The Pescadores (fishermen's) neighbourhood beyond the city's popular Costa do Sol beach, and Inhaca island, have suffered abnormally high tides every day since Sunday. The homes of 135 families in Pescadores have been flooded, as have several fishing camps on Inhaca.
Maputo mayor Eneas Comiche visited Pescadores on Tuesday to learn first hand of the situation and the damage to property.
Comiche found that no casualties were reported and also no houses have been destroyed, which he described as an "encouraging" sign.
Among decisions taken by the municipal authorities is that the local primary school in Pescadores, which has a first floor, may serve as a shelter if the situation becomes worse. Boats have been placed on maximum alert, particularly at night, to rescue affected families.
Could the current phenomenon be nothing more than a spring tide ? Spring tides are unusually strong tides that occur when the earth, moon and sun are lined up, and the gravitational force of both the moon and the sun contributes to the tide. But there have been plenty of spring tides on the Maputo coast before, without flooding any houses.
Comiche believes that this phenomenon is the result of climate changes caused by global warming. As sea levels begin to rise, so tidal effects will be sharper than in the past.
Other changes, possibly due to global warming, were already clear in Maputo before the ocean invaded Pescadores. These include heavy erosion along the coast road, saline intrusion into land once used for agriculture, and disappearance of mangrove forests.
Comiche told reporters that the effects of climate change on coastal cities were discussed at an international meeting of municipalities a few days ago in Paris, and the matter will be a major theme at the world congress of municipalities scheduled for October in Korea.
The report of the United Nations Convention on Climate Change, published last November, alerted against the risk of floods in the costal cities, and Maputo was on the list of the African cities mentioned in the document.
Comiche said that during his visit to the South African coastal city of Durban, in February, he found serious concern over the issue, and there was a warning that Maputo would not escape from the effects of global warming and sea level rises.
The phenomenon calls for long term measures, and Comiche argued "we cannot define any measures on our own, but we have to work with other coastal cities and organizations who, at the level of the African Union, the United Nations, and the world at large are researching the phenomenon".
SOURCE: AIM
