Vilankulos, Mozambique
Mozambique experienced a devastating flood in 2000 that killed 1,800 people and caused massive property damage; which the country is still repairing. Inundations of such scale are rare there—the torrential rains that preceded the 2000 floods had not occurred for several decades—but extreme rainfall is rising in Mozambique.
Ironically, parts of Mozambique also experience perennial drought. The last several years, including 2009, have been dry in some places. Such periods of low rainfall, combined with ominous predictions of future droughts, have convinced the international assistance organization CARE International to begin testing programs in Mozambique to help farmers to adapt to drier conditions.
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PHOTO GALLERY OF MOZAMBIQUE
- View Dan's Photographs of Vilankulos, Mozambique
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The single source of potable water in a village in southern Mozambique. 35 million people in the southern Africa lack such “improved” sources of water, the largest percentage being in Mozambique. -
The town of Chigubo in the interior of southern Mozambique is dry. Rain is scarce and there are few sources of surface water. This woman spends most of the morning walking more than 10 miles round trip to collect household water, which she carries in this bucket. She says the river she goes to is also frequented by cows which foul it with dung. -
With government support, this extended family just installed a rainwater harvesting system, a metal roof, gutter and plastic storage tank—one of about a dozen in this town. However, even its 5,000-liter-tank will not be enough to supply everybody in this household, so women—who generally have the role of getting water—will still have to travel great distances to augment the family’s needs. -
Louis, a government agriculture official, is doing research on water conservation in Chigubo. The furrows he points to are unusually deep and far apart to serve as water collectors during infrequent and brief rainstorms. -
Michaela Cosijn works for CARE International designing and implementing a program to help farmers adapt to the changes in precipitation climate change is expected to bring. The program is based in Vilankulos, on the India Ocean in southern Mozambique. Cosijn says this region has had seven years of poor rainfall that disrupted agriculture enough so that people have needed additional food from aid organizations. -
Among the techniques begin tested near Vilankulos for adapting to reduced rainfall are improved farming practices. Here a farmer shows how soil covered with mulch retains moisture (on left), helping crops withstand longer periods between rainstorms. -
Farmer Fernando Manuel Sengo trains his neighbors how to use techniques like mulching. Here he holds one cob grown in a mulched plot and one grown in an unmulched plot. He says, “even a blind man, even the fingers themselves, will tell you: this is good this is not good; this is poor this is not poor.” -
Chambane Saienda Vilanculos, rests in a shaft of light in a bat guano mine, about ten feet underground. Mr. Vilanculos is caretaker of this mine for his town. Guano was mined here decades ago by a big landowner, but when the country gained independence and descended into years of turmoil, the mine fell into disuse. Michaela Cosijn of CARE is helping to farmers use the natural fertilizer once more. She hopes that by making land more productive farmers will become more resistant to adverse weather like low rainfall.. -
This farmer measures out bat guano in bottle caps. The clear plastic container is equal to ten caps of guano; the brown container is equal to fifteen. Guano can damage plants if too much is used. -
The lower Limpopo River in Mozambique, near the town of Chibuto. Here flooding is as worrisome as drought. -
Emilio Magaia, an agronomist at the University Eduardo Mondlane in Maputo, the capital of Mozambique. He points to a stain left on a building near the Limpopo River during the disastrous flood of February 2000. -
Sofia Pedro, near Chibuto. Pedro, who was very pregnant at the time of the 2000 flood, climbed into a tree with her two young children, to escape the turbulent waters. After waiting for help for three days, she gave birth to a third child, a baby girl, Rositha Chirindza, now 9 years old.
