90% of the worlds cities are coastal and the urban areas are getting more dense. How will we deal with the water levels geting higher? Will massive amount of people move slowly to areas situated on higher grounds? A move of billions of people? Or will it be a less calm change of floodings and other changes making people refugees? How many refugees?
Ganvie was established by tribes escaping beeing captured by fellow tribes and beeing sold as slaves. Ganvie means ”Those who found peace at last” or ”we survived”. Will we have many more of these setlements on water in 50 or more years. Reseliance and flexibility for the future when sea rises. We live longer, will You and I see it happen?
I see boats with one man or more men. Boats with women who are selling goods and boats with women and boats with women and children. The men are fishermen and guides for tourism and the women sells the fish and are responsible for the children. The kids can all swim from the age of five and I see boats of 5 or 10 kids going alone to school.
According to a study Ganvie tripples in population every 15 years. Tripples, is it possible. I see many kids in most houses. This result in increasing the problems of unfiltered grey and black water and polution of plastics and other non biofriendly materials. Citizens are very poor and many go to bed with only one or two meals a day.
We spend the second day going around to different places. Fishing with many men from related families. We many times give others a lift somewhere.
We visit a carpentry and a school. In the school we connect with a proffesor and a headmaster for the project I am running about floating housing.
The last day we visit a business who takes the problematic waterlilllies up and makes different bio materials out of it. We also connect with an important politician of Ganvie who may also be good in the project, StockholmTinyhouseExpo.
Tips if you want to visit. Ask in advance what is included in what you will pay. Guide came up with new stuff, like boat costs when I was about to leave. He and others you meet will probably ask you for money over and over again. He also tried to get me to pay for 10 l of gasoline for the litle we used the motor.
I asked to do a homestay. Which was about 75 kr per night and the hotel would have been 200 kr/night. Meals at hotel is around 75 kr. If you buy food from a passing cannoe it is about 10 kr. I think 1 day is enough to visit Ganvie. But it is also beautiful so if you want to stay longer. Maybe stay at the hotel. They may be the only ones with a proper bed to offer. Getting to Calavie port from Continou is about 20-25 min on a moto-taxi and about 12 kr.
