Africa-Press – Mozambique. Portugal’s environment minister on Wednesday begins a visit to Mozambique, where he will establish contact with projects supported by Portugal and announce cooperation investments of around two million euros.
Speaking to Lusa, João Pedro Matos Fernandes said that on this four-day visit he would be taking part in a conference of donors for water on Wednesday, at which he would announce Portugal’s willingness to support with one million euros, over the next three years, “projects in the field of water supply, to be developed necessarily by Portuguese companies.
What will be defined, he detailed, is that in each November of these three years, Mozambique will say what it wants to do in the following year.
“Mozambique has a major project on a national scale for the concession of water services and we have companies in Portugal, namely Águas de Portugal, in excellent conditions to compete and win these international tenders,” said Matos Fernandes.
The minister will also sign two projects in the area of nature conservation: 150,000 euros for the Maputo elephant reserve, led by the Mozambican Parks and Reserves Service, and 150,000 euros for the recovery of the Marromeu mangroves, under the responsibility of the Gorongosa Park.
Regarding the latter, he stressed the importance of mangroves that, apart from their enormous relevance as major carbon absorbers, are major protectors of the coast.
“If the mangroves in Beira had not been destroyed, hurricane Idai would not have done so much damage,” he said.
Next year the Portuguese government will fund, with 280,000 euros, the second phase of local adaptation plans, and a project for the reforestation of African mahogany.
João Pedro Matos Fernandes recalled that in 2017, when the Environmental Fund began, Portugal expressed its intention to fund projects in the Portuguese-language African Countries (PALOP) and East Timor in the order of €10 million, a figure that reached €11.5 million in 2021.
Of this €11.5 million, he said, €1.8 million was invested in Mozambique by the end of 2020, specifically in seven projects in the water cycle, to strengthen the water supply, mainly in Maputo.
With 150,000 euros we supported a nature conservation project to improve and rebuild a laboratory destroyed by hurricane Idai, in the Gorongosa National Park, an investment that the minister will visit.
Portugal also contributed 20,000 euros to a project to support the construction of cycle paths in Quelimane.
From 2022, and for five years, Portugal expects to invest 20 million euros for cooperation in the environmental field and the fight against climate change.
“This is a global fight and we must know how to support countries most in need,” he stressed.
