16 January 2008
Maputo — A further 2,112 people were rescued on Tuesday from areas completely cut off by the flood waters of the Zambezi river in central Mozambique, reports Wednesday's issue of the Maputo daily "Noticias".
The rescue operations were aimed at the areas of Samarucha, Jardim and Chirembwe, all in Mutarara district, in Tete province. There are still about 7,000 people in these places who should be evacuated.
The country's relief agency, the National Disasters Management Institute (INGC), used motor boats and canoes to carry the people rescued to a ferry which then took them to resettlement areas elsewhere in Mutarara.
Also on Tuesday about 180 families were rescued by the National Civil Protection Unit (UNAPROC) and local risk management committees from the isolated area of Malolo in Zambezia province.
Further downstream, the situation of about 5,000 people still in Zambezia's Chinde district, at the mouth of the Zambezi, is being carefully monitored.
On Monday, the rising Zambezi surged over the access ramps to the ferry that transports vehicles across the river, between Caia in Sofala province, and Chimuara in Zambezia. The ferry service is a key link in Mozambique's main north-south highway.
Traffic is now being diverted to substitute ramps further upstream. Using these ramps the distance from one bank of the Zambezi to the other is two kilometres rather than 700 metres, so the journey takes twice as long.
The "Noticias" coverage of the flood drama is marred by exaggerated claims. Its Wednesday headline read "Floods this year worse than those of 2000" (when every major river south of Beira was in flood and 700 people lost their lives).
This categorical assertion is put in the mouth of INGC director Paulo Zucula. But at his press conference on Tuesday, Zucula was rather more cautious. He warned that if the Licungo and Limpopo rivers also went into flood, then "we may be in a situation worse than 2000".
Zucula also contradicted the "Noticias" claim that these are the worst floods ever on the Zambezi. The flood in Mutarara is worse than the flood of 2007 - but Zucula added that the Zambezi is still half a metre lower than during the peak of the enormous flood of 2001. Nor does the current flooding compare with the catastrophe of 1978, when all the floodgates on the Kariba and Cahora Bassa dams were opened to their full extent. In the ensuing deluge at least 45 Mozambican lost their lives, 219,000 people were displaced, and over 60,000 hectares of crops lost.
The Zambezi valley may now experience a brief respite, since on Monday Cahora Bassa cut its discharges into the river from 6,200 to 5,500 cubic metres a second. But the forecast is for continued rain in the region, and so over the next few days the river may rise again. The INGC is certainly preparing for the worst, well aware that there are still another two months before the end of the rainy season.
Further south, the flood on the Buzi river has caused serious erosion in Buzi town, and has destroyed dozens of houses, including some belonging to the main employer in the district, the Buzi company. Other installations of the company (which currently produces pure alcohol from molasses) are in danger of collapse.
The company intends to move its entire operations to higher ground, in the area of Bandua, and this transfer will begin in March. There are also dreams of abandoning the current town and building a new Buzi district capital in Bandua of Guaraguara - but any such decision must be taken, not by the local authorities, but by the central government.
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