Deadly floods currently being experienced in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) are becoming ever-more likely as the world’s climate warms, new research has found.
Recent days have seen the DRC grapple with devastating floods that have killed at least 72 people and injured 170 more, with the capital, Kinshasa, bearing the brunt of the crisis.
At least 5,000 people have been displaced, with streets, homes, and public infrastructure submerged in Kinshasa, a sprawling megacity of nearly 17 million people.
Researchers from the World Weather Attribution Service at Imperial College London, who were working with scientists from DRC and around the world, found that similar periods of heavy rainfall can now be expected to occur every second year, given the global warming of 1.3°C that has already occurred.
Data from two weather stations in Kinshasa also indicated that seven-day spells of rainfall have on average become 9 to 19 per cent more intense since 1960, with the findings aligning with scientific studies on rainfall in the DRC and projections from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) for Central Africa.
DRC’s rapid population growth and high poverty rate are among factors compounding the impacts of these weather events, the scientists warned.
“Climate change makes it even harder for fragile states to get ahead,” said Dr Friederike Otto, senior lecturer at Imperial. “Frequent spells of heavy rain are destroying homes, wiping out crops and cancelling economic gains.
“With every fraction of a degree of fossil fuel warming, the weather will get more violent, creating a more unequal world.”
The scientists behind the research at the same time said that they had been unable to directly attribute April’s flooding event to climate change due to weaknesses in available data.
"This failure highlights a deeper problem: Climate science has long overlooked much of Africa, particularly the Central African rainforest region,” said Dieudonne Nsadisa Faka, a climate scientist based in DRC.
“Increased investment in climate science and weather observations is needed to help countries understand and prepare for changing weather extremes."
This story has been produced as part of The Independent’s Rethinking Global Aid project
