D. The View From Maputo: Problems And Perspectives From A Fast Developing City In Southern Africa

Mr. Jacob Jeremias Nyambir
Town Council and Municipal Assembly of Maputo
Mozambique

The City of Maputo has suffered much over the past several decades, but today is undergoing an impressive development process that will improve the choices available to the population. But opportunities will not come without problems.

This presentation concentrates on the following themes:

• Water supply & sanitation services
• Solid waste management
• Integrated environmental coastal management
• Traffic and transportation

Mozambique is situated in southern Africa and shares borders with the Republics of South Africa, Zimbabwe, Tanzania, Malawi, Zambia and the Kingdom of Swaziland. Mozambique is a very long country stretching from north to south, with its capital, Maputo, located in the extreme south. Maputo is also the economic center of the country, and its geographical location plays an important role for the inland countries that use Maputo Harbor to export their products. The area around Maputo and stretching to Swaziland and South Africa is known as the "Maputo Corridor."

Maputo has about one million inhabitants and occupies an area of 466 square kilometers along the Indian Ocean coast. Being a commercial municipality in a coastal area, Maputo has many problems with dumping and waste management, urban transport, environment, and water supply and sanitation. Mozambique is also a lower income country, which sets the scene for the general population's current living conditions.

The city is characterised by several main neighbourhoods: a downtown, a residential area (so-called "Cement City"), unurbanised areas ("Bairros"), the embassies area, and the harbour area.

The density of traffic has increased from about 4,000 vehicles in 1975 following independence from Portugal, to somewhere between 50,000 and 60,000 vehicles today. Although the number of vehicles has increased at an impressive rate, the road and street networks have remained basically unchanged since independence.

It is worth noting that between 1982 and 1992, Mozambique experienced the worst years of a long civil war. Although the war was mainly concentrated in the countryside, it severely retarded Maputo's economic development. The central government simply did not have the necessary means to invest in the city's maintenance. At the same time, much of the urban infrastructure suffered serious destruction.

In spite of these difficulties, the city has continued to grow and develop, though at times in a very chaotic way. Maputo's water and sanitation system includes only the urban district or the "cement buildings," which means that the so-called unurbanised areas simply cannot count on proper sewerage and drainage. Construction of the system began in 1948 and has benefited from improvements and expansions at roughly the same pace that other areas of the city were being urbanised. From 1982 to 1989, new drainage and sanitation projects were carried out, and these projects represented important progress in modernising the system. On the other hand, these new projects required huge financing in relation to the city's pre-existing water sanitation system.

System I (constructed in 1948) covers 15% of the Maputo area. The total extent of the general sewerage system is estimated to include approximately 70,000 metres of concrete pipes and sandstone flanges (for small diameters). Other features include:

• 55,961 metres of small diameter closed catch-water drains;
• 13,071 metres of large diameter closed catch-water drains;
• 2,700 septic tanks;
• 2,500 inspection eyes;
• 5,000 soakways.

System II (constructed between 1982 and 1989) covers 35% of the Maputo area and is characterised as a drainage system for pluvial waters. It integrates ditches that consist of open channels of trapezoidal sections, covered by concrete blocks, laid on a filtering layer, and protected by a geo-textile layer. In brief, the system's features include:

• 12,153 metres of open sky covered channels;
• 158 metres small capacity aqueducts;
• 882 metres big capacity aqueducts;
• 620 metres of ditches on hillsides.

Adding System I and System II together still means that only half of the city counts on some system of drainage or sewerage. Moreover, both systems suffer from a number of problems. Maintenance of these systems is highly deficient, due to:

• Difficulties in retaining qualified staff (salaries in the civil service are quite low);
• Lack of adequate equipment;
• Saturation of the old system;
• Lack of substantial funds and operating revenues for the municipal government.

It is also worth mentioning that the level of public awareness in utilising the system plays a role. The municipal legislation concerning autarchies determines competencies in environmental management, such as:

• Environmental planning, ecological zoning, and incentive programmes for protection activities or restoration of environmental conditions;
• Processes for collection and treatment of solid waste, including biohazards and toxic waste;
• Forestry, tree planting and shade tree preservation programmes, as well as sustainable natural resource management;
• Definition and establishment of protected zones in municipal reserves, as well as the dissemination of programmes of non-polluting means of transportation.

In the particular case of the Municipality of Maputo, there are five integrated components of the environmental profile, namely:

1. Water supply quality
   Anthropogenic activities impose many negative effects on surface and subsurface waterways. This creates the necessity to treat all industrial, municipal and other institutional residual wastes before they are discharged into the rivers and effluents that flow into Maputo Bay.
2. Sanitation and drainage
   Despite its problems, Maputo gives high priority to adequate environmental sanitation, and to researching and implementing low-cost and environmentally friendly technologies for drainage and sanitation in high-density residential areas.
3. Solid waste management
   Technical and human deficiencies among other limitations with adequate solid waste collection and dumping accentuate the negative impacts on water quality and human health.
4. Soils
   The irregular topography of Maputo Bay's coastal area features high dunes and natural barriers that are suffering from progressive erosion. Stabilization of the slopes and dunes and protection of the damaged soils is urgently needed.
5. Household energy
   The growing demand for firewood from the natural forests around Maputo is unsustainable. It is estimated that 70-80% of household energy for cooking comes from firewood. This is a serious problem that requires immediate action.

Although Maputo has scarce financial resources, the Municipal Government is organizing around the following priorities:

• Legislation on environmental protection zones and population density controls;
• Institutionalising mechanisms that consider community development and supporting institutions that focus on environmental management processes;
• Updating the environmental profile and setting up Municipal Reserves;
• Cleaning up pollution in the city areas, not least the rivers that flow into Maputo Bay so that the population can value the Bay as an environmental asset;
• Monitoring the environment in Maputo Bay;
• Expanding the sanitary network;
• Controlling waste management;
• Developing civic environmental educational programmes;
• Promoting protection for slopes and barriers.

Maputo is currently preparing a bid to open concessions for private companies to handle waste collection and sanitation and to pursue partnerships between the public and private sectors. Maputo is in the beginning stages of this process, but the Municipal Government envisions this as a window of opportunity that can substantially enhance the population's quality of life.

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