In April and May 2021, rising waters from Lake Tanganyika and the Rusizi River Delta flooded the coastal communities of Bujumbura, Bujumbura Mairie, Makamba and Rumonge provinces. More than 50,000 people were affected by the floods, and of these, 20,000 had to leave their homes. Prior to the floods in Gatumba (April and May 2021), a total of 4,924 people (1,733 households) were still living in displacement sites (Kinyinya II, Maramvya Sobel, Mafubo, Kigaramango). In addition, around 46,000 people were affected, with 18,000 displaced by floods in the April-May floods of 2020 in Bujumbura Province, Gatumba area. According to IOM figures, 10,171 people (2812 households) live in the Gatumba sites (3,702 people in Kinyinya II and 6,469 in Maramvya Sobel and Mafubo) and 1,703 households displaced in Rumonge province, and 657 in Makamba province.

Following the needs assessment conducted in May 2021 by humanitarian partners, in collaboration with Burundi's National Platform for Risk Reduction and Disaster Management, a six-month response plan developed to meet the multisectoral needs identified. The plan includes all sectors of intervention and aims to meet the food needs of displaced people by using cash and distributing agricultural inputs; provide shelter to people who have lost their homes; ensure access to water (including drinking water), hygiene and sanitation (distribution of Water Hygiene and Sanitation (WASH) kits) and the construction of emergency latrines. The plan also provides for regular monitoring of the protection of vulnerable people (women, children, people living with disabilities, and the elderly) to promote access to basic social and protection services, including protection against Gender Based Violence (GBV) by paying attention to women and girls and prioritizing assistance to households headed by them. Profiling of displaced people is being validated to better guide and prioritize responses. To date, humanitarian actors have reached 47,338 people (9,468 households), or 72.8% of the 65,000 people (13,000 households) targeted by the response plan.

Multifaceted and multisectoral efforts by the Government of Burundi, humanitarians, the public and private sector, characterized by assistance in kind and cash, has made it possible to accommodate the poorest households, provide food assistance to the affected populations, as well as stabilize the nutritional status of children. Latrines in IDP camps have also been illuminated to reduce the risk of violence, particularly gender-based violence.

The Humanitarian Response Plan (HRP) for 2021, guided by the risk analysis conducted in the Humanitarian Needs Overview, anticipated, among other things, the risk of further flooding during the March – May rainy season, and planned activities to mitigate the effects. During the floods in May, the emergency response was constrained by inadequate contingency stocks in intervention areas, as well as lack of funding in HRP which was at 15.3% at the beginning of May with just under $30 million received. The Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) provided $1.5 million as part of the "rapid response" framework to address identified needs such as shelter, food assistance, and WASH that were urgent. Other funding, such as DERF (ECHO) and DFID's Start funds, helped to maintain the acceptable level of response.

One of the activities in the relocation response plan, was to build semi-permanent shelters on plots outside risk areas. This is lagging because the plots identified are no longer available. This operation could therefore take time, leading to displaced households remaining on sites longer and develop a dependency on humanitarian aid. The relocation activities are part of the key sustainable solutions that will limit the impacts of possible future floods.

Humanitarian actors have also faced technical challenges and are unable to access drinking water in the Gatumba sites, water pumps in Sobel site and Civil Protection tankers supplying drinking water in Kinyinya II site have also broken down. This has led to displaced persons receiving eight (8) litres of water per day instead of the recommended 15 litres. The efficient and economical solution to the water problems would be connecting to the hydraulic network of the Regideso.

With climate change effects being felt globally, there are concerns that flooding will recur in Burundi in the coming rainy seasons. It is important to prioritize the establishment of early warning mechanisms, and for humanitarian actors to strengthen their preparedness activities to limit the adverse effects of disasters. This should include replenishing of emergency stockpiles to provide immediate response in the event of a large-scale natural disaster.

Humanitarian actors will also need to intensify collaboration with development partners in implementing mitigation measures and to strengthen vulnerable people’s resilience to withstand future shocks. Greater resilience would reduce needs and thus humanitarian assistance. Preventing resettlement in flood-affected areas and establishing durable solution for those assisted should be prioritized and implemented to achieve resilience.

The level of funding for the Burundi Humanitarian Response Plan (HRP) relative to needs has never been this low (beginning of September) since 2018. As of September 13, 2021, $37.7 million (19%) of the $195 million required by HRP for 2021 had been received. This is 36% less compared to 2020, when $59 million was received (the funding required was relatively the same - $198 million required in 2020 versus $195 million required in 2021). In July 2020, the funding required by HRP was increased from $114 million to $198million due to the impacts of Covid-19 on the humanitarian situation in the country. The HRP received 45 percent of the required funding, part of which was dedicated to the public health response of Covid-19.

According to the Financial Tracking Service (FTS), 2021, 80 percent of the needs highlighted in the HRP are not funded in the last quarter of the year. Subsequently, a significant number of the 1.06 million people targeted are at risk of not receiving assistance, which will result in postponement and accumulation of needs in the year 2022. As of 30 June 2021, only 354,000 people (33 percent of the target) had received some form of multi-sectoral assistance. If significant funding is to be provided in the last quarter of the year, humanitarian actors would not have sufficient time to implement the activities. In the coming years, it is important that funding is received earlier to enable successful implementation of humanitarian response foreseen in the HRP.

The underfunding of the humanitarian response in Burundi has a significant impact on humanitarian assistance to the most vulnerable people in the country. According to the Periodic Monitoring of Humanitarian Response (PMR) Report 2020, humanitarian actors were able to assist 524,708 people (65.5 percent of the target) with 45.2 percent of the funds received. Humanitarian actors in certain sectors, such as food security, have had to reduce the ratio to reach as many targeted people as possible.

According to the 2021 funding report in the FTS monitoring system, some sectors face significant underfunding in the last quarter of the year hindering humanitarian response. As of 13 September, only 7 percent of the funds required for WASH activities had been received; 8.2 percent for Shelter/Non-Food Items sector; 4.6 percent for the Protection sector; 17 percent for the Health sector; 47.6 percent for Food Security sector; 55 percent for Nutrition sector and zero percent for education sector. As a result, humanitarian needs in all sectors are likely to continue or even worsen. For example, during the first crop season of 2021, Kirundo experienced a significant water deficit causing the loss of 80 percent of crops in the affected hills, plunging just over 36,000 households into food insecurity. In the coastal areas of Bujumbura and Rumonge provinces, the floods in April and May 2021, destroyed agricultural plots with 68 hectares of crops ruined in Rumonge. Due to lack of funding, the Food Security sector was unable to provide the agricultural input needed to compensate for crop losses in all these areas, and the affected people unable to recover even in the following growing season. As a result, food security needs are likely to persist or even increase due to the lack of funding.

In the health sector, only a few activities planned by the HRP were implemented. For example, 4,612 displaced persons (IDPs) were able to receive health assistance out of the 269,000 projected in the HRP; activities to strengthen early warning or organize awareness-raising campaigns could not be fully implemented; and the medicines contingency stock was not fully constituted. Most of the funding received by the Health sector in 2021, focused on Covid-19 response funds and not projects in the HRP. Other public health emergencies are poorly covered, with Burundi remaining vulnerable to the resurgence of diseases with epidemic potential, such as measles, malaria, and ulcerative wound disease. As a result, it is important to implement the following activities:

(1) Continue the adequate care of IDPs and other vulnerable populations.

(2) Provide psychological care and psychosocial support to the victims.

(3) Continue the implementation of adequate hygiene and sanitation measures (strengthening of Infection Prevention and Control) on IDP sites to avoid the emergence of possible epidemics.

In 2021, plans to respond to a possible flooding were integrated into the HRP (pp. 49-50 and 56) but lack of funds prevented a satisfactory emergency response from being put in place, albeit the needs being anticipated. For example, the HRP 2021 provided for emergency water distributions for the WASH sector, but due to low funding, the sector has only one functional truck serving all needs in Bujumbura province. Low funding can result in limited aid impact and a carry-over of humanitarian needs to the following year. This could lead to more vulnerabilities in people identified as being needy, and those who have received assistance risk developing more vulnerabilities or multiplying them leading to dependency on aid in the medium and long term.