WAR AGAINST WATERS

A marshy floodplain city

Synopsis

In the North-East of Congo is a region known as the "basin".

Situated in the heart of a marshy floodplain and stricken by an equatorial climate, this area gets over 150 days of rain per year. Since 1912, the city of Mossaka which lies in the middle of the basin is the main administrative center, overshadowing Bonga which is on dry ground.

Here, the river is the only way to move around, and this obstacle has impacted the region's development while the rest of the country kept advancing since independence in 1960. However, these past few years have seen the basin benefiting from progress and human inventiveness.