Campus

Flood management in Mozambique

TU Delft was in Mozambique in March and April as part of a Nuffic supported project to aid in training local water organizations about dikes and flood risk management.


Nuffic, the Netherlands organization for cooperation in higher education, commissioned TU Delft to provide the training in conjunction with partners Wetterskip Fryslan, HKV Consultants and Consultec from Maputo. Prof. Huub Savenije and ir. Willem Luxemburg of the water management department and Prof. Bas Jonkman of the hydraulic department made up the team that visited Mozambique. Savenije and Luxemburg have the added personal knowledge of the area and accompanying issues since they have both worked and lived in Mozambique.


“Flooding is a major issue in Mozambique and every few years riverine areas in the Icomati and Limpopo river basins are flooded, leading to very large damage,” explains Jonkman. “However, after the floods the infrastructures and dikes that have failed are rebuilt in the same way.” These kinds of practices inevitably lead to more flooding. The team from TU Delft worked with teams of participants that represent the local water organizations to come up with new plans for parts of their basins.


The team visited the affected areas as part of the training and conducted lectures covering everything from dike design and hydraulics to financial sustainability. “The project was very successful in bringing partners together,” says Luxemburg.


The team came back with positive expectations. “I expect that our training will help to develop a system approach for reducing flood risk in the affected basins in an effective and sustainable way,” concludes Jonkman.

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