By Chris McIvor, Country Director for Save the Children UK in Mozambique

Last year in April we all drew a collective sigh of relief - the rains had subsided and the rivers had fallen.

Now we could finish our emergency work and get on with our normal development work: establishing schools and supporting children affected by HIV / AIDS.

At the back of my mind I thought: "Mozambique has had a terrible few months; floods that displaced over a hundred thousand people, a cyclone that decimated the tourist industry, explosions in Maputo that killed over a hundred people and injured a thousand more. Two bad years in a row is impossible. The future will be better."

But in December we began to get worried. The forecasters predicted "above normal rains" for the entire region and the climatologists said there would be more cyclones in 2008 than in 2007.

Our own investigation of what had happened to the people affected by the floods last year made grim reading. Communities had only a few weeks of food left. They had not recovered their means of earning a living. Children were dropping out of school. Malnutrition among young children was very high.

Worst of all, because of poverty, people were going back to the very areas from which they had been evacuated last year. One of the villagers said to me when I asked him why he was returning: "Because the soil down there is better than up here. At least we can grow something beside the river, even though the floods may come."

Only a few weeks into the "emergency" season in Mozambique, a period which lasts from January to April, our worst fears have materialized. The water levels in many of the rivers are almost at the same levels as they were during the height of the floods in March last year. More rains are predicted.

Now people are abandoning their villages and communities to make their way to higher ground. Their safety might be secure but what they will eat, what education can they provide for their children, how will they protect themselves from the diseases that come when large numbers of people are crowded together in camps?

Save the Children is already providing assistance. We are putting up some tents as temporary schools for children who have been displaced. We are donating household kits and plastic sheeting to families who have lost their belongings.

We will do what we can to make sure that children are protected in the locations to which they have had to flee, but our hopes that people would be able to stand on their own feet and become masters of their own lives has been postponed yet again.

Two bad years in a row seems to be what we are in for.

Picture: Mansir Petrie / Save the Children

Comments

[Khalid 14 Jan 2008 16:52:16]

What a sad situation given world development, whilst many a government either puts on a brave face or buries it head in the sand. It appears the soil is not one that meets the requirements of many a person, however, it would be better to stay and live safe, work the soil and bring the water to the soil by way of channells or even better hose lines.
As many a further situation is exhasberated by climate, 2008 will provide much needed assistance to the region. So, "Let It Flow-Toni Braxton".

[Fackson Salimu 14 Jan 2008 11:58:25]

We feel for our brothers and sisters in Mozambique.Here in Zambia the situation is expected to be bad as most homes in shanty compounds are falling, the ugraded roads are impassable.You need gum boots to move around.Hunger is looming as most crops will fail.It is unfortunate that our Governments are so proud that they can not declare a national disaster.
We hope for God's intervention