29 January 2008
Maputo — A sharp rise in the level of the Zambezi river on Monday flooded low-lying areas of Tete city.
The river rose higher than during the first Tete flood earlier this month, inundating homes, restaurants, shops and offices near the banks of the Zambezi. The Tete Municipal Council sent rescue teams out to evacuate people whose houses have been invaded by the waters in the neighbourhoods of Chingale, Matundo and Chingodzi.
"We knew this would happen, because the forecasts predicted abnormal rainfall in the January to March period", said Cacilda Machava, director of the Zambezi regional water board (ARA-Zambeze), cited in Tuesday's issue of the Maputo daily "Noticias".
"So in December we launched the alert for people to leave the areas near the river banks", she said. "The river has a flow much greater than normal and the situation will worsen in the coming hours".
According to the latest bulletin from the National Water Board (DNA), the Zambezi at Tete rose by over two metres in 24 hours - from 4.6 metres on Sunday to 6.66 metres on Monday morning, greatly above the flood alert level of five metres.
"Noticias" reports that this rapid rise continued during the day, and by 16.00 on Monday the river had reached 8.2 metres. In this state, the river is cutting roads in the Tete suburbs, including those that give access to the most densely populated part of the city, the Sansao Muthemba neighbourhood.
The factors that have contributed to this sharp rise include the persistent rains in the Zambezi Valley over the weekend, and the increase in discharges from the Cahora Bassa dam. On Saturday and Sunday, the dam was releasing 4,850 cubic metres of water a second into the Zambezi. On Monday, according to the DNA, the discharges were cut to 3,600 cubic metres a second - but the weekend discharges had already caused a flood surge to travel down the river.
This is bound to worsen flooding further downstream. At Mutarara, the river was stable over the weekend at 6.05 metres. But that will inevitably change as the latest surge from Cahora Bassa reaches Mutarara.
Furthermore, the Revobue river, a major tributary that joins the Zambezi just east of Tete city, is also in flood. The Revobue, where the alert level is four metres, rose to 5.37 metres on Monday morning, thus adding to the threats facing Mutarara and the lower Zambezi.
At Caia, on the lower Zambezi, the river rose from 7.05 metres on Sunday to 7.28 metres on Monday. It will inevitably rise still further as the flood surge from Cahora Bassa, and the water, not only from the Revobue, but also from the largest of the Zambezi tributaries, the Shire, reach the Caia region.
Further south, the Buzi river is also in flood. Measured at Goonda, the river was 5.09 metres high on Monday morning, nine centimeters above alert level. The situation is likely to worsen since the Lucite, one of the rivers that forms the Buzi, was measured at 8.4 metres.
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