The province of Zambezia, in the center of the country, has more than five thousand kilometers of roads, 650 of which may be affected in the current rainy season 2022/2023. The contingency plan foresees damage to road platforms and destruction of aqueducts that may require an emergency.
Faced with these projections, the National Roads Administration (ANE) in Zambezia advanced last week that it does not yet have any figures, and is currently running a deficit of 950 million meticais.
“By our estimated numbers, we are running a deficit of 950 million meticais for immediate use. At this moment, we still don’t have any amount for intervention”, said the delegate of ANE in Zambezia, Ramiro Rudias.
According to him, the bad weather is causing incalculable damages in the road sector, destroying platforms, bridges and aqueducts.
“There is damage from the 2021/2022 rainy season that Zambézia province has not yet been able to repair. We are looking for resources to resolve the situation. And new damages are arising as a result of the subsequent floods”, specified the source.
However, the delegate assured that ANE will make the provisioning of metal bridges in order to allow that no impassable situations occur.
Mozambique is considered one of the countries most severely affected by climate change in the world, facing cyclical flooding and tropical cyclones during the rainy season, which runs from April to October.
In the 2020/2021 rainy season, the country was plagued by extreme weather events highlighted by storm Chalane and cyclones Eloise and Guambe, in addition to other weeks of heavy rain and flooding.
The 2018/2019 rainy season was one of the most severe in memory in Mozambique: 714 people died, including 648 victims of two of the largest cyclones (Idai and Kenneth) ever to hit the territory.