Answering questions from deputies in the Mozambican parliament, the Assembly of the Republic, Chomera said the contingency plan envisaged some 330,000 people affected by flooding.
The current figure for the flooding in the Zambezi Valley, however, was that 163,095 people had been displaced from their homes. A further 121,955 people were affected in the sense that they had lost fields to the floods: but these were people who had been resettled after the 2001 Zambezi floods, and lived above the flood plain - so they still had their homes, and whatever food was in their barns.
As for cyclones, the contingency plan had taken the pessimistic view that several cyclones might strike the Mozambican coast, and that 804,000 people were at risk.
Chomera said that, although five Indian Ocean cyclones were monitored this season, only one (Cyclone Favio) hit Mozambique, affecting about 150,000 people.
The contingency plan had envisaged a budget of 20 million US dollars - three million from the government's own funds, and the rest from donors. So far, about 12 million dollars has been spent on rescue and relief operations, Chomera said. A further 8.5 million dollars is immediately available, which would guarantee food aid and health care for the coming period.
Asked about mitigation measures for a likely drought in the southern third of the country, Chomera said the government is still assessing the agricultural campaign. "By the end of March, we will have enough information on the campaign in the south, and, based on this, a plan for intervention will be drawn up".
Responding to opposition claims that "negligence" at the Cahora Bassa dam had contributed to the floods, Chomera noted that the deputies who raised this based themselves on a single opinion article by a former National Director of Energy, Jose Lopes.
"His opinion should be confronted with those of other technicians and specialists", said Chomera. Furthermore, at the end of his article Lopes had warned of the danger of extrapolating from circumstantial evidence, and had simply called on the dam operating company, HCB, "to put all its data on the table, so that everybody can interpret them".
Chomera said that throughout the crisis there was continual collaboration between HCB, the National Water Board (DNA), and the Zambezi Regional Water Board (ARA-Zambeze). He believed that HCB had risen to the occasion, and had worked "to ensure that the impact of the floods would not be more serious".
Deputies from the ruling Frelimo Party were much harsher towards the Renamo citing of Lopes' article than the Minister.
Ana Rita Sithole declared that the Renamo position towards HCB was "demagogic", and that its demand for a commission to investigate HCB's performance during the floods "makes no sense".
"They are trying to deceive the public, by claiming that there are no technical criteria for the dam's discharges", she said.
"Renamo cites an opinion article, and tries to take some crass political advantage out of it", declared Alfredo Gamito. He argued that in January HCB had restricted discharges from its floodgates - had it not done so "the emergency would have started earlier and would have been worse".
Sithole also accused Renamo members of stealing food aid intended for flood victims, and of sending its members into the accommodation centres to make resettlement difficult.
But there have been no reports of any Renamo raids on food stores. The only people arrested for theft so far have been a local official (a neighbourhood secretary) and two traditional leaders who were demanding money for people to register falsely as flood victims and claim food.
Renamo deputy Luis Boavida accused Sithole of lying. He had been on a parliamentary mission to the Zambezi Valley "and we didn't find any members of the opposition arrested for stealing emergency goods". On the contrary, those arrested were "neighbourhood secretaries of Frelimo" and "community leaders of Frelimo".
Boavida claimed that in Mopeia district Frelimo members had diverted 30 sacks of rice intended for flood victims. "Renamo members rescued these sacks and gave them to the police", he declared.
"You have to do serious work to stop your secretaries and community leaders from stealing", Boavida told the Frelimo benches.
In fact, the party affiliation of those arrested, if any, is unknown. Frelimo deputy Alexandre Meque, who was also on the mission to the Zambezi Valley, said they had been detained "for registering their friends and relatives for food aid". He declared it was "very good" that they had been arrested, but they had not held any position in Frelimo.
Chomera said that by and large neighbourhood secretaries and traditional leaders had played an important role in the relief operations, and they should not all be written off because of offences committed by two or three of them.
"There may be scoundrels among us too", he said. "but that doesn't mean that all parliamentarians are scoundrels".
SOURCE: AIM
