The Arab Bank for Economic Development of Africa (BADEA) will provide funding for the repair of 14 kilometres of the coastline of the city of Maputo in Mozambique, Mozambican newspaper O País reported.

The project includes placing concrete barriers and rocks from an area facing the Finance Ministry as far as the fishermen’s neighbourhood.

During a visit to one of the sections of the coastal protection barrier that has already been repaired using funds from BADEA, the director-general Abdelaziz Khelef said that he hoped that additional work would begin soon in order to improve coastal conditions in the Mozambican capital.

Newspaper O País also said that the public tender for carrying out the project had been launched and a contractor selected.

In June 2011, the mayor of Maputo, David Simango said that it was too early to estimate the real cost of the project to protect the coastline there was US$22.5 million available, of which US$10 million had been provided by the Saudi Development Fund, US$9 million by the Arab Bank for Economic Development of Africa, and the remainder by the Mozambican government.

Over the last few years a significant part of the coastline of the city of Maputo has been affected by coastal erosion, affecting environmental conditions and putting the safety of some public and private facilities at risk. (macauhub)