The demolition, which should not take more than a day, went ahread despite the protest of the families living in these houses.
The City Council says it has given the families land in the outlying neighbourhood of Tchumene, and tents for accommodation while they build their new houses. But no other compensation is envisaged.
"What's being prepared are places and tents. Afterwards these people will build their homes at their own cost", the Municipal Council press officer. Paulo Manhica, told AIM.
The residents have known about the projected drainage channel since 2003, but they only received an official demand that they leave their homes in early July.
One of those affected, Ernesto Mahuai, said that some of the families only received their plots in Tchumene a week ago, and have not yet had time to clear the land.
Another resident, Santos Alexandre, claimed that some of the families have not yet been given any land at all, while rhere were also cases where the same plot had been allocated to two families.
"We went to Tchumene twice after receiving the notice to leave Fomento, but we still haven't got our plots", he said.
Manhica blamed all problems on the "opportunism" of the families being moved, and insisted that land had been found for them, even though people already living in Tchumene were demanding more land.
Manhica said that when the Council announced the drainage scheme, and said it would resettle families already living in the area, other people immediately started building there, in the hope that they too would be resettled.
The 42 houses were built in the midst of squalor. Sanitation hardly exists, and a foul smelling ditch runs through the area.
SOURCE: AIM
