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Congo
RDC |
SOCIAL CONDIT.
Following Nyiragongo’s eruption, Goma’s people have one hope — to see their town rebuilt. However, there remains a crucial question: should Goma be relocated?
On Wednesday 16 January 2002, whilst people in Kinshasa were at the same time commemorating President Laurent Désiré Kabila’s assassination, the Nyiragongo volcano spewed death and desolation into Goma. In 48 hours, Nyiragongo’s lava took over the town, driving out the inhabitants and carrying everything before it. Two weeks after the catastrophe, the people are slowly returning to town and can see at first hand the horrors caused by the volcano. Goma’s inhabitants now recognise the danger of living near the volcano. The town is unrecognisable. Almost a third of the population are without their homes. Parents have been separated from their children without much hope of finding them again. The business centre, along with a number of public buildings, have been raised to the ground.
Faced with the magnitude of the damage, the question is now being asked: Should the old city be rebuilt or should the city be relocated where it will be out of the reach of the volcanoes. Don’t forget — Nyiragongo is but one volcano among a dozen others which overlook Goma and thus put it in so much danger.
Relocate?
Already in 1979, the issue of relocating Goma had been asked. This was two years after the same Nyiragongo had erupted. At that time, 2,000 people perished in the disaster but the town itself just managed to escape. Haroun Tazieff, the renowned French vulcanologist, having visited the site, concluded that in the long run, the town of Goma was destined to perish. Many people must be remembering what Tazieff had said. At that time it was considered to be something in the nature of an «off-the-cuff» remark — not to be taken too seriously. Now, looking at the devastation caused by the recent eruption, they’re not so sure!
Congo RDC is still living in a war situation so it’s perhaps understandable that Goma’s woes are not top priority for the government in Kinshasa. Nonetheless, intellectuals and politicians are talking about it. Salomon Banamuhere, Minister for the Environment, who comes from the province of north Kivu, has publicly entertained the idea of building a new town in a safer area. Amédée Kirarahumu, a former minister and presently in charge of an NGO operating in North Kivu, agrees with this. According to him, the new capital of north Kivu, at least in so far as the administrative services are concerned, should be set up in the town of Kayna, in the centre of the province and far away from the volcanoes.
Not all the specialists agree with this. They say the most important matter is to rebuild Goma, albeit taking into consideration the volcanoes’s presence. Gabriel Sawasawa who is a member of the National Geophysical Centre, studied vulcanology in Japan. He says: «Despite the traumatic experience resulting from Nyiragongo’s recent eruption, the solution is not to move Goma, otherwise the Japanese would have already abandoned their island, a volcanic region par excellence and subject to all sorts of dangers. Rather, our architects should visualise Goma as a town which can live alongside the volcanoes, somewhat like certain sick people who have to live with their illnesses, all the while knowing that in the long run they will die from them.» Gabriel Sawasawa suggests an architecture adapted to volcanic regions and the layout of appropriate housing for the inhabitants in case of earthquakes or volcanic eruptions.
Mutual aid
While the «pros and cons» of relocating Goma are being discussed, for the local people there’s no problem: «Goma would no longer be Goma if the town were to be built elsewhere». Roger Kena arrived in Goma the week before Nyiragongo exploded. His house was carried away by the lava. Fortunately, his immediate family had time to flee towards Gisenyi, a neighbouring town in Rwanda. «Yes, we are still grieving the loss of relatives, friends and material goods, but we shall rebuild Goma in less time that you may think.» Roger Kena does not believe that the catastrophe is a matter of pure misfortune. He is convinced — and he’s not the only one — that the recent eruption is a clear warning from nature itself to the rebels in Goma, to stop the war.
Along with others from North Kivu, Roger Kena is trying to tap in to Kinshasa’s good will so that the authorities there will do more towards helping the victims of Goma’s disaster. Congo’s government has already stumped up one-and-a-half million dollars; further aid has arrived from a variety of sources — humanitarian organisations, the business community, religious groups, ordinary individuals, the people of Kinshasa, have spontaneously put their hands in their pockets. Every morning a C-130 from the United Nations Observer Mission in Congo (MONUC) flies to Goma with tons of foodstuffs, clothes and other indispensable material.
Mr. Hilaire Masumbuko is a humanitarian worker who has just returned from an assignment in Bukavu and Goma. He says that in Goma, the inhabitants are stoically putting up with their lot. «Goma is like nothing on earth. We just managed to land with great difficulty on the part of the runway still in use. But contrary to what one would think, the people have preferred to live in that misery rather than accept the hospitality of the refugee camps in Rwanda. The inhabitants have put a lot of effort into clearing the lava from the principal roads in the town so that the food-aid trucks can pass through.»
Hilaire Masumbuko is likewise struck by the spirit of solidarity among the people. The humanitarian organisations haven’t had to build huge refugee camps. Those who lost their homes were immediately taken in by those whose houses had been spared. «The inhabitants who preferred to return home rather than stay in Rwanda immediately after the volcanic eruption, are chuffed to see that the humanitarian organisations have had to follow them back to Goma. Because of this, the town’s infrastructure damaged by the lava flow, will be rebuilt all the quicker.»
You can now travel from one end of Goma to the other without any difficulty; this was impossible immediately after the eruption. And this would certainly never have happened had the inhabitants remained in the refugee camps in Rwanda. On the contrary, they maintain that the aid would have benefitted the Rwandese rather than the Congolese. Furthermore, the road from Goma to the north of the province has been reopened to traffic and this makes it easier to transport foodstuffs from the rich areas of Rutshuru, and fish from Lake Edward.
The town of Goma, although severely destroyed, will in all probability, not be relocated elsewhere. With a little bit of luck, the destroyed sections of the town will be rebuilt. It will be a long and exacting task and the people await a show of solidarity from the international community.
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