Families Across Mauritania Attempt to Rebuild Their Lives Between Flood and Drought
Woumpou, Mauritania – On a humid October afternoon in Woumpou, Kadia stands where her front yard used to be. Around her, the ground is still damp, the air thick with the smell of mud. She points to a dark line along her neighbors’ walls – a mark left by the floods that came without warning. Families had only minutes to escape before the water swallowed everything.
“Everything happened so fast,” she says. “We lost everything in a matter of hours.”
Kadia was one of more than 4,500 people affected by the October 2024 floods in Guidimakha, with over 600 displaced. Yet standing amid the wreckage, what struck her most wasn’t despair – it was a question: what now?
That question – and how Mauritanian communities are answering it – is what truly matters. This isn’t just a story of loss. It’s a story of people learning to live with a changing world.
Changing weather patterns and recurring floods have reshaped daily life and livelihoods in Mauritania. Photo: IOM/Alexander Bee
Mauritania sits at the edge of the Sahara Desert, where life has always depended on a delicate balance between people and their fragile environment. Nearly 80 per cent of the country is arid land, and that balance is being tested by accelerating climate shocks. Rainy seasons have grown increasingly unpredictable – sometimes withholding rain entirely, sometimes unleashing it all at once.
As temperatures rise and rainfall patterns shift, droughts linger, floods arrive without warning, and the soil erodes further under the combined pressure of wind and overuse. In regions like Guidimakha and Hodh el Chargui, herds starve, crops fail, and the water and grazing lands that families have relied on for generations are steadily disappearing.
For many, there has been only one option – to leave. Across Mauritania, climate-driven migration has become a means of survival. Families move from one village to another, while herders and young people cross borders in search of work, water, and stability. Leaving often makes sense – sometimes it is the only choice.
But some have chosen a harder path – to stay and adapt.
Kadia, a widow and head of her household, regularly meets with women in Gouraye to discuss community challenges. Photo: IOM/Alexander Bee
In Gouraye, a small town near the Senegal River, Kadia has become a source of strength for her community. As a widow and head of household in a place where that role is never easy, she has found purpose in one simple act – bringing women together.
Every week, they gather to talk about survival.
“The seasons are no longer the same,” Kadia says. “Sometimes we wait weeks for rain, then it all falls in one day. When that happens, we meet to plan how to save water, care for our gardens, and stay ready for the next storm.”
Out of these conversations came action. The women of Gouraye organized cooperatives and savings groups – small pools of money that families could draw from during difficult months. They built communal gardens and planted trees that could withstand dry spells. They learned to preserve food, reuse water, and stretch resources. And they began teaching their daughters these skills too.
“Before, we waited for help,” Kadia says. “Now, we act.”
Farmers across Mauritania work to sustain their crops despite growing environmental challenges. Photo: IOM/Alexander Bee