Mozambique: 'This Will Not Be the End', Moz Lodge Owners Vow to Rebuild After Dineo

Thatched roofs ripped off exotic beachside shelters. Asbestos sheets flung to the sand. A diving school that caters for the blind largely reduced to rubble.

Mozambican lodge owners are trying to put a brave face on the devastation wreaked by tropical storm Dineo - but the road to rebuilding these dream holiday destinations is going to be long.

"This is absolutely heart wrenching to see! This will definitely not be the end!" said Paindane Resort in Inhambane on Facebook, next to photos of a splintered roof and a rolled up beach mat lying in the debris. "This is a new beginning for Paindane!"

Supporters launched a GoFundMe page for Guinjata Dive Centre in Inhambane after owner Lynn Retief posted grim pictures of the rubble her structure had been reduced to and the words: "Our dive center is no more." The centre offers scuba diving to people with disabilities.

"We hope to get things fixed and running soon," said the owners of Zavora Lodge Mozambique and Zavora Divers, next to pictures of its own badly-damaged chalets. Zavora is also in Inhambane.
Photos showed the nearby - and beautiful - Wagaya Barra Resort had been torn in two.

Some Mozambicans are recalling Cyclone Favio, which struck the centre and south of this southern African country in 2007, causing widespread flooding, flattening homes and displacing an estimated 140 000.
Source: News24

posted from Bloggeroid

Mozambique: Eight Million Dollars Needed to Repair Cyclone Damage

Maputo — Mozambican Prime Minister Carlos Agostinho do Rosario is making a two day working visit to the southern province of Inhambane to assess the damage done by cyclone Dineo which hit the province on Wednesday and Thursday last week.
Data from provincial governor Daniel Chapo indicates that the death toll from the cyclone stands at seven, while 51 others suffered injuries. 152,000 people were affected by the storm, particularly in the coastal districts.
Many of those temporarily displaced have now returned to their homes. But about 800 people are still accommodated in a centre opened on the premises of the Pedagogic University, where they are benefitting from assistance provided by the country's relief agency, the National Disasters Management Institute.
According to Chapo, the province needs at least 550 million meticais (about eight million US dollars) to repair the most seriously affected education and health facilities. To raise these funds, the provincial government will rely on its own resources, those of local civil society organisations, and those of development partners, including Ireland and UNICEF.
The cyclone disrupted electricity and water supplies and communications, which are being gradually re-established. But the ferry service between the cities of Inhambane and Maxixe remains interrupted. The cyclone destroyed the jetty on the Maxixe side.
Without the ferry, people who live in one of the two cities but work or study in the other cannot cross the narrow finger of sea that separates them. A provisional jetty has been installed, and Chapo said the government is working to re-establish the full ferry service in the coming week.
According to INGC General Director Joao Machatine, the 550 million meticais mentioned by the governor is only the start of what will be needed to restore life in the province to normal. “The damage in Inhambane is dramatic, and requires that funds be made available urgently”, he said.
Machatine said that, in the more severely affected districts, the cyclone had blown the roofs off 70 per cent of the schools, but because teaching must resume as quickly as possible, interventions short of full repairs are urgently needed so that classes can restart.
He added that difficulties in reaching some of the areas struck by Dineo means that a complete picture of the damage is not yet available.

Source: Aim

posted from Bloggeroid

Inhambane gastronomia postcard

The coconut trees fill the landscape of Inhambane and Tofo Beach, lending the horizon a ragged look. In them lies the livelihood of many residents in that area, and every part is useful. For example, one of the region's specialities is sura (palm sap, consumed in the form of buns, toasts or biscuits. When fermented, it makes for a traditional drink sold throughout the region and beyond.
Sura is the drink that comes out of a gash in a coconut tree branch. It has a strong, sweet taste, and it is naturally carbonated, with few resemblances to coconut water.
Filipe Agosto climbs the coconut tree like it was nothing, placing his feet in the right place, arms pulling the body up. Up there, he undoes the knot holding a plastic bottle to the branch, removes the of paper covering the orifice of the bottle and changes it for an empty one.
He makes this climb in the morning, and in the afternoon to take the sura coming out of the branches of the thirteen palm trees he has set up for the collection of the sap.
A branch takes at least three months to start realising sap.

Filipe Agosto already knows how to pick them.
He has been doing this job for three years, taught by his father.
At first, he even fell. But today he is no longer afraid to go up, and does it like he is walking on solid ground.

This is not Filipe's only job, but it is the one that gives him money everyday, since his wage comes only at the end of the month.
So, in the morning, Filipe sells be his sweet sura to the mamanas ( an informal term for an older family woman, a mother) baking buns. And in the afternoon, he sells the already fermented version to men who pass by his house, looking to relax after work.
INDICO, IN-FLIGHT MAGAZINE

Ministry of Public Works discusses solutions for water shortage in Maputo

At the meeting, proposals for short-, medium- and long-term solutions were analyzed

A week after the President of the Republic stated that the main cause of the water crisis in Maputo was the lack of planning, the Ministry of Public Works, Water Resources and Housing invited former ministers and presidents of the municipalities of Maputo, Matola and Boane to the most viable solutions to the problem.
The National Director of Water Resources, Messias Macie, says that the ministry has always been attentive to the evolution of water needs in the Maputo region, but complains that the lack of money has delayed several projects.
Contrary to the meeting led by the Head of State, in the Ministry of Public Works, Minister Carlos Bonete decided to close the doors to the press.

Five primary schools closed last year due to political-military tension have reopened

Reopening decision was motivated by the truce in force

The information was advanced by Arlindo Ngozo, Director of the District Service of Education, Youth and Technology of Gondola, in Manica, in the margins of a meeting that took place with cadres of the education sector in that district.
In that context, the Gondola administrator asked the teachers to convey to students the message of peace restoration that has been threatened in recent years due to military clashes.
Due to the political-military tension, 68 schools in the districts of Bárue, Mossurize, Gondola, Macossa, Manica and Tambara were forced to close their doors during the past year.

Mozambique to start using tobacco tax stamps

Measure arise in compliance with the protocol of the World Health Organization

As of March 17, the Tax Authority will now prohibit the circulation of unsealed cigarettes, cigars and cigarillos. Two months later, the mandatory use of stamps will be imposed on alcoholic beverages. The measures are part of the framework convention on tobacco control that Mozambique ratified last year.

To ensure the efficiency of the process, the Tax Authority and the Mozambican Association of Public Health were gathered today to discuss implementation strategies.

Mozambique is a signatory to the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control established in 2004.

Cyclone Dineo over

Calamity left seven dead


Cyclone DINEO, which has hit the south of the country, mainly Inhambane province, where seven people died and another 130,000 were affected, is no longer in the country.
According to the National Meteorological Institute (INAM), bad weather is currently directed at neighboring countries, particularly South Africa and Swaziland.

Although the cyclone is no longer in the country, its effects will be felt throughout the national territory through moderate rains and strong winds, according to Jaqueline Sendela, from INAM.

After Dineo the meteorology department predicts a rainy weekend in all the national territory. The cyclone has rocked the country since Wednesday, leaving a trail of destruction at several points.
Beginning on Sunday, the Prime Minister, Carlos Agostinho do Rosário, scaled the province of Inhambane to monitor the situation.