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Mozambique: Flood Situation Set to Worsen
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Agencia de Informacao de Mocambique (Maputo)
11 January 2008
Posted to the web 11 January 2008
Maputo
Moderate to heavy rainfall over much of Mozambique and in the neighbouring countries on Wednesday and Thursday is worsening the flood on the Zambezi, and threatens renewed flooding on the Buzi river.
According to the National Water Board (DNA), the level of the Zambezi at Tete city rose from 5.83 metres on Tuesday to 6.12 metres on Thursday. Flood alert level at Tete is five metres. Institutions in low lying parts of the city are closing their doors as the water laps at their entrances - the Tete provincial headquarters of the Mozambique Red Cross (CVM) is one of the bodies thus affected.
Further downstream, at Mutarara, the river was measured at 6.21 metres on Thursday, and the waters have invaded part of the district capital, Nhamayabue. The district administrator, Alexandre Faite, told the Maputo daily "Noticias", that the situation was extremely serious in the town, and in the administrative posts of Inhangoma, Charre and Doa.
The Mutarara flood victims have been evacuated to 23 accommodation centres, where paramedical teams are working to prevent any outbreaks of epidemics. "We have trained CVM activists in all the centres and have distributed kits of essential medicines", said Luisa Cumba, the Tete provincial director of health. "Medical staff are visiting the centres twice a week. We haven't recorded any deaths yet, and so far medical care is considered normal".
On the lower Zambezi, the river at Caia reached seven metres on Thursday - two metres above flood alert level. Officials insisted that the flood would not stop work on building the new bridge over the Zambezi at Caia.
Elias Paulo, director of the bridge construction office, told reporters that even if the Zambezi were to experience its worse floods ever, work on building the bridge platform would continue, since 16 of the 35 pillars necessary have already been sunk into the river bed and bank. He was convinced that the bridge will be completed on time (by March 2009).
The bridge will eventually form part of the country's main north-south highway. But until 2009, motorists crossing the river between Sofala and Zambezia provinces must still rely on a ferry service. Despite the flood, the ferry is still operating normally, making the journey across the river (about 700 metres) in 15 minutes.
Further south, in the Buzi basin, over 80 millimetres of rain fell on Wednesday and Thursday. On Thursday the river was measured at 4.9 metres at Goonda, just 10 centimetres short of flood alert level. The Lucite, one of the rivers that forms the Buzi, rose sharply from 4.1 metres on Wednesday to 7.2 metres on Thursday. This makes it very likely that Buzi town will be inundated once more, and that flood waters will cut the roads leading into Buzi district.
The Pungue, measured at the Mafambisse sugar plantation, stood at 7.47 metres on Thursday, well above flood alert level of six metres, and the DNA warned that it could rise higher.
Despite the risks, 171 people evacuated from the Pungue valley returned to their old homes on Wednesday, complaining of poor conditions in the government's accommodation centres. The authorities have threatened to take them back to the centres by force.
Joao Ribeiro, deputy director of the country's relief agency, the National Disasters Management Institute (INGC), said that people who risk returning to vulnerable areas are undermining the INGC's efforts to avoid any loss of life.
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The Friday weather forecast is not encouraging. Rains are likely to continue across central Mozambique and in Zambia, Zimbabwe and Malawi. Thus all the main rivers of central Mozambique can be expected to go on rising.
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| Copyright © 2008 Agencia de Informacao de Mocambique. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections -- or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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