Mozambicans wait for water and power

SOME Mozambicans were still without power and water yesterday, days after Cyclone Idai wreaked havoc across parts of southern Africa.

Idai devastated Beira, Mozambique, with Red Cross and Red Crescent helpers reporting that 90% of buildings had been destroyed, following an aerial assessment.

The Red Cross also estimates that as many as 400000 people have been displaced by the storm and the flooding it caused.

The category-4 storm made landfall on Friday after brewing in the Indian Ocean, bringing up to 160km per hour winds to central Mozambique before weakening slightly and heading towards Zimbabwe.

Zimbabwe’s President Emmerson Mnangagwa was expected to travel to the affected area of his country yesterday, where almost 100 people have died.

In Mozambique, Renato Solomone, a spokesperson for the national directorate of water, said the “situation is severe… There’s no water from the system”.

Water was being supplied by trucks and was also available in water tanks in Beira, he said.

Moises Mabunda, the director of the communication department at the Mozambican power company EDM, told dpa it was hard to gauge the level of destruction of power infrastructure.

“We can’t contact our teams on the ground, therefore can’t predict when we’re restoring power or how many people are affected,” he said.

“We can say many towers and power stations were destroyed.” |