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Johannesburg - The Instituto Nacional De Gestao De Calamidades (INGC) in Mozambique says in its latest report that over 90 percent of people displaced by the floods earlier this year have left the accommodation centers.
"Some people have returned to their home areas while others have moved to resettle in safer areas. A smaller number of people remain in the accommodation centers for lack of material conditions for resettlement," the INGC said. It said that large numbers of families who had not yet left the accommodation centers were headed by women who lacked the necessary resources to build their own homes.
The INGC said that in the southern Gaza province where 248,143 people were displaced, 234,145 had already been resettled. In Gaza and Maputo provinces it said 28,222 households still needed to be resettled.
The report added that the UN's World Food Programme (WFP) had between the 8-13 June delivered 1,233 mt [metric tons, 1 mt=2,205 lbs.] of food to affected areas in the southern and central parts of the country.
"The main problem in relation to food aid is the need to secure authorization for vehicles carrying food aid supplies to use the road between Chissano and Chibuto in Gaza province. This road is the only alternative to the main national highway linking Maputo to areas in the north of Gaza and beyond," the INGC said.
"It is feared that over 70,000 people could face food shortages if stocks were not moved to Gaza," the INGC noted. It said that 1,000 mt of cereal was being diverted from the coastal city of Beira in the north to replenish stocks in the center of the country, 600 mt were being transported from Nacala in the northern Nampula province and 400 mt from Tete in the northwest.
The INGC said that personnel from the ministry of defence were engaged in clean up activities in Xai-Xai and Chokwe, but that the operations in Xai-Xai were being hampered by a lack of vehicles for rubbish removal, wheel barrows, masks and gloves. It said that medicines, particularly anti-malarial medication and antibiotics were in short supply. It said that the ministry of health was currently conducting a nutritional survey in the flood affected areas.
The report said that a family reunification project, with the assistance of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) had begun in the southern Sofala Province.
June 19, 2000
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