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Namibia: Efundja, Nature Gone Haywire
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Namibia Economist (Windhoek)
14 March 2008
Posted to the web 14 March 2008
Desie Heita
Windhoek
There is no diversion of water in the Kunene River. Neither is there any indication of human related activities that could have aggravated the floods in the north, efundja, surveyors and water officials said this week. "There is no diversion of water whatsoever," Wolfgang Stehn, a qualified surveyor who works in Angola told the Economist this week. Two weeks ago the Economist reported that the heavy floods in the northern regions were aggravated by the construction of a bridge at Xangongo in Angola.
Officials from the Ministry of Agriculture, Waters and Forestry (MAWF), in response to the article, said such reports were merely rumours.
"Human nature is such that a guilty party is always looked for and often found for natural disasters, and other considerations may have made this allegation convenient," said Guido van Langenhove from the MAWF.
The rumour was last week brushed aside by President Hifikepunye Pohamba, when asked by the Economist, saying that "government has not picked up any evidence to confirm it".
The Angolan government is constructing a bridge over the Kunene River, where the contractor is said to have blocked the river about 160 km upstream of the construction site. The reason was to drop the water level within the immediate construction vicinity.
However, this is said to have caused the water to flow backwards inland. Coupled with the unprecedented heavy rains, the diverting and damming of water, much of the water flow went south of Angola, flooding the often dry rivers in northern Namibia.
"It is rather difficult to imagine the size and height of a structure in the Kunene River that would be able to retain the waters of this river and then push them over the watershed," said van Langenhove, who provided graphs and rainfall patterns to squash the damming rumour.
Pohamba said the government had only been made aware of the collapse of an earth dam in Ondjiva, during the first wave of flood. The dam walls broke and flooded the town of Ondjiva. "[These waters] can easily get into the Oshanas," said Pohamba, adding that this does not mean that the collapse of the dam contributed to the flood.
Stehn said the construction of the bridge is very minor and there is absolutely no diversion of water.
"Water catchment of Cuvelai is big as it spans from Cassinga to Techamutete going towards the north of Ondjiva. What we have here [the flood in the north] are natural floods," said Stehn.
The lower than expected flow of water in the Kunene River, which was quoted to substantiate the claims of water diversion, can be explained by the lower than expected rainfall in the highland of southern Angola, said Stehn.
Van Longehoven said this flood is much higher than the floods of 1995 and this is substantiated by the fact that the flood waters have filled up most of the normally-dry Etosha Pan. "According to other evidence, it would also be higher than the known very high floods that occurred in the seventies. The flood in the Cuvelai oshanas is of an exceptional nature and the resulting inundations, loss of human lives, disruption and damage fall in the disaster category," said van Longehoven.
The flood has displaced thousands of people and communal farmers have lost around 25000 animals and 17 schools in the Ohangwena Region alone have been adversely affected.
A report compiled by the Namibia Early Warning and Food Information Unit (NEWFIU) states that there will be an overall reduction in cereal harvest in Namibia for the 2008/9 marketing season because the 2007/8 crop season shows a decrease of 14% compared to the yearly average of 6%.
The regions of Caprivi, Kavango, Omusati, Ohangwena and Oshana are expected to report a 23% reduction in their yields for this year.
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The government has already put in motion a plan to source large quantities of cereal to prevent widespread hunger in the flooded regions. Current estimates show that N$50 million would be needed for infrastructural repairs in the regions of Oshana, Ohangwena and Omusati.
Thanks for the article. Having lived in Northern Namibia for long spells since my birth in 1941, I frequently heard claims that the Cunene (Kunene) River when in flood spills over into the oshana system of Southern Angola and Northern Namibia. I have travelled frequently on the Angolan side along the river from Ruacana and Calueque to north of Xangongo and nowhere is there a chance that the river would spill over. The most likely place for such would be just east of Calueque where the river level at times gets quite close to Omindamba on the border, not far... [Read Full Text]
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