Maputo, Mozambique — Mozambique's Disaster Management Coordinating Council (CCGC) is preparing to organise a donor conference in May, intended to raise funds for post-flood reconstruction efforts in the country's central region.

National Disaster Management Institute (INGC) director Silvano Langa said at the weekend that the decision was taken at a recent meeting of the CCGC, which leafed through preliminary data on the havoc wreaked by floods in the provinces of Manica, Sofala, Tete and Zambezia.

Langa said that multi-sectoral teams are to start working on the specific components to be presented at the conference.

He said various challenges have to be taken into account in order to avoid any constraints when settling people displaced by the floods.

These include the rebuilding of roads, the replanting of crops, and support for the private sector.

"In this transitional stage between emergency aid and post-flood reconstruction, we have to take into account support for the trading sector so that resettlement doesn't face any constraints related to supplies," Langa said.

He added that multi-sectoral teams are working on such issues as the environment, planning and public housing, and were identifying viable areas for resettlement.

The INGC estimates that about 500,000 people would need food aid over the next two months in Zambezi Valley that was worst hit by this year's floods.

Although the level of the Zambezi and other rivers are now falling, hungry people are still trekking into government-run accommodation centres.