AGADEZ, Niger: Its winding alleys, ancient mosque, and ochre earthen houses helped bestow on Agadez its UNESCO World Heritage status, but the town in Niger is now under threat from flooding.
Overflowing rivers are no longer a rarity in the vast, arid nation on the edge of the Sahara Desert.
But the rainy season this year has been particularly devastating, killing at least 270 people and affecting hundreds of thousands.
In Agadez — known as the gateway to the desert — forecasters say it’s “regularly” raining, even in areas where normally “rain never falls.”
Former Mayor Abdourahamane Tourawa called the downpours “particularly aggressive.”
“The old town in Agadez is suffering a lot of damage. Ponds are overflowing, and many houses collapsed. Even the Grand Mosque was not spared,” he said.
The town, nearly 1,000km northeast of the capital, Niamey, was an important crossroads in the trans-Saharan caravan trade.
Atop the 16th-century mosque stands an imposing mud-brick minaret 27 meters tall.
The Sultan’s Palace from a century earlier is a testament to the past glory of the Tuaregs, known as the Blue Men due to the indigo dye of their robes and turbans.
Agadez means “to visit” in the Tuareg language, Tamashek.
Once a tourist magnet and legendary staging post on the Paris-Dakar rally when the race crossed the Sahara, jihadist attacks plaguing the region have scared visitors away.
Other gems include the house where influential German explorer Heinrich Barth stayed in 1850.
The baker’s house, richly decorated with shells and arabesques, provided the backdrop for the 1990 film “The Sheltering Sky” by Bernardo Bertolucci.
“Climate change causing heavy rains represents a danger for the old town ... Around a hundred houses and walls have already collapsed,” town curator Ali Salifou warned.
Scientists have long warned that climate change driven by manmade fossil fuel emissions increases the likelihood, intensity, and length of extreme weather events such as torrential rains.
Symbolic monuments are still “in an acceptable state,” but “homes and other monuments of historic and religious value are under threat,” Salifou said.
