26 February 2008
Maputo — The Zambezi river in central Mozambique is continuing to drop, and from the Zimbabwean border to the district of Mutarara, a distance of over 500 kilometres, the river is no longer in flood.
On its lower reaches the Zambezi is still above flood alert level. According to the latest bulletin from the National Water Board (DNA), at Caia, where the alert level is five metres, the river dropped from 5.7 metres on Saturday to 5.24 metres on Monday morning.
At Marromeu, the last measuring station before the delta, the Zambezi dropped over the same period from 5.8 to 5.33 metres. Alert level at Marromeu is 4.75 metres.
The Cahora Bassa dam is continuing to reduce its discharges into the Zambezi. They fell from 1,881 cubic metres a second on Saturday to 1,787 cubic metres a second on Sunday. The dam lake has been gradually filling, but still has spare storage capacity to deal with any sudden surge of water from Zambia or Zimbabwe. As of Sunday, the lake was just over 71 per cent full.
All other central Mozambican rivers are now below alert level with the exception of the Pungoe, west of Beira. This river is slowly dropping, but is still in flood. Measured at Mafambisse, it fell from 6.4 metres on Saturday to 6.25 metres on Sunday.
Now that the search and rescue missions in the flooded river valleys are over, the government's relief agency, the National Disasters Management Institute (INGC), has switched its attention to ensuring that the over 100,000 flood victims in resettlement areas can rebuild their lives.
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