, with opportunities for innovative and environmentally-friendly businesses. Public and private initiatives, as well as increased awareness of the importance of urban hygiene, are stimulating the emergence of private players in this sector. Several trends are emerging in the cleaning industry in Kinshasa, both in terms of services and products. ACP/