Mozambique: PM Promises to Mitigate Impact of Extreme Events

Maputo — Mozambican Prime Minister Benvinda Levi declared on Thursday that the government is determined to mitigate the damaging impact of extreme climatic events on the country's social and economic fabric.

To increase Mozambique's resilience to climate change, she said, the government will strengthen early warning systems and the readiness to respond to natural disasters.

It would also map zones most at risk and resettle people living in flood-prone areas on higher ground. The government will also build more dikes, reservoirs and drainage systems for the better management of water resources.

Such actions, said Levi, would ensure that "our resources are not repeatedly used to rehabilitate or rebuild the same infrastructures which are destroyed whenever there are natural disasters, and to direct these funds to new social and economic development programmes'.

She pointed out that Mozambique is still in the rainy season and that the National Meteorological Institute (INAM) is forecasting moderate to heavy rainfall, accompanied by thunderstorms in all provinces except Tete.

Indeed, as the Assembly was meeting on Thursday, there were torrential rains in central Maputo, similar to the downpours that had characterised January.

Levi said that, over the previous 24 hours, storms in Mandlakazi district, in the southern province of Gaza, had swamped 2,732 hectares of crops, flooded 518 homes, and damaged schools and a health centre.

Also in Gaza, rains had cut off the roads leading to the administrative posts of Nalazi, Chivongoene, Mubangoene, Massangena and Chigubo.

In the neighbouring province of Inhambane, 306 hectares of farmland were inundated, 71 homes were flooded, and roads and bridges were impassable in several districts.

"We are continuing to monitor the situation', said Levi, "and teams have been mobilised to provide humanitarian assistance and assess the damage'.

The Prime Minister appealed to people still living in flood-prone areas to accept guidance from government bodies "to prevent loss of life and material damage. It is also crucial that the public collaborate with the water treatment and insecticide spraying campaigns to prevent further outbreaks of malaria, cholera and diarrhoeal diseases'.