Diocese of Niassa: Flood relief report February – April 2013

In January, a crisis emerged as several of our communities here in the north faced suffering from extremely heavy rains. Many people were displaced from their homes within the Diocese of Niassa as the floods receded from the south, with meteorological projections indicating a serious worsening. Floods are part of seasonal life in remote communities, which happen to be where much of our recent church growth has occurred, but this year they were critical.

Background on the crisis, from the United Nations Office of the Resident Coordinator:

“The Mozambique Disaster Management Technical Council (CTGC) activated the orange alert on 12 January 2013, due to the heavy rains that caused an increase of hydrometric levels in main river basins in the southern regions (Limpopo, Incomati, Inhanombe and Save) and central part of the country (Zambezi, Pungoe and Buzi). Government and humanitarian partners scaled up monitoring measures and strengthened preparedness for response in the most affected [and accessible] areas at high-risk. On 22 January 2013, the Disaster Management Coordination Council (CCGC) declared an institutional red alert to strengthen Government and partners’ actions to respond to humanitarian needs of affected people.”

On 4 February 2013, the UN Resident Coordinator noted:

“The forecast indicates that especial attention should be paid to the Zambezi basin (provinces of Tete, Manica, Sofala and Zambezia) as moderate to heavy rains is forecast for the coming days. This may find basin with high soil saturation due to high hydrometric levels and rains been registered for quite some time (since last 3 weeks). This may increase the risk of flooding in those provinces.”

Churches were invited to join in the response, and our diocese is known from previous years of work in these areas. We appealed to our friends, and support was provided by Episcopal Relief & Development (USA), Hope Africa (SA), MANNA and ALMA (UK).

The Diocese of Niassa’s proposed response had two phases:

1. Phase 1: an urgent 3 week-long phase, to respond directly to the current natural disaster. Our response involved our departments of both Ministry and Mission, coordinated through the Vida teams in Zambezia.
2. Phase 2: a later phase (beginning next week) in the same communities, to reduce vulnerability to future natural disasters

Phase 1 included:

1. strengthening of local village-level disaster committees and assessing community situations
2. distribution of maize for immediate consumption
3. distribution of seeds for fast-growing staple crops and vegetables, to enable families who have lost their whole harvest to re-plant
4. distribution of water purification chemicals, called ‘Certeza’.
5. distribution of capulanas and mosquito nets for vulnerable older women from our diocesan Mother’s Union.

Phase 2, working largely through our Vida adeptos and teams as before, includes:

1. teaching about sustainable agricultural techniques that facilitate farming in dry ground (one reason people remain near the flood-prone river basins is because they depend on agriculture and lack the skills to produce food in higher, dryer areas)
2. teaching about compost, including composting toilets
3. teaching about water pump repair
4. teaching about the construction of improved, fuel-saving stoves
5. teaching about preventing and living with HIV, as untreated HIV within a family exacerbates vulnerability.
6. Assessing specific housing and remaining needs as the seasonal rain draws to an end.

We scaled our response to received donations, and now support 600 families (approx 3000 beneficiaries) in ten communities in this second phase.

Many thanks to all our partners who have supported this work. Please continue to pray for the second phase, and indeed for the ongoing work to reduce vulnerability to future flood disaster.