National Project Officer Marcia Guambe of UN-Habitat explains: “To address the issue of recurrent floods in the city, the project is strengthening the hydraulic capacity of the main drainage channel as well as rehabilitating the damaged sets of the drainage in the most critical neighbourhoods. The project will also work on the maintenance of the main drainage channels, together with the local communities.” 

Alongside the drainage maintenance works, the project will also improve solid waste management in the town, so that drainages are not blocked with waste. Two solid waste treatment centres will be constructed together with the establishment of waste collection sites in the town, which will help citizens adopt better solid waste management practices. 

The head of the UN-Habitat country office Sandra Roque explains: “Mozambique faces increasingly frequent natural disasters and its heavy impacts. These recurrent disasters have cumulative impact which affects the population’s resilience and the country’s development, and access to infrastructure services are lost or weakened.”

She highlights that the Chokwe project dovetailed with the Habitat Country Programme Document of Mozambique which is anchored on three interconnected and mutually reinforcing programmatic pillars: Climate resilience and Building Back Better; Inclusive area-based socioeconomic development and stability; and Urban policies and sustainable human settlements.