Disaster contingency plans prepared

As Mozambique's cyclone season approaches, the national disaster authority has presented its contingency plans and US $40 million budget to humanitarian partners, the UN Regional Inter-Agency Coordination Support Office (RIASCO) reported. In a reminder of the damage that storms in Mozambique can cause, winds gusting up to 75 km/h killed a child over the weekend, injured 78 people and displaced hundreds of families in the southern town of Moamba. The town was swollen with people who had been displaced by flooding in 2000 and 2001, news reports said. The National Institute for Disaster Management (INGC), responsible for drawing up the new contingency plans, responded by sending tents and tarpaulin to the area to help those made homeless. The INGC's contingency preparations cover three disaster scenarios - cyclones, flooding and drought, the latest edition of RIACSO's Southern African Humanitarian Crisis update said. The INGC estimates that more than 1.3 million people could be affected by cyclones, particularly in the coastal provinces of Nampula and Inhambane. Approximately 875,000 persons are vulnerable to flooding in the southern and central provinces of Maputo, Zambezia and Nampula, the disaster authority said. Mozambique is entering its rainy season, but rains have been poor in Maputo province and parts of the northwest province of Tete. The INGC estimates that approximately 970,000 people could be threatened by drought, with Maputo, Tete and the provinces of Nampula and Cabo Delgado in the north at highest risk. The contingency plans involve the propositioning of stocks and the building of disaster preparedness and early warning capacity.