Mozambique paying the price of
climate change
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| In Mozambique women wait in line to receive relief supplies after Cyclone Idai (AFP) |
The people of Mozambique continue to pay the high price of
climate change as yet another tropical cyclone prepares to make landfall. The
southeast African Nation is reeling from the impact of the disastrous Cyclone
Idai that killed 1000 people and displaced half a million in March.
By Linda Bordoni
Cyclone Kenneth is a tropical storm expected to make
landfall over the northern part ofMozambique and the southern part
of Tanzania by Friday.
Mozambique is struggling to recover after the devastation
left by Cyclone Idai, which struck southeast Africa on 15
March near its port city, Beira, triggering floods and causing much death and
destruction.
That cyclone killed over 1,000 people and displaced more
than 500,000. They now have to cope with a cholera outbreak and the threat of
famine in the coming months as crops and livelihoods and infrastructure has
been washed away.
Father Bernardo Suate heads the Portuguese for
Africa Programme of Vatican News. Originally from the city of Pemba in
Mozambique, he told Linda Bordoni the people have been alerted and will
hopefully take action to avoid being in the direct path of Cyclone Kenneth.
Fr Bernardo said authorities in Mozambique have alerted the
population in cities like Pemba and Nacala and in other towns along the rivers
encouraging them to move to less risky areas.
In the disastrous aftermath of Cyclone Idai and the flooding
it triggered, authorities were accused of not having sounded the alarm bells,
but Fr Bernardo said there is a warning system and usually people are alerted
in time.
Concerning Cyclone Idai, he said, they probably did not
expect it to be so powerful.
“Nobody could imagine that Idai would be so devastating.
Maybe now that we have had this tragedy people will be more cautious and more
careful and move from the river sides to better positions” he said.
He pointed out that Mozambique is used to a rainy season
weather pattern with storms and floods expected between November and March,
“but this time it was definitely more serious”.
“People”, he added, “do not want to leave their homes and
prefer to stay and wait the storm out”, but following the tragedy caused by
Cyclone Idai, “they will behave differently with Cyclone Kenneth”.
Many people have come forward to help
Regarding the current response to the far-reaching disaster
caused by the Cyclone Idai, Father Bernardo noted that the national and the
international communities as well as private donors and many faith-based
organizations have proved to be present.
“Many people really came forward to give some help”, he
said, but “on the other hand it is very difficult to handle such a dramatic
situation with disrupted infrastructure, cholera and other diseases and all the
issues of rebuilding or rehabilitating infrastructures. The challenges are
enormous”.
The price of Climate Change
When Gracia Machel, Mozambique’s former First Lady travelled
to Beira in the aftermath of Cyclone Idai, she said the city would go down in
history as the first to be 90% wiped out by climate change.
Fr Bernardo agrees with this dramatic assertion saying it is
most certainly the worst natural disaster to have struck his country, and that
it has really brought home the fact that the people are paying the price of
climate change “on their skin”.
He said it is increasingly urgent to take action both to
help people deal with the effects of climate change “by behaving in a different
way” and by promoting awareness regarding the consequences of climate change
that cannot but be perceived across the world.
Awaiting Pope Francis
Pope Francis is scheduled to travel to Mozambique in
September. Fr Bernardo said he is awaited with great trepidation by all –
Government, people and Church.
“The presence of the Pope”, he said, “will be very
encouraging, not only for the faithful, but also for those who are most of the
times the forgotten people, the marginalized people, the people in the far-away
peripheries. For them it will be an opportunity, once in a lifetime, to be in
the eyes of the world”.
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