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Funds needed to repair transport network

The World Food Programme (WFP) estimates that almost US $2 million is urgently needed for emergency road and bridge repairs in flood-affected areas of southern and central Mozambique, to enable the transportation of food aid to the needy. The UN agency said in a statement on Tuesday that its ability to truck thousands of tons of food supplies to flood victims over the coming months hinges on functioning road and bridge networks. “There is still much work to be done to help Mozambique recover from this year’s devastating floods,” WFP’s Regional Manager for Southern Africa, Georgia Shaver, said in the statement. “In particular, repairing destroyed infrastructure such as roads and bridges is not only essential for relief food delivery, but for economic revival overall.” In collaboration with the National Roads Administration (ANE), WFP has identified more than 500 km of tertiary roads that need repair or rehabilitation due to the floods in February and March, at a cost of US $3.2 million. To date, standing water has hampered road repair work, making it extremely difficult for WFP and its food distribution partners to reach pockets of flood victims in many parts of the country. The Italian government, however, recently made a US $1.4 million donation to the repair effort as part of their total US $6 million assistance to WFP’s flood operation. Once roads are repaired, tens of thousands of people in isolated areas will have shorter distances to walk when travelling to food distribution sites. Road networks were so badly damaged by the floods that WFP has at times been forced to send south-bound food from more distant central and northern regions - rather than from Maputo - in order to circumvent blockages along the EN1, the main national road, often adding hundreds of extra kilometres to the journey. Meanwhile, WFP said it also still urgently needs US $8.7 million in food and cash donations to ensure that relief food will be available to half a million flood-affected people benefiting from an ongoing US $28.5 million relief programme. The operation was launched in March and food continues to be given to people in the five hard-hit provinces of southern and central Mozambique.

This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions

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