Sections:
Droughts, floods and higher temperatures bring more disease to city life
19 May 2008
Maria Luisa is 28 years old and lives in a suburb of Tete City in northern
Mozambique with her five children, while her husband works 70 kilometres
away.
"The city is now becoming hotter. There is recurrent lack of water with the
population growth and few existent water pumps. My husband had to leave fishing
and seek another job as there are no more fish in the rivers."
But a changing climate has also meant that Maria Luisa now has to cope with more
floods and droughts. Every year, the nearby Zambezi river floods, leaving her
and her family without shelter or food. But this also devastates crops and means
that farming now isn’t profitable. "Everyone no longer likes to work on the
fields; everyone wants to sell…everyone just wants to practice commercial
activities."
"The problem is that with such high temperatures, droughts and sometimes intense
rains, diseases increase. To protect my children from mosquitoes, which cause
malaria, I am forced to lay all of them under the same bed as I only have one
mosquito net."
Maria Luisa still believes that things can change and talks about living "as we
used to before". "I know that if things continue like they are, life will be
very hard for me and for my children."
Links