This article demonstrates that the causes of the cyclical flooding in Maputo city are not necessarily natural phenomena associated with climate change, as the government has been arguing. The floods that occur in the city of Maputo every rainy season are mostly caused by the poor implementation of public policies in the territorial and environmental planning sector, which is manifested through non-compliance with the existing land-use plan, by the lack of construction and rehabilitation of infrastructures for the drainage of rainwater adequate to meet the current population demand, the lack of supervision of the construction of public and private works in areas prone to flooding, and even due to the destruction of vegetation in sensitive ecosystems, such as mangroves in coastal areas.
