Maputo, 21 Nov (AIM) – Mozambique’s relief agency, the National Disaster Management Institute (INGD), needs 14.3 billion meticais (223.4 million US dollars, at the current exchange rate) to cover the 2023-2024 rainy season.
According to the INGD chairperson, Luísa Meque, the Institute has so far 4.3 billion meticais, which means projections point to a deficit of 10 billion meticais.
Meque, who was speaking on Monday at a meeting of the Coordinating Council for Risk and Disaster Management and Reduction, an event chaired by the Prime Minister, Adriano Maleiane, said that of the amount available, 3.4 billion is in kind and the remainder is from contributions of the government and the World Bank.
She pledged that the INGD will continue to mobilize resources from the government and its partners to eliminate the deficit.
“It is important to highlight the contracting of the Sovereign Disaster Fund that is under way, which could contribute to reducing the deficit presented in this contingency plan”, she said, adding that that the major challenges continue being financial, since the funds allocated to the INGD do not cover the needs.
Meque explained that the 2023-2024 rainy season will be influenced by the El Niño weather phenomenon. This is the warming of the surface waters of the central Pacific, which affects rainfall patterns across the globe. It is associated with drought in southern Mozambique.
“We call for redoubled efforts to cope with the El Niño phenomenon, which is expected to affect around 40 arid districts”, she said, adding that early action has been underway since September.
She explained that in the 2022-2023 rainy season, the INGD assisted around 712,600 of the 1.4 million people affected by Cyclone Freddy with food and non-food items.
The INGD recently drew up the strategy for the integrated development of arid and semi-arid areas and the annual contingency plan, a document that guides all preparedness and response activities.
(AIM)
SNN/Ad/pf (325)
