28 December 2008
Maputo — Torrential rains in the southern Mozambican province of Inhambane have cut the country's main north-south highway at Mahoche, between the towns of Morrumbene and Massinga.
A small bridge was swept away, stranding hundreds of vehicles on ether side of the break in the road. Emergency work is currently under way, involving two construction companies, to re-establish traffic along the highway.
In the provincial capital, Inhambane city, over 538 millimetres of rain fell between Wednesday and Saturday. One person died in a mudslide, and several dozen found themselves spending Xmas in the open, when the rains swept away their flimsy homes and all their possessions.
22 of those displaced found temporary shelter in a student residence, where the authorities set up an accommodation centre, and provided food, personal hygiene items and other necessities.
Several flimsy houses also collapsed in the towns of Maxixe and Morrumbene. Inhambane provincial governor, Francisco Itai Meque, speaking on Saturday, ruled out decreeing a state of emergency. He said that the government is able to deal with the situation so far.
Meanwhile, in the centre of the country, the Zambezi river is above flood alert level at Caia and Morromeu, on its lower reaches. On Friday the Zambezi at Caia was measured at 5.66 metres - alert level is five metres. At Marromeu, where the alert level is 4.75 metres, the river was 5.16 metres high.
Heavy rainfall has been swelling two of the main tributaries of the Zambezi, the Shire and the Revobue. The Cahora Bassa dam has continued to release 3,200 cubic metres of water per second into the Zambezi, as it continues to make space in the dam lake for any larger flood surge from Zambia or Zimbabwe later in the rainy season.
The National Emergency Operations Centre (CENOE), meeting on Friday, decided to activate the provincial emergency centres in all the provinces through which the Zambezi flows (Tete, Manica, Sofala and Zambezia), as well as in Inhambane and Cabo Delgado (where there are fears of possible flooding along the Messalo and Montepuez rivers).
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