The first phase of coastal protection works in the city of Beira will start within a month, with one million euros already available, disbursed by the German Development Bank (KFW), the City Council informed yesterday.

"We already have available a total of one million euros made available by the KFW bank, we are waiting for the approval [of the plan] by the municipal assembly, in the first week of August, to start the works," Albano Carige, president of the Beira municipal council, told Lusa.

According to the source, the intervention will consist of the construction of a reinforced concrete punch and rehabilitation of four kilometers of road on Marginal Avenue, destroyed by Cyclone Idai in 2019.

The current tarred road will be replaced by a concrete road, he added. Albano Carige advanced that for the concretization of the project, geophysical studies were carried out aiming the construction of dikes against the sea waters.

The construction of the coastal protection of the city of Beira will take six months, the source further advanced.

The second phase of the project will start in the first half of next year, with $60 million already available, of which $30 million will be disbursed by the Dutch government, $15 million by the World Bank, and an equal amount by the German Development Bank (KFW).

The city of Beira was the most devastated by cyclones Idai and Kenneth that slammed into central and northern Mozambique in less than a month in 2019, killing more than 500 people.

Source: Lusa.