CHAD, THE DESERT TAKES ON WATER | France 5 | Les Routes de l'Impossible

This year in Chad, even the desert is flooded.

The whole country is overwhelmed. Chad is experiencing floods on an unprecedented scale.

More than a million people are affected by rising sea levels. Hundreds of thousands of hectares of fields have disappeared, a tragedy in a country where a third of the population is food insecure.

In oil-rich southern Chad, the profits of black gold do not trickle down to local populations, turning every trip into an epic.

Norbert and Souleymane exhaust themselves every week on a rutted runway to supply goods to the markets of the region.

“In this country, it seems like the president is non-existent, he doesn’t want to help us. He should fix this road.”

In the Salamat region, transporting people is a daily challenge that must be met whatever the cost.

The raging waters have washed away pieces of road, and in places, the track is engulfed for hundreds of meters… As a result, travelers change taxis several times, borrow boats and motorcycles without counting the overweight of goods that hurts pickups.

“Chad is a bit like the blank pages of a book…  There is everything to write, everything to build in our country.”

But as always, all misfortune has its good sides! Clever people have found a way to make some money by making makeshift rafts.

In a country long plagued by wars, the immense courage of Chadians remains the best weapon in this permanent and daily fight against rising sea levels.