China Henan International Cooperation Group Co. Ltd is building a riverside park in Beira in the central Mozambican province of Sofala to reduce flooding due to heavy rain, AIM reports.

The Mozambican state-run news agency quotes a local official in Sofala, Carlos Gonçalves, as saying construction began last June and should end by June 2020.

The work includes building embankments along the Chiveve River and defences for the mangrove and wetland ecosystem of the river.

The report says riverside areas will be redesignated as a recreational zone, which will have a centre for exhibitions and other events, a municipal market, multipurpose buildings, commercial spaces and an open-air amphitheatre.

The Mozambican government, the World Bank and the German Development Bank are paying the US$31 million bill for the project, AIM says.