In the months after Cyclone Idai, one of the worst tropical cyclones to hit the country, scarred mountains remain with some impassable roads and many lives lost. Schools have reopened with inadequate infrastructure and resources in an attempt for normalcy.
In Chimanimani, a mountainous area in eastern Zimbabwe, acres of devastation confronted Edgars Seenza, Acting Provincial Development Coordinator for Manicaland Province.
“The destruction was beyond our wildest imagination as we could not have foretold the magnitude of the cyclone that saw water defying mountains resulting in mudslides,” Seenza recalled of the first days after Cyclone Idai made landfall. “In only three days, 600 millimeters (mm) of rain was received.”
In one month of a normal rainy season in December, Chimanimani receives about 200-250 mm of rain. The cyclone caused estimated direct damages of $622 million and significantly damaged infrastructure, properties, crops, and livestock. It is estimated that to “build back better” requires up to $1.1 billion.
As the recovery process unfolds new initiatives and financial resources are required to reclaim livelihoods, rebuild infrastructure and ensure that a similar calamity never has the same devastating consequences. In response to developmental assistance required by the most affected communities, the World Bank approved an exceptional allocation of $72 million to the Zimbabwe Idai Recovery Project (ZIRP) which aims to “address the early and medium-term resilient disaster recovery needs of cyclone-affected people.”
Through a surge of high-impact and immediate interventions in partnership with various United Nations agencies, the ZIRP aims to enhance the coping capacity of affected communities across multiple sectors, such as water, sanitation, education, health and disaster risk mitigation and preparedness, benefitting as many as 270,000 people.
Drawing on experience from elsewhere in Africa, a Zimbabwe Recovery and Resilience Framework (ZRRF) is proposed to contribute to the strengthening of Zimbabwe’s capacity and systems for recovery and resilience coordination and disaster risk management and mitigation. It is envisaged that once developed this framework will be scaled-up and applied more widely to support recovery and resilience-building across the country.
Original source: World Bank
Published on 16 September 2019
