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Mozambique

Mozambique floods: Update 11 Apr 2000

MOZAMBIQUE FLOODS
As water-levels continue to recede after the worst flood in Mozambique's recorded history, WFP has expanded its emergency operations to cover rehabilitation.

FOOD AID

In the short-term, WFP must provide food and non-food aid for some 570,000 people who lost their homes in the floods and are sheltering in 150 makeshift transit camps. The total includes Mozambicans who have lost their crops and homes and are sheltering in temporary accommodation centres as well as isolated villages whose food reserves are fast running out.

WFP's food aid monitors, already in Mozambique to oversee development projects prior to the floods, have been re-deployed and are co-ordinating distribution of emergency food rations.

RESURRECTING MOZAMBIQUE

When the rainy season ends in early April, flood victims are expected to leave the camps and head back to their towns and villages. WFP food aid will be used to facilitate their return.

To help Mozambique kick-start its local economy, WFP will pay workers with food to resurrect their shattered communities.

Projects will include the reconstruction of schools and shops, the rebuilding of railways and roads and, most importantly, the planting of new crops.

Updates from the Field

WFP has delivered over 6,100 tons of food since the beginning of its emergency operation. The bulk of the food is going to the severely flooded provinces of Gaza, Maputo and Sofala.

WFP plans to deliver sufficient food reserves to allow pre-positioning of aid ready for the return of displaced persons to their villages. The Agency will position reserves in areas where seed distribution is taking place to ensure that seeds are not eaten as food..

Although vast areas remain under water, access roads are being repaired and a greater share of WFP aid is being delivered by truck. At the beginning of the crisis, air transport accounted for 75% of aid deliveries; that figure is now down to 40%.

WFP is paying workers with food to help reconstruct highways that will form vital lifelines in the movement of aid in Mozambique.

APPEAL

Last March, WFP launched an international appeal for US$34 million to finance emergency food rations as well as the cost of food-for-work projects. The request raised the total funding required for Mozambique to US$ 45.2 million, enough to cover the food needs of 650,000 people until a second harvest due in mid-August.

The appeal included US$5.3 million to guarantee the continued use of six South African National Defense Force aircraft for food aid transport as well the rehabilitation of key roads and railways.

LOGISTICS

Helicopters : 23
Fixed-wing Aircraft: 11

WFP PRESS CONTACTS

Rome, Italy
Francis Mwanza
Office +39 06 65132623

Maputo, Mozambique
Inyene Uyoden
Office +258 1 494320

Nairobi, Kenya
Michele Quintaglie
Office +254 2 622336

Geneva, Switzerland
Christiane Berthiaume
Office +41 79 285 7304

New York, US
Abigail Spring
Office +1 212 963 5196

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