Sofala not prepared to handle emergencies

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Sofala not prepared to handle emergencies

10:32 CAT | 01 Feb 2016

In file Club of Mozambique / Helena Taipo.

The governor of the central Mozambican province of Sofala, Helena Taipo, has recognized that the Provincial Disaster Management Technical Council (CTPGC) is incapable of responding promptly to emergency situations.

Cited in the Beira daily paper “Diario de Mocambique”, Taipo said she based this position on the false reports she had received from the Council and from some provincial directorates, which did not reflect the situation on the ground.

She stressed that Sofala has been facing natural disasters in the shape of drought and high winds since last December, affecting the districts of Nhamatanda, Caia, Muanza, Cheringoma, Machanga, Marromeu and Búzi. In these districts thousand of households had been plunged into food insecurity. Many had lost their homes and dozens of schools had seen their roofs blown off.

Taipo said the latest report from the CTPGC “is descriptive, but does not say how many people have been assisted or the amounts spent”.

Key details were missing. “What is the value of the 13 moulds for making bricks sent to Caia?”, asked Taipo. “What kind of tents were allocated to families who lost their homes in Nhamatanda, and in what part of the district did this happen?”

She accused the disaster management bodies in the province of a lack of transparency, and urged them to take seriously the plight of households suffering from hunger and drought. “It’s no good bringing us pretty reports if they’re not true”, she said. “We are still not prepared to deal with the emergency situation in our province. All work should be planned, otherwise we shall continue with the problems we faced last year”.

Taipo insisted on the need to improve communication between provincial and district directorates, in order to ensure that the data gathered in the province reflects the real situation She said that problems of resettlement persist in the Malingapasse region of Marromeu district, but up-to-date information on this was missing from the report presented by the CTPGC.

The disaster management bodies, she said, must produce correct reports on the situation at every session of the provincial government.

Source: AIM