The National Roads Administration (ANE) announced on Thursday 10 April that it needs 400 million meticals (6.2 million dollars) to replace the road network in Tete province, in the central region of the country, which was damaged during the passage of tropical cyclone Jude last March.
Quoted by Radio Moçambique, the head of the Planning Department at ANE, Leovigildo dos Reis, said that so far 97 million meticals (1.5 million dollars) had been invested in the rehabilitation and reconstruction of some roads in the Mutarara and Doa districts.
‘Some roads have been impassable, but all the work is being done to overcome the constraints. However, there is still a deficit in the budget,’ he explained.
Mozambique is in the middle of the rainy season, which runs from October to April, a period in which, in addition to cyclone Chido, which hit the country on 14 December, there were also cyclones Dikeledi, on 13 January, and Jude, on 10 March, totalling around 170 deaths.
Cyclone Jude entered the country through the district of Mossuril and caused at least 43 deaths, 41 of which in Nampula, while also affecting Tete, Manica, Zambézia, Niassa and Cabo Delgado. The latest update from the National Institute for Disaster Risk Management and Reduction (INGD) put the number of people affected at at least 384,000.
The weather phenomenon also caused significant damage to public and private infrastructure, including 81 health centres, 15 public buildings, 20 bridges, 43 aqueducts and 101,239 agricultural areas compromised, covering 4,146 farmers.
In the education sector, the damage affected 263 schools and 711 classrooms, affecting more than 94,000 pupils and 1,222 teachers. The storm caused 1,318 electricity pylons to fall, affecting the power supply in several regions.
Damage was also recorded on 2929 kilometres of roads and 6713 kilometres of secondary and tertiary roads, making access to various towns difficult.
Mozambique is considered one of the countries most severely affected by global climate change, facing cyclical floods and tropical cyclones during the rainy season, but also prolonged periods of severe drought.
