That was the clear message from President Armando Guebuza who visited four centres of accommodation, in four provinces along the Zambezi Valley on Monday.
Speaking to reporters in Caia, the town where the country's relief agency, the National Disasters Management Institute (INGC), has been coordinating rescue and relief operations, Guebuza declared that the efforts made by the authorities, with the assistance of foreign partners, "are on the right track".
He stressed the solidarity of other Mozambicans with their fellow citizens in the flood-stricken areas, and hoped that this "will heal the situation as quickly as possible".
Asked whether the government would launch an international appeal for more aid, Guebuza said "it would be good first to look at the efforts made by the government, and by the international community and then see what more we need".
"Foreign organisations have joined the Mozambican effort", he said. "We are always in contact, so if we need anything, we can ask for it".
But there would not be a formal international appeal. "It's not an appeal that will change the situation", said Guebuza.
Guebuza visited centres for those displaced by the floods in the districts of Tambara (Manica province), Mutarara (Tete), Mopeia (Zambezia) and Marromeu (Sofala). Everywhere he found centres that were well organised, with rows of tents to accommodate the displaced, health posts, arrangements for continuing with the children's education, supplies of clean drinking water, and systems for distributing food supplies and other relief goods.
From some representatives of the flood victims came complaints that the food rations were insufficient. INGC staff say this is largely a problem of logistics: the floods have made it impossible to reach some of the centres by road, and so boats or helicopters must be used to bring in food.
In all the centres pit latrines have been dug, in an effort to prevent outbreaks of cholera or other diarrhoeal diseases.
Whenever he addressed the flood victims, Guebuza declared that he was bringing solidarity from all other Mozambicans.
"All Mozambicans are concerned with what is happening along the Zambezi", Guebuza told his audience at the Chigota centre in Tambara. "Why are they concerned ? Because they are your brothers, and you are the brothers of other Mozambicans".
It was the same message at the Kassambala centre, in Mutarara. "All Mozambicans are weeping with you", he exclaimed.
"When you suffer, they suffer. They are collecting whatever they can to send as solidarity to their brothers in the Zambezi Valley".
On one practical matter the President was extremely clear - people should not try to live in flood-prone areas. At all the centres, he suggested that, while it was imperative that farmers should cultivate in the fertile land provided by the river islands, and along its banks, they should built their homes on higher ground.
"Build your homes in places that are safe, so that the same disaster does not happen next year", he urged.
At the largest accommodation centre, Chupanga, in Marromeu, Guebuza criticised those who ignored the authorities' calls to abandon low-lying areas, as the river rose, and found themselves surrounded by water.
"When the government says you have to move because the water is coming, it's because the water really is coming !", he exclaimed. "The government doesn't want its people to suffer".
The spokespersons for the flood victims all pledged that they would indeed build homes in safe areas. But this is not the first major Zambezi flood, and not the first government appeal for peasants not to live on the flood plain. There will clearly remain a strong temptation for farmers, once the current flood has subsided, to resettle once more next to their fields on the fertile land beside the river.
SOURCE: AIM
