IRIN Focus on post-floods reconstruction

Workshops arranged by the government and the humanitarian community are scheduled to get underway across Mozambique next month to help nearly half a million people currently being resettled after devastating floods in February and March which claimed over 650 lives. According to a report this week by the government disaster relief commission, the Instituto Nacional de Gestao de Calamidades (INGC), the first workshop will be held in the country’s second city of Beira on 5 June, with representatives from the provinces of Sofala, Manica and Inhambane. A second workshop will be held in the capital, Maputo, on 9 June involving the southern provinces of Maputo and Gaza. In a measure of the progress achieved after the most destructive floods in recent memory, preliminary data showed that the numbers of people in the Chiaquelane accommodation centre in the southern Gaza Province district of Chokwe, home to 80,000 flood victims at the height of the crisis, have now dwindled to just 4,000, since the resettlement programme started on 6 April. The broad aims The INGC said the broad aims were to establish coordination mechanisms and identify responsibilities at the central government, provincial, municipal and local levels. They will also help plan resettlement taking into account economic, cultural, religious and social factors. They will also draft in various sectors, including the private sector, to assist with urbanisation and construction of new buildings. The workshops also aim to draw up plans for the conservation of areas prone to erosion or flooding, the protection of sanitation systems, income generation assistance, and community disaster awareness. Earlier this month at a meeting in Rome, international donors exceeded expectations with a pledge of US $452.9 million, nearly US $3 million more than the government of Mozambique had sought, to help rebuild the country. Resettlement underway The AIM state news agency reported this week that for the country as a whole, 70 per cent of the displaced flood victims who had been sheltered in government accommodation centres during the emergency period, had now been resettled or returned to their places of origin. “Over 95 percent of the population who had been displaced to the large centres at Chiaquelane, Macia town and Hokwe, in Bilene Macia district, have returned home to Chokwe district,” the INGC report said. “The people who were displaced from Nwachicolwane, Duavaio and Ward 4 of Chokwe town remained in Chiaquelane because their home areas are still waterlogged.” It said a further 580 families still camped in Macia, had asked to be resettled in Bilene Macia and that the government was demarcating nearby plots for them. In the city of Xai-Xai in southern Mozambique, which just two months ago was the scene of some of the worst damage, thousands of people once camped at the OMM accommodation centre have been resettled in a new residential ward called Ndambine where 500 families have moved into new homes. “There are no longer any accommodation centres in the city of Xai Xai,” it said. Assistance now going to resettlement areas According to Joao Zamisse, the chief of the INGC planning department, the accommodation centres at the Vila Franca do Save and Machanga, near the banks of the Save river, the natural boundary between Inhambane and Sofala provinces, have been closed down. All assistance to the flood victims is now sent to the resettlement areas. Zamisse said that the INGC Technical Council met on 15 May to set up a working group to prepare the Beira and Maputo workshops for the southern and central regions, which were most affected by the floods. “The displaced people are given basic rations when they leave the accommodation centres,” the INGC said. “The NGOs involved in humanitarian work have been asked to distribute supplies in the resettlement areas in future.” The assistance includes seeds and tools. The government strategy The government’s strategy is that people should be resettled in areas that are not only safe against new disasters, but also have water, building materials, and easy road access for assistance. Zamisse said that some of the people who had been in accommodation centres did not wait to be helped to the resettlement areas, but returned, under their own steam, to their places of origin, to start planting for the next harvest. NGO support Some 23 NGOs are now involved, together with the government, in the resettlement work. NGO assistance includes support in the building of new houses, supply of building materials, clothes and household utensils, and the opening of water sources. Zamisse explained that further assistance to resettled people included the rehabilitation of schools and health units, and the opening of access roads. The sectors The INGC said that in various sectors - food, farming, health, logistics, and transport, the humanitarian community was still providing emergency relief to ensure a smooth transition from the emergency phase. Food Between 16-23 May WFP said it had delivered 1,930 mt of food. Corn Soya Blend was distributed in the Limpopo and Save River valleys. The agency said it would meet with NGOs to analyse the future of the emergency operation as the humanitarian community starts to focus on food-for-work projects. Agriculture “The main priorities in the agricultural sector are to complete the distribution of farming tools in Maputo Province and to begin too distribution in Inhambane and Gaza Provinces,” the INGC report said. Lorries carrying tools are now en route to Inhambane and Gaza, and the distribution of seeds in Inhambane is complete.” It said the agriculture ministry had met with private farmers in Chokwe to discuss the recovery of rice production and prepare the distribution of vegetable seeds to small and medium-size farms. It said a plan to distribute 500 mt of hybrid maize from the Montsanto company was underway for planters in Manica, Tete and Gaza. The ministry was also drafting a report on seed and tool deliveries so far. Health Although the government said it was concerned about problems encountered in sending medical supplies to Inhambane province, “a steep decline in the incidence of acute diarrhoea has been observed in all provinces.” It said, however, the incidence of malaria remained high, except in Maputo where a decrease had been noted. The humanitarian health working group would only meet from now on when circumstances required. Logistics It said the international air operation was scheduled to end on 31 May barring further funding for the operation. Between 16 and 23 May 216.1 mt of cargo had been delivered to remote areas by air. Meanwhile, the INGC said access to Chicualacuala in the north of Gaza Province had been established by rail through neighbouring Zimbabwe. Roads With a national road rehabilitation plan being drafted, WFP is working with the department of rural roads to identify bottlenecks and areas requiring priority access. “In addition, WFP is working with the national road administration on the repair of a strategic bridge linking the towns of Chissano and Chibuto in Gaza province,” the report said.