ABSTRACT
The impacts of climate change that have been experienced in Maputo in recent decades include more intense weather events, such as droughts and tropical cyclones, resulting in flooding and major coastal erosion. Floods and disease epidemics dominated the last decades of the twentieth century and the early years of the twenty-first century. As a consequence, the country has been in the constant grip of disasters and emerging new climatic cycles. The National Institute of Disaster Management1 (INGC 2011) stated that historical records of natural disasters show that there were 10 drought events, 20 flood events, 13 tropical cyclones, 1 earthquake and 18 disease epidemics in Mozambique between 1956 and 2008. The significant increase in the number of natural disasters occurred from the 1980s, including three major cyclones in a single year (2000). Amongst the impacts of such events, Maputo now suffers effects on food production and distribution, together resulting in critical conditions associated with water and food scarcity.
