CPLP: To call on member states to help Sao Tome recover from recent heavy rains

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CPLP: To call on member states to help Sao Tome recover from recent heavy rains

7:19 CAT | 21 Mar 2022

File photo: Lusa

The executive secretary of the Community of Portuguese Language Countries (CPLP) has promised to mobilise the member states and associated observers of the organisation to support Sao Tome and Principe to overcome the damage from the rains that have hit the country in recent months.

“I cannot promise [support] on behalf of the CPLP, but what I can promise is that we will mobilise the member states, we will call on them to look at the situation, because it is certainly a situation that requires the support and solidarity of all member states,” Zacarias da Costa said on Thursday after meeting with Sao Tome’s prime minister, Jorge Bom Jesus, in Sao Tome.

Zacarias da Costa noted that “the role of the executive-secretariat of the CPLP is to mobilise support not only from member states, but also support outside member states,” including the 30 or so countries with the status of associated observers.

The CPLP executive secretary said he believed that “there will always be interest in supporting” Sao Tome and Principe but argued that the organisation should move towards other solutions, as these situations have been recurrent in some countries in the Portuguese language community.

“These situations are recurring, not only here [in Sao Tome and Principe], but also in Mozambique for example, and we need to seriously look into the creation, perhaps, of a solidarity fund to which the governments, when these situations occur, can resort and immediately support the communities affected,” said Zacarias Costas.

According to the CPLP’s executive secretary, another issue he discussed with the head of the Sao Tomean government is related to preparations for the ministerial meeting of Economy, Finance and Trade ministers to be held on 29 April, in Luanda, as part of the Forum of Trade and Investment Promotion Agencies of the CPLP, which was set up last month.

“The issue of economic and business cooperation is an extremely important one, in that it is a goal to be achieved under the Angolan presidency and will also be constituted as the next focus of our community, constituting the fourth pillar of our organisation,” he explained.
At the end of January, the Sao Tome government asked international partners for over 33 million euros to restore infrastructures, trade and support farmers, following the heavy rains that hit the country and caused two deaths at the end of December last year.

The archipelago was again hit by heavy rains at the end of February, which damaged a bridge linking the north of the country to the capital and caused flooding to homes and the hospital in Lembá district.

The African Development Bank (ADB) has announced it plans to support Sao Tome and Principe with US$1.3 million (about 1.2 million euros), while the World Bank has announced US$4.5 million (about 4.1 million euros) for the country to deal with the damage caused by the heavy rains, particularly in the infrastructure and trade sectors.

Source: Lusa