GENEVA, Switzerland, February 20, 2015/African Press Organization (APO)/ — At least 160,000 people in Mozambique have been affected by the floods since an Institutional Red Alert was issued last month. Initial assessment by Humanitarian Country Team (HCT) estimates 10,000 displaced families (45,000 individuals) are in need of emergency life-saving shelter materials and other goods.
Many are currently living under trees or in unsafe, congested accommodation centres, such as schools, churches, mosques and private homes, where cases of malaria and diarrhoea have become rife.
“The situation is critical for many families that have lost everything, including their homes and crops for the year,” said IOM project manager Camila Rivero-Maldonado.
In collaboration with the Red Cross and Concern Worldwide, and with logistical support from the World Food Programme, IOM is providing these families with transit emergency shelter materials such as tarpaulins, rope and solar lamps, as well as 2,000 shelter tool kits which include saws, hammers, nails, shovels and a range of other equipment. Each shelter kit will be shared between four or five families.
These activities are funded through a USD 478,825 grant from the UN Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) and aim to complement the efforts of the Mozambican Government’s National Disasters Management Institute (INGC), which is leading the coordination of the emergency support. IOM and the INGC are also working together to ensure relocation sites meet basic humanitarian standards.
To support Zambezia’s longer term recovery, IOM is partnering with UN-Habitat in its “build back better” programme, which helps families rebuild secure and safe housing through community trainings.
“We’ve seen widespread damage, especially to key public infrastructure such as bridges and major roads,” said Rivero-Maldonado. “The recovery process is not going to be a two or three month operation – we are looking at two to three years. So we need to take a long-term approach to ensure the safety and well-being of the affected populations.”
The floods which began mid-January have wiped out over 12,000 houses and 62,000 ha of crops in Mozambique, and claimed at least 158 lives – 134 of which were in Zambezia.
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