Mozambique: NGO criticises delay in resettlement of Hulene dump collapse victims

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Mozambique: NGO criticises delay in resettlement of Hulene dump collapse victims

2:37 CAT | 08 Jul 2020

Photo: Livaningo

The non-governmental organisation (NGO) Livaningo has criticised delays by the authorities in the resettlement of families removed from the vicinity of the Hulene tip, where 16 people died buried in February 2018.

“The resettlement does not comply with the guiding principles of processes of this nature, the municipality is not complying with the agreement,” Berta Membawaze, programme manager at Livaningo, told Lusa on Tuesday.

Initially, the resettlement of families living near the Hulene tip was scheduled for late 2018, but the government extended the deadline to mid-2019, but people are still waiting.

Currently, each family of the 269 affected receives an amount of 30,000 meticais (€387) which the government makes available quarterly to pay their rent, while they wait for the completion of the new houses that are being built.

But there are delays in the disbursement of subsidies, which led some of the affected families to protest on Tuesday, for the second time in just over a month, in front of the Maputo City Council building to claim the delay in the payment of subsidies.

The first protest, which took place in June, led the cabinet meeting to approve an extraordinary transfer to resolve the situation, but there were no developments.

“If today those affected choose to take to the streets and demonstrate it is because something is failing,” noted Berta Membawaze.

In addition to the delay in the final re-housing of families and the delays in the disbursement of subsidies, according to the NGO, which monitors the process, the families complain about the lack of social infrastructure in the new area where they will be housed, in addition to being removed to a low area, with flood risks.

“Livaningo calls on the municipality of Maputo to speak out on the matter, clarifying and resolving this situation, thus ensuring dignified resettlement for these families,” she said.

In the early morning of 19 February 2018, a part of the largest tip in the capital, with the height of a three-storey building, collapsed due to heavy rain and fell on several precarious houses in the surrounding neighbourhood.

Sixteen people died on the site, seven of whom were children.

In 2018, the Mozambican government announced that the Hulene tip would be closed, in an operation estimated at $110 million (€98 million, at current exchange rates).

Source: Lusa / Miramar