Watch: Illegal houses demolished near the banks of Licungo river in Mocuba, Mozambique – AIM

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Watch: Illegal houses demolished near the banks of Licungo river in Mocuba, Mozambique – AIM

11:17 CAT | 20 Dec 2019

Photo: O País

The government of Mocuba district, in the central Mozambican province, has ordered the destruction of houses built illegally near the banks of the Licungo river.

The residents of the illegal houses were given a month to leave voluntarily – otherwise the government would send the bulldozers in and knock the houses down. It was impossible for the residents to say they did not know that building was forbidden in this area. A giant billboard announced quite clearly that this is a flood-prone area, on which nothing should be built.

The threatened demolition and eviction happened on Wednesday. Demolition teams destroyed the 40 or so houses, while their occupants wept and screamed in rage, in full view of journalists from the independent television station STV.

The people evicted claimed they had nowhere to go, but in fact tents are ready for them at a resettlement site ten kilometres away.

The area where the houses were built was under water in January 2015, during major flooding on the Licungo, The Zambezia floods of that year cost 140 lives. The Licungo basin remains a high risk area.

Recently, the country’s relief agency, the National Disaster Management Institute (INGC) has been taking a hard line towards people who build in dangerous areas, warning that if they do not leave those areas, the government will force them to leave.

Cited in Thursday’s issue of the daily paper “O Pais”, the General Director of the INGC, Augusta Maita, praised the Mocuba evictions.

The Mocuba district government, she said, “understood the concerns we have been expressing”. Demolishing the houses, Maita added, may seem an extreme measure, but it was necessary.

“I don’t know if we’re just waiting for more disasters, when we will add up the dead again”, said Maita. “Or whether it is time to intervene to avoid such situations”.

Across the country, there are people living in flood-prone areas, despite warnings from the authorities. Asked whether the Mocuba demolitions would be repeated elsewhere, Maita said the INGC will continue to raise people’s awareness of the need to avoid building in dangerous areas – but if persuasion does not work, the INGC will encourage the local authorities to knock down the houses.

“We have to start somewhere”, said Maita. “We have made an appeal to all the other municipalities and local governments to support us in this exercise, which is intended to protect the lives of our fellow citizens”.

Was there any better solution? “Should we just leave them to die?”, she asked.

Source: STV / AIM