Maputo — The Mozambican Environment Ministry is creating a multi-institutional technical team to try and identify solutions for the fight against erosion in the country's coastal areas.

Addressing reporters during a seminar to discuss the problems of erosion, the director of the Coastal Zones Sustainable Development Centre, Manuel Poio, said that the team will involve researchers from Mozambique's oldest university, the Eduardo Mondlane University (UEM), the recently established Mozambique Technical University (UDM) and from the Ehime University of Japan.

Erosion has become alarming in parts of the country, and Poio admitted that Mozambique has not yet found concrete solutions to solve the problem of coastal erosion.

"So we intend to start applied research, in partnership with the Japanese university and other national institutions of higher education, and solve the problem of the communities being affected by climate change", he said.

According to Poio, some pilot areas have been selected in the districts of Chinde, at the mouth of the Zambezi, Inhassoro and Vilanculo, on the coast of Inhambane province, and the city of Beira, to undertake actions to control and prevent of erosion. "These areas will be visited by the researchers of the team being created", said Poio. The seminar was to prepare an action plan to identify measure and assess the causes and impact of coastal erosion in Mozambique.

The seminar is part of the Environment Ministry's efforts to encourage and promote research to identify techniques to adapt to climate change.