11 February 2008
Maputo — The Zambezi river is now dropping along its entire length in central Mozambique, but remains in flood along its lower reaches.
At Tete city, over the weekend, the river dropped below the flood alert level of five metres. On Sunday, according to the latest bulletin from the National Water Board (DNA), it fell to 4.82 metres.
Further downstream, at Mutarara, the river dropped slightly, from 5.56 to 5.48 metre, while at Caia, the fall was from 7.07 metres on Saturday to 6.93 metres on Sunday. At both Mutarara and Caia, the alert level is also five metres.
At Marromeu (where the alert level is 4.75 metres), the Zambezi fell from 7.36 to 7.3 metres.
The river may be subsiding, but it will still take a long time for the flood waters to evaporate or drain away. Seen from the air, the entire region from Mutarara to the mouth of the Zambezi resembles an enormous shallow lake, drowning homes, fields and roads.
One area that has not yet been inundated is the Marromeu sugar plantation owned by the Sena Company. This vast green area, protected by a dyke, contrasts sharply with the murky brown waters of the nearby flood. The Zambezi would need to be eight metres high at Marromeu before it went over the dike.
The major concern for the government's relief agency, the National Disasters Management Institute (INGC), is the notice given by the Zambezi River Authority that on Monday it will open one of the four floodgates of the Kariba dam, on the Zambia/Zimbabwe border.
This will greatly increase the flow of water down the Zambezi into Mozambique's Cahora Bassa lake. Over the weekend, the Cahora Bassa dam was discharging water into the Zambezi at the rate of 4,000 cubic metres a second. But the flood surge from Kariba could force Cahora Bassa to increase its discharges, which would inevitably worsen the flooding on the lower Zambezi.
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