The Tzu Chi Foundation in Mozambique has announced that a lack of financial resources is hampering the reconstruction process in the areas affected by Cyclone Idai, which hit the centre of the country five years ago.
“Things are not going as expected. At the time, the government asked for 3.2 billion dollars, but the international community only promised 1.2 billion. As you can see, there’s a big financial deficit,” explained the president of the Tzu Chi Foundation in Mozambique, Dino Foi.
Speaking in an interview with Lusa, he emphasised that there are still many families living in tents and a lot of public and private infrastructure still to be built, pointing out that the covid-19 pandemic has had a negative impact on rehabilitation activities.
“Covid-19 has slowed down the pace of rehabilitation, we’ve lost about two years and we still have people living in tents,” he emphasised.
The leader warned that the city of Beira and the town in the district of Búzi – the places most devastated by Idai – are still very vulnerable to cyclones and floods and could even disappear if severe weather strikes.
“You don’t need a PhD in climate or the environment to realise that Búzi will one day disappear and the same thing will happen to Beira if we don’t take major steps to adapt to the impact of climate change,” he warned.
Dino Foi pointed out that Mozambique’s coastal cities are increasingly unprotected, due to the destruction of mangroves and forests and construction in areas that should serve as a barrier to the impact of climate change, and stressed that the country cannot depend solely on large international institutions to restore the devastated lives of the victims of natural disasters, but must maintain and strengthen the mobilisation of small organisations and citizens.
Mozambique is considered one of the countries most severely affected by climate change in the world, facing cyclical floods and tropical cyclones during the rainy season, which runs from October to April.
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.
In the first quarter of last year, heavy rains and Cyclone Freddy caused 306 deaths, affected more than 1.3 million people in the country, destroyed 236,000 homes and 3,200 classrooms, according to official government figures.
