7 February 2008
Maputo — The Mozambican authorities are planning to complete by Monday search and rescue operations along the Zambezi Basin, before embarking on full scale reconstruction and development projects.
This will coincide with the opening of the floodgates at the Kariba dam, in Zambia, as a result of incessant rains in that neighbouring country.
Despite this setback, the National Water Board (DNA) is monitoring the situation and is already designing new strategies to mitigate the impact of discharges from the Kariba Dam on Mozambique territory, in coordination with Zambian, Zimbabwean and Malawian authorities and also the Secretariat of the Southern African Development Community (SADC).
On Tuesday, the Zambezi River Authority (ZRA), which runs the Kariba Dam on the Zambia-Zimbabwe border, announced that it would open one of the dam's floodgates, but not until February 11.
Currently, Cahora Bassa is receiving into its lake 11,000 cubic meters per second from Zumbo, where the Zambezi river enters Mozambican territory. However, the dam is just releasing 4,000 cubic meters to mitigate the impact downstream.
According to DNA, despite all efforts to prevent the coincidence of peak flow of the tributaries rivers upstream of HCB, the flow of water has caused the Zambezi measured at Caia and Marromeu districts to rise to a record level for the current rainy season.
Most of the flood prone areas have already been evacuated, and this led the authorities to jump into the next phase which is to ensure that people are able to resume their normal life in the resettlement areas.
Thus, the government is planning to mobilize resources for the construction of permanent houses in the resettlement areas on land demarcated previously.
Launched in 20 December 2007, search and rescue operations on the Zambezi flood pain and islands in the river have proceeded without any interruptions. Some of the victims were evacuated more than three times because of their reluctance to abandon their homes.
To prevent this situation recurring, according to the director of the National Disasters Management Institute(INGC), Paulo Zucula, the authorities are planning to train those islanders on natural disasters management.
Current data show that 99,248 flood victims have been evacuated in four basins in the central region of Mozambique, of whom 85,816 along the Zambezi Valley.
Meanwhile, Mozambican president, Armando Guebuza starts this Thursday a two-day working tour to a number of regions in the provinces of Inhambane, Sofala, Manica, Tete and Zambezi, where he will assess first hand the current situation and express his support with the floods victims.
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