The chairman of the Maputo city council, Rasaque Manhique, revealed that he still has no dates or locations identified for resettling the victims of the floods caused by the heavy rains in recent days.
He emphasised that, at the moment, only primary actions are being taken, which essentially consist of removing the water using motor pumps.
“The municipality still doesn’t have the conditions to resettle the victims of the rains. There are measures that need to be adopted to alleviate people’s suffering and, for now, we are draining the water in the most critical areas. To this end, we have acquired industrial motor pumps to help with the process,” he explained.
According to Manhique, the interventions cover the Marginal area, which has many problems. “We are carrying out a primary intervention, which involves cleaning the ditches on the slope, and also maintaining the crest ditches to allow the water to find its way.”
The current rainy season, which began in October 2023, has already caused the deaths of 135 people and affected another 116,334. Of the total deaths, 57 were caused by lightning, 31 by cholera, 24 by drowning, 20 by houses collapsing and three by animal attacks.
Mozambique is considered one of the countries most severely affected by global climate change, facing cyclical floods and tropical cyclones during the rainy season, which runs from October to April.
