Extreme weather events in Mozambique have killed 62 people through March, additionally damaging more than 4,300 homes and 700 kilometers of roads, according to official data accessed by Lusa this Wednesday.
According to the January-March budget performance document, these events, especially intense rainfall and strong winds, “resulted in the deaths of 62 people, mostly due to wall collapses and drowning.”
“152 injuries were recorded, a total of 181,708 people were injured, which corresponds to 37,279 families,” the document says.
A government study shows that 4,203 houses were also affected, of which 921 were completely destroyed, 556 classrooms affecting 102,001 students, 137 medical facilities, 21 churches and 147 power poles.
These “extreme events” also affected the road sector for about 728 kilometers, including the destruction of, among others, nine bridges, five piers and 40 aqueducts, while in the agricultural sector 118,268 hectares of various crops were affected, of which 56,240 hectares ” lost,” and 451 artisanal fishing vessels were damaged in the fishing sector.
Mozambique is considered one of the countries worst hit by climate change in the world, experiencing cyclical floods and tropical cyclones during the rainy season, which runs from October to April.
The 2018/2019 rainy season was one of the harshest in Mozambique’s history, with 714 people killed, including 648 victims of Cyclones Idai and Kenneth, two of the largest to ever hit the country.
According to official government data, in the first quarter of last year, heavy rains and the passage of Cyclone Freddy caused the death of 306 people, affected more than 1.3 million people in the country, and destroyed 236 thousand houses and 3,200 classrooms.
At the end of September last year, Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi urged people and actors to prepare for the predictable effects of the El Niño phenomenon in the country in the coming months, predicting above-normal rainfall and outbreaks of drought.
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal
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