Fixing Central Africa's Water and Power Challenges Starts with Restoring Nature

From smallholder farms in Africa to the busy streets of Bogota, communities are reshaping the way the world designs its cities, uses energy and produces food. These examples show not just what could work, but what already does. Learn more about the series.

Bukavu, Democratic Republic of the Congo, sits where Lake Kivu drains into the Ruzizi River along the border with Rwanda. The city's steep hillsides turn heavy rains into fast-moving runoff that overwhelms drains, damages roads and threatens downstream communities.

It's a growing challenge across the Ruzizi Basin, a watershed spanning nearly four times the area of Greater London (about 6,000 square kilometers). Rapid in-migration, driven in part by people fleeing armed groups, is accelerating urbanization beyond what infrastructure and public services can support. As cities expand, paved surfaces replace forests, intensifying runoff and erosion. Informal settlements, timber extraction and inadequate waste management systems add further pressure.

In 2020, floods in the Ruzizi Basin killed at least 38 people, damaged 15,000 homes and displaced 75,000 residents. Damage to water infrastructure also disrupted water supplies for about 200,000 people. Erosion and waste flowing into the Ruzizi River are also affecting hydropower infrastructure and performance.

Amid these pressures, Bukavu is turning to nature. Since 2023, WRI Africa's Cities4Forests team and local partners have supported a range of interventions, from restoring riverbanks and planting trees to building a neighborhood recycling network. Together, these efforts are helping strengthen climate resilience in a region routinely disrupted by conflict while offering lessons for rapidly urbanizing watersheds across sub-Saharan Africa.

Three Interventions for One Watershed

Stabilizing the Slopes and Banks Above the Ruzizi I Dam

Upstream of the Ruzizi I hydropower reservoir, deforested hillsides — driven by the growth of informal settlements and household tree cutting for fuelwood — have accelerated erosion. Heavy rains wash sediment into gullies and waterways, degrading water quality and clogging the reservoir. Because the Ruzizi I Dam supplies electricity across the region, these impacts can also affect power reliability. Storage capacity in the reservoir fell from 1.7 million cubic meters in 1989 to 700,000 cubic meters in 2015, a decline of more than 58%.

To slow sediment flow at its source, restoration efforts have focused on priority rivers, gullies and ravines. Along riverbanks and erosion hotspots, native trees, shrubs and grasses with deep root systems have been planted to stabilize soil and reduce runoff.

Community engagement has been central to the project's long-term maintenance. The initiative worked with the DRC's National Electricity Company (SNEL), local associations and families of military personnel living in a government-owned housing settlement to identify priority areas for intervention. Families responsible for maintaining the restored land were trained in agroforestry and land management practices, helping turn the effort into a locally managed stewardship model rather than a one-time planting campaign.

Since 2023, more than 30 hectares of land have been restored, more than 31,000 trees have been planted and more than 1,000 part-time restoration jobs have been created for women and youth. The restored vegetation is already helping reduce sedimentation and landslide risks for nearby communities while protecting the long-term performance of the hydropower reservoir.

Greening the Inner City

Informal growth and tree clearing haven't only affected Bukavu's hillsides. The city center has also steadily lost green cover in parks, roundabouts and road medians. The result is a hotter, dustier urban environment, with more stormwater running off paved surfaces and into drainage systems poorly equipped to handle the city's growing population. Areas that were once planted and shaded have become bare, compacted ground.

To help restore urban green cover, efforts focused on priority public spaces across the city, including avenues, recreation areas and traffic roundabouts. Native tree species suited to local conditions were selected for each site. Municipal teams received training in urban greening and tree maintenance, while residents helped care for newly revitalized public spaces.

Since 2023, more than 20 hectares of degraded urban ecosystems and public green spaces have been restored, including tree plantings along 13 kilometers of avenues and renewed vegetation in recreation areas and traffic roundabouts. More than 200 municipal employees and community members have also participated in the effort through full- and part-time work.

These investments help cool streets and public spaces, improve air quality and absorb stormwater before drains overflow, reducing flood risk for communities along the Ruzizi River.

Turning Waste into Livelihoods

Poorly managed solid waste is a major cause of blocked drains and polluted waterways in Bukavu and across the Ruzizi Basin. Limited waste collection services mean plastic and other debris often accumulate in streets and open spaces, where heavy rains wash them into rivers and drainage systems. The waste clogs drains, contaminates water supplies and worsens flooding during storms.

To help break this cycle, community-led recycling initiatives have expanded waste collection and plastic reuse in several neighborhoods. In partnership with the recycling social enterprise Plastycor, local women and youth were trained to collect and transform plastic waste into products for resale, including waste bins, fishing platforms and household items. Participants then shared these skills with others in their communities, expanding the program through a community-based train-the-trainer model.

The initiative reached 709 community members, including 406 women and 303 young people, creating income opportunities while helping reduce waste in waterways and public spaces.

For Yvette Nshangalume, a Plastycor trainee living in Bukavu’s Ibanda neighborhood, the benefits are both environmental and social. “Our work is helping keep our neighborhoods clean and safe by reducing waste,” she said.  

Why This Approach Works in a Conflict-Affected Context

Population displacement and conflict-driven economic insecurity have strained municipal capacity across eastern DRC. While nature-based solutions cannot replace stable governance or public infrastructure, they can still be effective under difficult conditions because they rely on locally available materials, phased implementation and community participation. Projects such as riverbank restoration, urban greening and erosion control can be carried out gradually, maintained locally and adapted as conditions change.

In Bukavu, this adaptability was tested directly. Much of the 50 hectares of urban greening and restoration near the Ruzizi I Dam was implemented during the resurgence of the M23 rebellion in 2025. Despite security constraints, local planting and maintenance efforts continued, demonstrating that community-led restoration can persist through instability while helping protect critical water and energy systems.

Scaling Efforts Across the Basin

Bukavu's experience highlights how cities across the Ruzizi Basin can use nature-based solutions to reduce flood risk, protect water systems and safeguard hydropower infrastructure. Similar approaches could also help rapidly urbanizing cities in Burundi and Rwanda facing growing pressures from erosion, flooding and informal growth.

Sustaining these efforts over the long term will require financing for maintenance, restoration and local stewardship programs. Blended finance — combining municipal funds, national programs and impact capital — could help scale nature-based solutions while reducing flood risk, lowering water treatment costs and improving energy reliability.

As climate pressures and urban growth intensify across the region, Bukavu's restoration efforts offer one example of how cities can better protect communities most exposed to flooding and infrastructure failures, both in the DRC and across the basin.

Graphics by Sara Staedicke