The president of the National Institute for Disaster Risk Reduction and Management (INGD), Luísa Meque, admitted that there are weaknesses in the housing inspection process in Mozambique, which consequently opens the door to precarious construction in risk zones.
Speaking at a meeting on Monday 18 December, she recalled that the country is one of the most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, with successive cycles of droughts, cyclones, floods and inundations. She therefore stressed the need to improve housing and advise the population to opt for resilient constructions.
“We’ve noticed that, basically, one of the biggest causes of death has been house collapses and the fact that you’re building in risky places is already a major weakness. Therefore, one of the major challenges is to prevent such construction,” she said.
Luísa Meque emphasised that the conflict in the north of the country is another problem that worries the institution she heads, pointing out that this year alone more than 850,000 displaced people have been reported.
The 2018-19 rainy season was one of the most severe on record in Mozambique: 714 people died, including 648 victims of cyclones Idai and Kenneth, two of the biggest ever to hit the country.
According to official government figures, in the first quarter of this year, heavy rains and the passage of Cyclone Freddy caused 306 deaths, affected more than 1.3 million people in the country, destroyed 236,000 homes and 3,200 classrooms.