This post is written by Alex Whitney, Operations Director for World Vision in Senegal.

When you live in a country that doesn't see rain for 10 months of the year, suddenly seeing water everywhere makes you feel like you're in a different country. I left Senegal in July for a month's holiday back in the UK. When I came back in early September, the change was extreme.

Instead of hardly seeing any green at all, it's now difficult to find anything dry and brown. Rain has been steadily falling for nearly two months. It's normal to have rain at this time of year, but the amount and intensity has been much higher this time.

Flash flood

The rain has caused flooding in many areas of Senegal, but it's a sort of hidden flooding.

From my work in Bangladesh, I know it's common to see large rivers and deltas busting their banks and consume vast areas of land. Flooding in urban and central areas of Senegal is quite different.

Here a lot of water falls in a short space of time causing flash floods, which appear almost anywhere. They sweep away houses, crops and possessions in a matter of hours, then the water is gone.

Life on a roof

In Dakar, however, the water often has nowhere to go. It just sits in streets, homes and public buildings, such as churches and schools. This week I went to Dakar's suburbs to assess the extent of the flooding. It didn't take long to find water. A mere turning off the autoroute, and I saw streets cut off by standing water.

All around people were trying to get on with their lives, wading through new rivers to get to shops and work. Children were barricaded in by sandbags, strategically placed to keep several feet of water from flooding their homes.

I remember Mme Sall the most. A local man got chatting to us and said, "If you want to see the damage it can do, come with me". He showed us a ladder propped up against an eight foot wall. "Just look over the wall, and you will see what I mean," he said. The ladder was the only access to a group of 30 or more homes flooded by a metre of water. The ladder led to the roof tops where several families were living.

Mme Sall, has been living on her roof for a month since the water started rising.

"I don't have anywhere else to go," she said. "When the water came, we moved the bed and our possessions onto the roof where we have been staying. I'm constantly worried that my son will fall into the water and I will lose him." I looked down into the street below into the black/green water, thick, smelly and bottomless and shared Mme Sall's fear.

The Government of Senegal estimates that 4,600 homes have been flooded and more than 264,000 people affected by this year's flood waters. Pumping teams are operating in some urban areas to clear homes of water, but with the rain still falling they're fighting a losing battle.

Lost income

My former home, the rural town of Kaffrine (five hours inland from Dakar by car) has seen heavy rainfall and flooding. Here World Vision has several long-term development programmes supporting communities to improve education, health and economic development opportunities for their children and families. In Kaffrine more than 500 families have lost homes as well as possessions and livelihoods.

"The rain fell so heavily and rose so quickly we were forced to leave our house," said Moussa Lo. "We went to the local school where we're now staying. When the schools reopen, I don't know where we'll go. I'm waiting for the authorities to help me."

In rural areas, most families live in simple brick huts with straw roofs that can't often withstand the flash floods that come through the village.

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