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Over the recent years, Mozambique and Zimbabwe have been experiencing an increased frequency, duration and intensity of natural disasters and extreme weather conditions that include landslides, floods, tropical cyclones, droughts and prolonged dry spells. This has had an impact on the livelihoods of the people in the two countries. In particular, the Sofala, Manica and Zambezia Provinces in Mozambique and Manicaland and Masvingo Provinces in Zimbabwe experienced devastating inundations and flash floods in March 2019, caused by tropical cyclone Idai which resulted in the loss of lives, displacement of thousands of people as well as the destruction of agricultural land.

In recognition of the increasing climate-related challenges, the Governments of Mozambique and Zimbabwe have initiated activities to determine vulnerability and adaptation priorities, and to integrate this knowledge into development and sectorial planning, as well as strengthening early warning capabilities of the two countries 
 

The project seeks to reduce the vulnerability of communities in the BuziPungwe-Save (BuPuSa) transboundary river basins to floods, by providing an effective flood risk assessment, monitoring and early warning system, increased capacity and knowledge base, and inclusive communication strategy and action plans 
 

The project is designed to approach water-related risk and vulnerability through an integrated strategy that targets several aspects of disaster risk reduction and provides scalable implementation of the project. The project is designed along five work packages that contribute to five different outputs 
 

1. Flood risk assessment mapping 
 

Flood risks and vulnerabilities of local communities will be assessed and documented to inform early warning and response measures. Information will include expected flood events, flood hazard zones and potential evacuation routes that are required to strengthen emergency response capacities and to mitigate the impact of large flood events.

2. Flood Monitoring and early warning system development

A Flood Monitoring and Early Warning System (MEWS) that combines observations (e.g. for precipitation, temperature, river level flows) from existing and newly established hydro-meteorological stations as well as remote sensing information and data from regional and global circulation models at very high resolution, will be developed.

3. Early warning communication and dissemination 
 

This work package will build on the action plan on flood and drought early warning communication and dissemination, which was developed post-Idai. Based on these recommendations, community radios will be established in pilot areas in close collaboration with the ministries responsible for information in Mozambique and Zimbabwe to strengthen the existing communication channels.

4. Public awareness raising on flood risk management and documentation of lessons learnt 

This work package will develop a set of policy briefs, fact sheets, newsletters, lessons learnt reports, awareness kits on effective flood risk assessment and management and action plans to inform policymaking. A media guide on reporting disasters will be produced to capacitate the media. Early action protocols will also be developed in collaboration with civil society organizations to ensure the developed tools and methods are integrated in other parallel processes being implemented in the BuPuSa basins. 
 

5. Strengthening local capacities on flood risk assessment, monitoring and early warning 

Training modules for the technical groups will be developed using a combination of online (https://openlearning.unesco.org/) and physical training options, where possible. A training manual for the public and local communities will include guidelines to develop flood risk management action plans. 

 

• UNESCO National Commissions and IHP Committees

• Southern African Research and Documentation Centre (SARDC)

• Zimbabwe Civil Protection Unit

• Zimbabwe Meteorological Services Department (MSD)

• Mozambique - Instituto Nacional de Meteorologia-INAM

• Mozambique- Coordinating Council for Disaster Management (CCGC)

• Mozambique - National Institute for Disaster Management (INGC)

• Mozambique - Direcção Nacional de Águas-DNA

• Zimbabwe National Water Authority-ZINWA

• Targeted communities in the BuPuSa Basin exposed to flood risks 
 

Since project inception meetings held in Harare and Maputo the following have been produced;

• Inception reports for inception meetings in Harare and Maputo
• High resolution flood hazard maps for the BuPuSa basins 
• High-resolution flood exposure maps for BuPuSa basins
• Crafting of project Communication Strategy 
• Gender Inception Report 
• Capacity Needs Assessment Report
• Socio-economical vulnerability assessment of local communities to flood impacts report

In terms of visibility the following have been produced;

• 2 Volumes of newsletters
• 1 Policy Brief
• 1 Factsheet 
• 1 Project brochure
• 1 Project banner

Equipment procured for installation in the BuPuSa basins to carry out monitoring activities include:

• 25 weather stations 
• 25 water level sensors 
• 7 gateways