Minister of Transport and Communication Paulo Zucula of Mozambique
From 1990-1992 Mr Zucula was Vice-Minister of Agriculture of Mozambique.
Diogo and is coordinating the various international aid organizations that have come to central Mozambique.
Zucula was addressing a session of the Disaster Management Coordinating Council on 8 February in the town of Caia on the south bank of the Zambezi.
Zucula said the number of people directly affected by the flooding was now 95,278 this figure refers to those who have lost their homes, and does not include those who have only lost crops.
The evacuation operations have kept the death toll low: Zucula said there were now nine confirmed deaths.
to propose legislation for a third licence.
Zucula said that in 2004 there were 75,256 subscribers and this figure rose to 78,324 in the first half of 2008, which was explained by geographical expansion.
Zucula said the grid, installation of which began in 2001, will be complete in early 2009 when the cables reach the two northernmost provincial capitals, Pemba and Lichinga.
Zucula said that the INGC's National Emergency Operations Center (CENOE) will now serve as a logistics center, and the accommodation centers created to house people displaced from their homes by the floods will be turned into resettlement centers, managed by the provincial governments.
Turning to the explosions of military arsenal, which struck Maputo on March 22, killing 103 people and wounding over 500 others, Zucula said that at least 1,300 houses were damaged in the explosions.
Zucula said the government has given approval for the regulator, the Institute of Mozambique Telecommunications, INCM, to propose legislation for a third licence.
Zucula is working closely with Prime Minister Luisa Diogo and is coordinating the various international aid organizations that have come to central Mozambique.
We are having more waters now invading vast agricultural lands than in 2007, but we will not be able to protect the infrastructure as top priority is being given to saving human lives for which we are more prepared now than before", Zucula said in an interview.
Speaking in Caia, the base of all flood relief operations, Zucula said that relief workers recently reached seven accommodation centres in the isolated Mutarara district, which the INGC learned of only days before.
A second helicopter is now in use, and Zucula said his staff was mapping maze-like waterways by air to aid boat operations.
We would have to evacuate many people from the administrative posts and district capitals to places we have not yet identified," Zucula said on Tuesday, adding that there was already a shortage of space in resettlement areas.
Zucula said two disaster management teams had been sent to assess the situation.
Zucula said more floods could be expected as the cyclone is expected to move inland to areas in central Zambezia province already hit by floods earlier this year.
Zucula said authorities were moving the displaced directly to areas previously set aside for such resettlement.
Zucula said more floods could be expected as the cyclone is heading inland to areas in central Zambezia province already battered by floods earlier this year.
Mr Zucula said the single UN helicopter Mozambique had was the only way to get supplies to those displaced.
and other supplies to the refugees.
Zucula said flooding was posing dangers to some people who refuse to leave affected areas.
Paulo Zucula said 280,000 people, mostly poor rural folk, would probably be forced from their homes this week as more rains swept the southern African country.
The situation is deteriorating and it will get worse, but this time we are better prepared than in 2001," Zucula said in an interview in Caia, one of the worst hit areas, 1,400kmnorth of the capital, Maputo.