Some people living along the Juba in the Marere district have taken refuge on a dyke – The torrential rains which have been falling in Somalia since the beginning of October have caused the Juba and Shabele to burst their banks. In some places the flooded areas are 30 kilometres wide. The drought, which set in at the start of 2006, has made the ground so hard and compacted that the water runs off it instead of soaking in.