WFP Sends Helicopter To Monitor Floods
Maputo, 15 Feb (AIM) – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has made a helicopter available to monitor the flooded areas in Maputo province, where an estimated 39,000 people have been affected by floods in the Umbeuzi and Incomati river basins.
Speaking to reporters in Manhica district, some 80 kilometres north of the capital, Luisa Meque, the chairperson of the Mozambican relief agency, the National Disaster Management Instiutute (INGD), said the helicopter was already in operation.
The WFP, she said, had made the helicopter available to monitor the flooded areas in Maputo province – but, if necessary, it could be used in other parts of the country.
Meque recognised the support for flood victims provided by civil society organisations. “There’s a very strong movement in Maputo province, supporting the victims”, she said. “We hope people will continue this solidarity”.
Meque said that, in the accommodation centres for flood victims run by the INGD, there are mobile clinics, and technical staff from the electricity company, EDM, and from the government’s Water Supply Investment and Assets Fund (FIPAG). “We have a very large group, with people participating from all sectors”, she said.
As for the impact of the floods on Manica, the district administrator, Maria Fernanda, said that, of the 256,000 people living in the district, only 524 needed to be rescued from the flood waters and resettled.
They were all healthy, she said, including three pregnant women, “who are fully assisted”.
Fernanda added that members of the Mozambican armed forces (FADM) are carrying out search and rescue operations in all corners of the district, but so far they had found no groups of people isolated by the flood waters of the Incomati.
The known death toll from the floods is seven, and about 3,500 houses have been inundated.
