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170Natural and human-made disastersFigure 7.1Recorded disasterevents and world urbanpopulation (1950–2006)Data Sources: EM-DAT, CREDdatabase, University ofLouvain, Belgium, www.emdat.net;United Nations, 2005Number of events/World urban population (10 millions)500400300200100World urban populationTechnological disastersNatural disasters019501956 1962 1968 1974 1980 1986 1992 1998 2004…the 1 billion slumdwellers worldwide,who reside inhazardous locationswithin cities… areperhaps mostvulnerable to theimpacts of disasterseconomic assets, cultural heritage, infrastructure, servicesand basic life-support systems, industries and other potentiallyhazardous establishments in cities further exacerbatesdisaster risk and impacts. The growing numbers of the urbanpoor, especially the 1 billion slum dwellers worldwide, whoBox 7.2 The urban impacts of Mozambique’s great floodIn February 2000, floods in Mozambique killed at least 700 people,displaced 650,000 and affected 4.5 million. Arguably, it wasMozambique’s small but growing urban populations who werehardest hit, with more than 70 per cent of all flood-related deathsoccurring in urban areas.Extensive deforestation contributed to flood risk inMozambique, where between 1990 and 2000, an average of 50,000hectares of forested area were depleted annually. Urban land-useplans and codes in existence prior to the 2000 flood were notadhered to, often resulting in the spontaneous occupation of plotsand building of roads in unsuitable areas and, in the long term, acumulative process of soil erosion. Mozambique’s experienceduring the 2000 floods must also be situated in both its circumstancesof significant poverty, debt and post-conflict recovery fromthe 16-year civil war. The war internally displaced 3 million peopleand destroyed vital infrastructure, while pushing people towardsurban centres.The urban poor within Maputo, Matola, Xai-Xai andChokwe suffered the most from the 2000 flood. Exorbitant pricingand highly politicized land distribution force many poor urbanresidents to live in informal settlements and unregulated slums,known as barrios, constructed in undesirable and hazardouslocations such as in ravines, slopes susceptible to landslides andlow-lying areas prone to flooding. In addition, the majority of barriosare constructed with locally accessible materials, such as bambooand straw, that easily collapse easily beneath torrential rains and getwashed away in flooding. The lack of drainage infrastructure inreside in hazardous locations within cities such as industrialwaste sites, floodplains, riverbanks and steep slopes, areperhaps most vulnerable to the impacts of disasters. Asindicated earlier in Chapter 2, increasing urban poverty andexclusion also worsen the vulnerability of some urban inhab-Maputo has also meant that seasonal one-day rain events can resultin flooding that lasts for days, and rain over the course of severaldays can cause flooding that will not subside for a month.The 2000 flood reached disastrous proportions whentorrential rainfall brought on flooding in the Incomati, Umbeluziand Limpopo rivers that flow within the Maputo and Gazaprovinces. Accumulated rainfall, as well as Cyclone Eline, which hitInhambane and Sofala provinces during the month of February,caused flooding in the cities of Maputo, Matola, Chokwe and Xai-Xai. The flooding of the latter two cities within the Limpopo Riverbasin was responsible for the majority of the fatalities. Post-floodevaluations revealed that within the urban areas affected, floodingand rains had damaged the physical infrastructure and productioncapabilities of over 1000 shops and wholesalers in the river basins.The 2000 flood also caused extensive damages to productivesectors in Maputo, the hub of Mozambique’s industrialproduction, and Matola, a major industrial centre and the country’sprimary port. Destruction in Xai-Xai, the capital of Gaza Provinceand a coastal city, dealt a blow to fishing and tourism industries.The destruction of roads linking Maputo to neighbouring countriesnot only halted trade, but prevented the distribution of reliefsupplies. Across Mozambique’s urban economy, food prices roserapidly in response to losses in the countryside.Yet, by incapacitatingMozambique’s transportation infrastructure, the floods hadwiped out critical linkages to less affected Mozambican areas,impeding or preventing delivery of available foodstuff to urbanareas that had few other options to secure food sources.Source: Chege et al, 2007