This figure is certainly an underestimate - for the figures given for the education sector do not include the damage done by cyclone Favio as it smashed its way through parts of Inhambane and Sofala provinces in late February.
The storms and floods in Manica, Sofala, Tete and Zambezia provinces destroyed or damaged 515 classrooms, catering for over 18,000 pupils. The cost of repairs is put at 4.3 million dollars.
In the health sector, the major damage was done by cyclone Favio to the Vilankulo rural hospital, estimated at 277,000 dollars. Repairing a further eight damaged health centres in Inhambane province will cost over 184,000 dollars.
Health costs in the accommodation centres set up for flood victims are put at over 263,000 dollars. This includes vaccination, medicines and other articles for the prevention of malaria, cholera and dysentery, vaccination, and nutritional supplements for the severely malnourished.
The floods in the Zambezi valley swamped 80,000 hectares of crops (or two per cent of the cultivated area in Mozambique).
Not so visible, but much worse, was the damage done by excessively dry conditions, and a brief but intense heat wave in the south of the country. That cost 197,000 hectares of crops.
The government's hopes are that some of what has been lost can be recovered in the second sowings. That will require the distribution of seeds, and the organisation of fairs for agricultural inputs, which is all costed at 1.3 million dollars.
At least 61 wells and small scale water systems have been destroyed by the Zambezi floods. Rehabilitating these, plus strengthening the defensive dikes in Marromeu district, is costed at over 11 million dollars.
Cyclone Favio knocked out the electricity supply in much of Inhambane, Sofala and Manica provinces. Replacing transmission lines, pylons and transformers will cost 1.5 million dollars.
The sector which took the biggest financial hit was tourism.
Hotels and restaurants in Vilankulo and the Bazaruto archipelago were devastated by the cyclone. Restoration will cost 17.7 million dollars.
The tourist establishments concerned are all privately owned. Those which had the foresight to take out insurance may be able to rebuild fairly quickly, but a question mark must have over the future of some of the smaller ones.
The Inhambane fishing industry also suffered. Four boats disappeared, and another eight were destroyed or damaged. But, thanks to advance warning of the cyclone's approach, most fishermen were able to move their boats out of harm's way.
Buildings for storing dried fish, fish processing plants, ice-making plants, and fishing camps along the Inhambane coast were all hit by Favio. The total damage to the fishing industry is put at 518,000 dollars.
The government also wants to help flood victims build houses in safe areas. Providing kits of building materials and tools to 9,425 households would cost 13.4 million dollars.
This is closely connected with the selection of appropriate resettlement areas, distributing plots of land (particularly to women-headed households, the elderly and other vulnerable groups), and surveying and mapping areas at risk of flooding along the Zambezi Valley. All these measures would come to 3.3 million dollars.
The government's document promises that when public infrastructure, such as schools or health centres, is rebuilt it will be to standards that guarantee resistance to or tolerance of natural disasters. (This arises from the discovery that many of the buildings that lost their roofs to Cyclone Favio had been shoddily built).
The choice of resettlement areas, it adds, "will consider, among other factors, social and cultural cohesion, as well as subsistence and income-earning activities".
The government puts the total number of people affected by disasters this rainy season at over 494,000.
Of these 46,500 were affected by storms, high winds and torrential rains from October to January. This was the period with the highest death toll - 29.
The Zambezia floods of January to the present affected 285,000 people, of whom not one is known to have died. Cyclone Favio affected 150,000 people, with a known death toll of nine.
Finally, the late February flooding on the Buzi river in Sofala province affected 12,800 people, and again there have been no fatalities.
The document warns that, thanks to global warning, extreme weather events such as major floods and cyclones are likely to become more frequent. Future generations may also have to deal with the loss of land to rising sea levels and to increasing desertification.
That made it imperative to improve and implement a "Disaster Management Master Plan". It also meant that today's reconstruction plans "should be oriented so as to stimulate national capacity, self-esteem and mutual aid mechanisms".
SOURCE: AIM
