Floods, drought impact negatively on children

Heavy flooding in 2000 and 2001 and a subsequent drought and food crisis have had an extraordinarily negative impact on children in Mozambique, Save the Children Fund (SCF) said in a new report. The fund said many children in Mozambique found themselves "trapped in a cycle of poverty with inadequate access to basic services", and with the impact of HIV/AIDS worsening their plight. In February 2000 Mozambique experienced the worst floods in half a century which particularly affected provinces in the south, including Inhambane. In February 2001 there was further flooding predominantly on the flood plains of the lower Zambezi River. In May 2001 it was reported that approximately 44,000 subsistence-farming families had been affected with the loss of 27,000 hectares of crops. Roads and bridges were washed away isolating people from much needed assistance. "[Flood induced] disruption to economies in the southern and central provinces plunged families deeper into extreme poverty. Hundreds of thousands of children became reliant on food aid. Children's education was disrupted in flood-stricken areas with hundreds of schools and educational institutions damaged. The quality and continuity of education was disrupted, and in many communities, an increase in family poverty led to more children working rather than attending school," SCF said. Sanitation and water facilities in many areas were contaminated and diarrhoeal diseases and malaria have increased among children. In 2002 Mozambique, along with five other southern African countries, was badly affected by drought and consequent food shortages. The latest Southern African Development Community (SADC) vulnerability assessment released on 30 January said "some 650,000 people (three percent of the population) will require an estimated 31,000 mt of emergency cereal food assistance through March 2003". SCF underlined the fact that children, who make up 50 percent of the population, were already "severely affected by the floods" prior to the drought. Some five million children live in poverty in Mozambique and almost half the country's children are chronically malnourished. In response to the various crises SCF has provided both food and non-food assistance and conducted programmes to rehabilitate damaged service infrastructure. While SCF maintains a capacity to respond to emergencies the organisation has shifted its focus to long-term development work and improving the quality and quantity of basic services, advocating children's rights, and responding to the HIV/AIDS epidemic, the report said.