Maputo: When the posh maketh the floods – report

Login

Register

http://www.clubofmozambique.com/

Maputo: When the posh maketh the floods – report

5:59 CAT | 17 Feb 2021

Photo: O Pais

Some neighbourhoods of Maputo and Matola normally considered ‘high end’ have not escaped the effect of the recent rains, O Pais reports. Several houses have been flooded and standing water is threatening sanitary conditions.

Rainwater has hit the streets of some supposedly posh “elite” neighbourhoods in Maputo city and province. The water has found obstacles to its “natural [drainage] path” in the form of the luxury houses built there. As a result, water has backed up, flooding more houses.

In the Belo Horizonte neighbourhood in Matola municipality, for example, the panorama of majestic buildings is blighted by the furious waters.

“What do we call this? Belo Horizonte River? It’s bad. You can’t even go to work,” one of the residents of the area complains in a video he filmed, which ‘O País’ has seen.

Another resident also made a video railing against the damage caused by the rains. “This is not normal,” he complains. “People are forced to simply jump into the water in order to pass. What a situation.”

The floods do not affect Belo Horizonte alone, as multiple images shared on social networks document. In Triunfo, Maputo city, right next to Costa do Sol, the rainwater is disrupting the daily life of residents in upmarket homes still.

“When the rain falls, we cannot get around, and the situation gets more complicated with the cars. There is a basin, and when it rains the water stands stagnant there. Since Saturday, for example, neither cars nor people have been able to leave home,” Costa do Sol resident Coisaque Ernesto says.

The problem is aggravated by the disorderly construction which characterises the neighbourhood.

“The water used to drain away before the new houses were built. Today, it’s an ordeal. The residents of these new homes are also experiencing difficulties,” resident Hegino Safrauno explains.

“The [new] houses have closed the run-off routes, and the water has nowhere to go,” he adds.

In addition to the[normally considered] posh buildings already built in the lower part of the Triunfo neighbourhood, Maputo city, residents are still preparing land to build more houses on natural run-offs.

New constructions keep going up, with the most disadvantaged experiencing difficulties whenever it rains.

“When it rains, we face flooding. The waters invade our homes. The streets are also flooded,” Clácia Fernando says.

Rafael Pedro, another neighbourhood resident, says he knows the source of the flooding problem. “It’s because the ditch is blocked and all the houses are close to the ditch. The same scenario is repeated in every street. The water finds no passage – the new buildings are a barrier,” he says.

The trend of building the supposedly “posh” homes in maybe not so posh after all areas prone to flooding also extends to the Chihango neighbourhood. Even with the rain discouraging the construction of houses in these places, work doesn’t stop and, as a result, the backyards of these new ‘mansions’ become authentic streams.

“The waters have no passage because of other works, which make landfills, as well as in other streets, which have no landfills even,” Fernando Sigaúque says.

“We had to drill holes in some walls so that the water could pass through to the mangroves. Otherwise, the water will not pass. Only when the sun comes [does the water go away, but apparently through evaporation]. Then [with the sun],” he says, “it takes a month and a few days for the water to disappear” .Chihango resident Sigaúque adds that most of the owners of the houses do not actually live in them, which makes it even more difficult to address this issue.

“Some people manage to have better conditions in relation to others. So they manage to build their houses, [and build them here] even knowing that the area is facing flooding problems. Before that, the water made it to the sea. Now, when the rain falls, the water no longer reaches its destination ”, confirmed Sigaúque.

Also read:Land titles in mangrove areas will be cancelled, says Maputo mayor

Mangroves have even been removed in parts of Triunfo to make way for housing. But Maputo Municipal Council said some weeks ago that it would withdraw DUAT (right to use) titles from those plots.

By Dario Cossa