Mozambique is not prepared to face the occurrence of cyclones in the south of the country. The alert was launched today in Maputo by Luís Artur, a specialist in disaster risk management, during a national meeting on preparedness and resilience to tropical cyclones, in Southern Africa, organized by Eduardo Mondlane University and the National Institute of Meteorology. Since the 2nd of this month, Maputo has been the stage for an international meeting on cyclone resilience in Southern Africa. The event, which features the participation of 35 experts in the field, from Mozambique, South Africa, Madagascar, Malawi and England, should help reorient the Mozambican Government’s strategies in the face of cyclones and floods. For Luís Artur, engineer and specialist in disaster risk management, the southern region of Mozambique is not prepared to face severe weather events. “We, now, as a country, are prepared to respond to cyclones that occur in the Central and Northern regions. But what about, if in the future, we start to have cyclones in the Southern region of the country. How about, the cold fronts, like the one we had in Matola and Boane, in February, which brought a lot of rain, are starting to occur very frequently”, questions the expert. According to Luís Artur, the early warning system against cyclones and the way Mozambican public policies are designed for severe weather events must improve. During the meeting, one of the highlighted topics is the future of cyclones in the Southern region. For now, it is clear that neighboring countries want to ensure greater coordination and learn from the Mozambican experience in reducing damage. “There is greater interest, and a growing understanding, that meteorological events do not respect man-made borders. We saw proof of this with Cyclone Freddy, which first passed through Madagascar, hit Mozambique, causing a lot of damage, then passed through Malawi, where there was a high number of deaths, compared to Mozambique and Madagascar”, highlighted Bernardino Nhantumbo, meteorologist and climate researcher. Bernardino adds that Mozambique’s neighboring countries are increasingly concerned about cyclones, which hit the country, because they also cross their territories. The aim, equally, is to learn from Mozambique, given their experience. According to INAM, cyclone forecasting is ongoing and information on their occurrence in this season will be released at the end of this month. The international meeting, which has been running since this Monday and ends this Friday, is part of research into tropical cyclones, which have frequently been affecting Mozambique, Madagascar and Malawi in recent years. Source:O País
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