7 April 2008
Maputo — Mozambican Prime Minister Luisa Diogo on Saturday stressed the need to turn post-flood reconstruction into an opportunity to improve the housing and welfare of the victims.
She was speaking at the opening of a meeting of the Disaster Management Coordinating Council held to assess compliance with the guidelines given by President Armando Guebuza when he visited the flood stricken areas of central Mozambique in February.
During his visit Guebuza had repeatedly stressed, not only that flood victims should stay in resettlement areas, rather than returning to the vulnerable flood plains, but also that they should seize the opportunity to build improved houses.
The meeting also discussed the establishment of a Resettlement and Reconstruction Coordination Office (GACOR). Diogo said the government believes that such an office would build on the experience of the reconstruction office set up after the explosions at a Maputo arsenal in March 2007 in order to rebuild the many thousands of homes that were damaged or destroyed.
The meeting also heard the latest figures of the losses caused by the floods and by cyclone Jokwe that hit the coastal areas of the northern province of Nampula in early March. Between them these disasters caused the deaths of 47 people.
The cyclone has turned out to be more devastating than the floods. The authorities say that a total of 308,991 people were affected by the disasters - 113,571 of them by the floods, and 194,820 by the cyclone.
Homes, schools, clinics and places of worship were destroyed by the cyclonic winds. Thousands of hectares of crops were ruined, and, according to one estimate, two million cashew trees were blown down (Nampula is the main cashew producing area in Mozambique).
"This situation means that the efforts undertaken by the government to eradicate absolute poverty have been held back", said Diogo. "A significant percentage of the population remains dependent on humanitarian aid".
The government included in its five year programme for 2005-2009, and in its poverty reduction plans, measures to reduce vulnerability and mitigate the effects of natural disasters. Key to these measures are the annual contingency plans, drawn up to respond to possible disasters, and which this year allowed a speedy response to the floods.
These efforts, Diogo said, have helped improve the long ran ge weather forecasts, in coordination with the other southern African countries with whom Mozambique shares river basins.
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