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Opening Remarks by the Chairperson of the Virtual Meeting of Ministers Responsible for Disaster Risk Management

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Opening Remarks by the Chairperson of the Virtual Meeting of Ministers Responsible for Disaster Risk Management OPENING REMARKS BY THE CHAIRPERSON OF THE VIRTUAL MEETING OF MINISTERS RESPONSIBLE FOR DISASTER RISK MANAGEMENT 26 MAY 2021 MAPUTO, MOZAMBIQUE 1 H.E. Dr. Stergomena Lawrence Tax, Executive Secretary of the Southern African Development Community; Hon. Themba Nhlanganiso Masuku, Deputy Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Eswatini; Honourable Ministers; The Deputy Executive Secretary-Regional Integration; Distinguished Delegates from SADC Member States; SADC Secretariat Staff; International Cooperating Partners present; Distinguished guests; Ladies and gentlemen. It is an honour to stand before you this morning during this important meeting of the Ministers responsible for Disaster Risk management. Let me echo the remarks of the SADC Executive Secretary to thank all you for attending this important statutory meeting that is a follow up to the meeting that took place on 21st February 2020, in Zanzibar, the United Republic of Tanzania. Indeed, we are meeting at a time when as a region, we are facing a myriad of disasters that are mainly a result of the both chronic and acute vulnerabilities from a range of disasters that include droughts, 2 cyclone, floods and disease outbreaks. These vulnerabilities are aggravated by the weak adaptive capacities resulting from high levels of poverty and the lack of alternative livelihoods following persistent disasters. Honourable Ministers, As a region, we experienced a fair share of disasters that have had impacts on the majority of SADC Member States. As the Executive Secretary mentioned, in January 2021, Tropical Cyclone Eloise made landfall South of Beira city in Sofala province in Mozambique. High winds and flooding emanating from the Cyclone caused widespread damage on a long stretch of coastline in Sofala, Manica, Inhambane, Zambezia, and Gaza provinces. The storm affected areas that were still recovering from impacts of Cyclone Idai and Tropical Storm Chalane, which made landfall in Beira city on 14 March 2019 and December 2020 respectively. Tropical Cyclone Eloise negatively affected recovery efforts from the previous storms and left over 260,000 people in urgent need of humanitarian assistance. The cyclone affected 315,000 people, of whom 20,000 were relocated in 31 temporary accommodation centres. Over 29,000 houses were damaged or destroyed, mostly in Sofala province, but also in Manica, Zambezia, Inhambane, and Gaza provinces. Flooding also damaged schools and health centres across Sofala. The storm destroyed thousands of shelters in 70 resettlement sites established after Cyclone Idai in 2019. Torrential rains and floods also affected large areas of agriculture land and livestock, that have had implications for food security. 3 I am aware that the Tropical Cyclone Eloise dissipated, however continued to have devastating impacts in Botswana, Eswatini, South Africa Zambia and Zimbabwe where it caused torrential rains resulting in floods that also destroyed infrastructure, and led to loss of lives and livelihoods. Tropical Cyclone Eloise struck at time when countries were grappling with the impacts of COVID 19. This compounded the situation as the meagre resources meant to respond to previous disasters were already overstretched in the fight against COVID 19. This only demonstrates the enormous responsibility that we have as Member States in ensuring that we put in place the necessary capacities and resources to protect our communities from these recurrent disasters. Honourable Ministers Allow me to thank all SADC Member States for putting the necessary measures in place to ensure the protection of lives, assets and infrastructure against these frequent disasters. More needs to be done as disasters are not expected to relent anytime. Let me also thank all our Regional and International Partners for the untiring efforts to support our national endeavours in dealing with the impacts of these disasters. 2021 saw the impact of the La Nina phenomena that brought heavy rains and flooding. Let us remain vigilant and ensure that we are not caught unaware. Honourable Ministers 4 As you will recall, during our meeting in February 2020, we noted progress on the implementation of the Council Decisions of August 2019. As the Executive Secretary already mentioned in her remarks, a number of regional instruments have been developed in line with the decision of the August 2019 Council. Let me take this opportunity to thank the Secretariat for facilitating the development of these instruments, as well as, Member States for participating in the review and validation of these instruments. These instruments will go a long way in helping the region coordinate efforts towards disaster risk management. Let me invite my fellow Ministers to take time to interrogate these instruments during this meeting. May I also call upon Member States to implement the provisions provided in these instruments and support their roll out to ensure effective disaster risk management in the region. Let me further echo the remarks of the SADC Secretariat to urge Member States to continue to implement measures to mitigate environmental degradation as most of the impacts we are experiencing today, are a result of our poor management of the environment by our generation as well as generations before. If the environment continues to degrade at this rate we are bound to be blamed by our future generations for our failure to secure their future. Honourable Ministers, Allow me to also express my gratitude and appreciation to the Senior Officials and the SADC Secretariat for working jointly to prepare for this meeting. The success of the meeting will be a result of your hard work and effective preparations. 5 With these remarks, I declare the Meeting of Ministers responsible for Disaster Risk Management officially open and wish you fruitful deliberations. Muinto Obrigado I thank you Merci beaucop 6 .
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