The City of the Shiny Acacias:Climate Change, Floods and Food Insecurity

Delso Khossa"

The acacia plant is apparently abundant in the city center of Maputo, despite the lack of aesthetic gardening and the use of this plant for minor needs, jeopardizing the life of the ecosystem. The inability to manage rainwater, poor care and botanical innovation weaken the life of the plant. Climate change fueled by the neglected actions of Man destroys the ecosystem.

Climate change has severe implications for cities due to territorial disorder. Precarious constructions in unsuitable placeshave causedsocial, economic and environmental problems. In poorer countries, these situations are more serious in urban sanitation, fueling the occurrence of diseases such as cholera and malaria. The climatic consequences of food insecurity and erosion result from the lack of environmental education, such as the consumption of products that are more polluting to the environment, for example, contents packaged in solid waste. The history of the Mozambican capital, the city of Maputo, faces serious sanitation problems, linked toquestions historical events such as rural exodus during the civil war, but also inefficient municipal management policies. Matessane's study (2025) demonstrates that the inefficiencies of city management mechanisms generate disorderly constructions, are susceptible to flooding and erosion,worseningthe socio-economic conditions of families. Ministry of Public Works, Housing and Water Resources (2021), states that climate change produces new flooding patterns for cities with inefficient construction management, increasing the risk of flooding, as is the case in the cities of Quelimane and Maputo. Nipassa, Manhique and Muianga (2023) and Rodrigues (2024),describethe causes of flooding in the City of Maputo, namely (1) lack of compliance with environmental and land-use planning policies; (2) lack of rehabilitation and expansion of water supply systems;rainwater runoff; (3) high corruption in the process of inspecting construction in inappropriate areasas in coastal areas, where the ecosystem is devoured by the political elite to make waytheresidential constructions. The Center for Public Integrity (CIP) (2024:7) notes that hundreds of hectares of mangroves were cut down in the neighborhoods of Triunfo, Costa do Sol, Pescadores, and Mapulene, with the authorization or under the unblinking gaze of municipal managers, to make way for the construction of roads and buildings. The destruction of these mangroves, in addition to causing serious environmental problems, alsocauses flooding.The roads that were built here do not have appropriate gutters or functional drainage ditches. As a result, after heavy rains, the houses in these neighborhoods remain flooded for a long time.

The housing conditions in the suburban areas of Maputo City are not far removed from the weaknesses of the families’ diet. The family’s survival to earn five hundred on street corners and in the informal and formal markets of Maputo City reveals the level of nutritional poverty in the families. The impoverishment in all areas of human rights, the families in the suburban areas extend their dignity in exchange for food. This situation worsens when the rainy season arrives, when the entire food supply and survival network comes to a standstill, resorting to temporary shelters. The floods in the city’s suburban neighborhoods seem to be “God’s stepfather” for this class.because firstly families live in the situation of daily “survival queues” and secondly during the flood season“survival queues” become disorganized, with no democratic alternative. Food insecurity in families during the flood period creates “reinforced fasting without purpose”, weakening the human organism. According to CIP (2024:8), floods in suburban areas have created delicate life in the ecosystem, such as the destruction of public infrastructure, generating losses of family sources of subsistence. Vulnerable families face limitations in access to drinking water, basic services, and increased symptoms of begging among children, women and the elderly. The sanitation problem is further aggravated by water contamination, feeding diseases and the disappearance of the ecosystem.

Despite the existence of the National Strategy for Adaptation and Mitigation of Climate Change (ENAMMC2013–2025) of the INGD; National Directorate for Water Resources Management (DNGRH), subordinate to the Ministry of Public Works, Housing and Water Resources; and the council for Territorial Planning, Environment and Construction of the Municipal Council of the City of Maputo, the problem of the sanitation system and water resources management in the capital's neighborhoods still persists. According to data from the INGD (2023), floods in the cities of Maputo and Matola in 2023 affected 43 thousand people; in 2024, at least 46,555 people were affected in the city of Acacias and in 2025, according to Jornal Público (2.02.2025), there were 76 thousand people in more than 30 neighborhoods of Maputo. The neighbourhoods most prone to flooding are Magoanine, Hulene, Zimpeto, Chamanculo, Inhagoia, Maxaquene, Romão and Polana Caniço. The study by Mosca and Lasse (2023), water management in the SADC space, exposes vulnerable conditions for families in the neighbourhoods of Maputo City, due to the topography and poor soil infiltration; inhumane actions to climatic factors (blocking of rainwater circulation routes); disorderly constructions; poor urban planning. As a consequence, families' agricultural sources of subsistence are destroyed, increasing the effects of food insecurity. The authors map human, institutional and technical factors that pose barriers to the revaluation of the ecosystem, namely (1) conservation of dikes, dunes and roads; (1) absence and expansion of drainages for the flow of river water; (3) uncontrolled deforestation of the banks causing soil erosion and destruction of mangroves and miombos; (4) agricultural areas do not have irrigation and drainage systems; (5) monoculture practices generate erosion, increasing the occurrence of floods; (6) rapid population growth exceeds basic drainage system conditions, worsening rainwater management.

The technical and administrative (in)capacity of the Maputo City Municipality to respond to climate implications and mitigate the effects generates an oral project without positive implications, jeopardizing Sustainable Development Goals 2 and 13 “to eradicate hunger, achieve food security and improve nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture” and “to adopt urgent measures to combat climate change and its impacts”, respectively. The institutional fragility, compliance and monitoring of environmental and agrarian policies demonstrate that there are more challenges to ensuring food security and human rights of families living in flood-prone neighborhoods. The word “requalification” in the previous city government showed trends of environmental requalification and blocking of river water drainage routes for private enterprises. In the traditionally poor neighborhoods since the city’s history, construction continues to follow the same disorderly path, such as, for example, the Urbanization zone, Milagre Mabote Avenue, Maxaquene A, B and C, Hulene A, Chamanculo, without observing the system of sanitation, green spaces.

The fragility of the INGD's pre-warning system and the late circulation of DNGRH's communications on the occurrence of rain in flood-prone areas also contribute to the loss of resources and the vulnerability of families to food insecurity. Given that this situation occurs annually, there is a need to design a risk and emergency communication strategy to prevent damage from floods. It is also urgent to design an inclusive and transparent requalification plan that brings together the class, academics, businesspeople, civil society, communities and government agents. The requalification of neighborhoods can help families increase their rental income for building construction, reducing the rate of food insecurity and other phenomena underlying flooding.

2025/12/3