Watch: Natural disasters in Mozambique killed 61 people in six months to March – INGC

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Watch: Natural disasters in Mozambique killed 61 people in six months to March – INGC

2:38 CAT | 17 Apr 2018

O País / "In the period October 2017 to March 2018, two phenomena escaped our control: the Hulene tragedy and electrical discharges," the INGC director said.

Sixty-one people died in Mozambique as a result of natural disasters between October of last year and this March, a number which includes 16 people killed in the collapse of the Hulene garbage dump.

The National Institute for Natural Disaster Management (INGC) revealed on Monday that 61 people died from natural disasters between October last year and March of this, 12 less than in the 2016-2017 rainy season.

Presenting the INGC’s annual rainy and cyclone season report, Director General João Machatine pointed to the death of 16 people in the Hulene dump collapse in Maputo in February as adding substantially to the number of deaths recorded between October and March.

In the same period, 22 people died victims of electric shock countrywide. “In the period October 2017 to March 2018, two phenomena escaped our control: the Hulene tragedy and electrical discharges,” the INGC director said.

In all, natural disasters affected 152,246 people, totally 7,313 and partially destroyed 14,461 houses. Storms totally destroyed 201 houses and 463 partially.

The INGC estimates that it needs one billion meticais (EUR 13.3 million) to deal with damage caused by natural disasters, but was able to mobilise only 300 million meticais (EUR 4 million) for prevention, assistance and reconstruction operations.

Machatine said that Mozambique needed to improve its capacity to predict natural disasters and incorporate economic and social resilience actions in all sectors, as well as completing the National Infrastructure Resilience Strategy.

Penalising people who occupied or built dwellings in areas prone to natural disasters, operationalising the Disaster Management Fund and making insurance against natural disasters available were other important interventions, he added.