Salt, sea and flood: assessing and responding to the uncounted costs of climate change loss and damage in Senegal

Floods in Saint-Louis and salinity in Kafountine are already costing coastal households in Senegal a large share of their annual income, and most of this loss is not recorded anywhere.

In both places, the households that lose most are the poorest. Their losses are in food, health, schooling and debt.

Some of this loss can still be prevented, some can be reduced if support reaches households before the hazard rather than after, and some is now permanent and needs a different kind of response.

Senegal has the registry, programmes and payment systems that could deliver all three, but not the climate finance to make them work. This report provides the evidence of who is losing what, which a request for that finance needs.

Cite this publication

Bharadwaj, R., Karthikeyan, N., Seck, E., Cisse, O., Pichandi, K., Ducros, A., Fall, B., Bakhoum, A., Reddy , M. and Chaliha , S. (2026). Salt, sea and flood: assessing and responding to the uncounted costs of climate change loss and damage in Senegal. IIED, London.
Available at https://www.iied.org/22784iied