Maputo — The town of Nova Mambone, in the southern Mozambican province of Inhambane, has been flooded, following a sharp rise in the level of the Save river.

Torrential rain in Zimbabwe caused a flood surge down the Save, leading to flooding in Nova Mambone as from Monday. On Tuesday morning the level of the river was measured at 7.45 metres, reports Wednesday's issue of the Maputo daily "Noticias", almost two metres higher than the flood alert level of 5.5 metres.

David Dumangane, the provincial delegate of the Mozambican relief agency, the National Disasters Management Institute (INGC) said homes had been submerged in some Nova Mambone neighbourhoods, and crops near the river banks had been inundated. Three INGC motor boats are working to rescue anyone trapped by the flood waters.

The flood on the Save has also affected Machanga district, in Sofala province, on the north bank of the river. Machanga is now cut off from the rest of the country.

According to the National Water Board (DNA), the Pungue river is continuing to rise at Mafambisse in Sofala. This poses a threat to the main road from Beira to Zimbabwe.

The country's largest river, the Zambezi, has remained above flood alert level from Mutarara in Tete province, down to Marromeu in Sofala, the last measuring station before the river flows into the Indian Ocean. The situation on the lower Zambezi may worsen in the near future, since the Cahora Bassa dam, faced with renewed inflows of water from neighbouring countries into the dam lake, has increased its discharges into the Zambezi from 3,500 to 4,500 cubic metres a second.

Meanwhile a tropical cyclone has formed in the Mozambique Channel, in between the Mozambican and Madagascar coasts. According to the Joint Typhoon Warning Centre of the US Navy, Cyclone Elnus is generating sustained winds of 83 kilometres an hour, with gusts of up to 100 kilometres an hour.

It is moving slowly south-east, and on its current course it will not hit the Mozambican coast. It does, however, pose a threat to shipping in the centre of the Mozambique Channel.