Johannesburg, South Africa — President Thabo Mbeki Sunday authorised a 12 million rand (1 USD = R7.5) rescue programme for flood relief in Mozambique involving helicopters, medical supplies and food.
"The president has authorised that the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) makes available four Oryx helicopters, 2 BK helicopters, one King air helicopter, one Casa plane, two C-130 planes to transport food and medical supplies as well as humanitarian assistance," said Foreign Affairs spokesperson Ronnie Mamoepa.
Mozambicans living in the Zambezi River valley are bracing themselves for more flooding as the sluice gates on the Cahora Bassa dam are almost certain to be opened soon because the huge dam is almost full.
Weather forecasts indicated that more rain was expected in the region.
Authorities Sunday said they were slowly opening the Cahora Bassa reservoir, threatening to send a wave of water into flood- stricken areas of central Mozambique.
"The dam is full and it is impossible to keep it closed. They are gradually opening it," Joao Zamissa, a planning officer for Mozambique's National Institute for Disaster Management, was qouted by radio reports as saying.
Cahora Bassa, the country's largest dam sited on the Zambezi River, is receiving increased volumes of water from neighbouring Zambia and Zimbabwe, which have also seen heavy rains since January.
Officials said 30,000 people living in and around the town of Marromeu were at immediate risk from the dam waters, which were expected to reach hard-hit areas in two to four days.
Institute director Antonio Chikumbe said the government plans to send supplies and evacuate people threatened by fresh flooding.
Mozambique's top emergency relief official has warned that the floods in the Zambezi valley in the centre of the country, were "very worrying" and "could become catastrophic".
Neighbouring Malawi's presidential affairs minister Dumbo Lemani would Monday chair an emergency cabinet meeting on the rising floods in southern Malawi that have already displaced over 200,000 people.
Mozambique and Malawi have appealed to the international community for help.
In Malawi's Nsanje District, Commissioner Charles Makanga said 217 villages had been flooded, leaving 22,454 families homeless while at least 259 villages had lost all of their crops.
Residents of seven villages have fled to the nearby Mozambican towns like Magaza, while, ironically, nine flooded Mozambican villages also fled to Malawi.
At least five Malawians have been confirmed dead, three of them after being washed away by swelling rivers, while two of them died after their houses fell on them.
Currently, some 390,000 people are affected by the flooding in central Mozambique, of whom 70,000 have been displaced from their homes.
The known death toll stands at 41.
