Maputo | Tuesday
AS forecasters warned of possible heavy rainfall, the government in Mozambique said it was pre-positioning food supplies as part of a 24-million-dollar program aimed at avoiding a repeat of the flooding disaster which killed some 700 people in 2000.
The scheme, funded by both the government and foreign donors, will place basic foodstuffs and search and rescue equipment in flood-prone areas as a precaution, foreign minister Leonardo Simao said at a ceremony in Maputo.
Those areas will also have training programs for rescuers and civil education campaigns about weather warnings.
”Food is already being pre-positioned in areas prone to floods and other natural disasters typical this period of the year such as cyclones,” Silvano Langa, director of the National Institute of Disaster Management (INGC), said.
The poor southern African state suffered the worst floods in its recorded history in 2000, when more than 700 people died.
Many of the victims drowned, but others died of diseases such as malaria and cholera because flood relief did not arrive soon enough.
Many residents failed to heed early warnings, so thousands were caught unawares when surges of storm water swept them away as they slept.
The National Meteorology Institute (Inam) has forecast average to above average rainfall all over the country in coming days. – Sapa-AFP