Maputo — The torrential rains that have been falling in Zambezia and Nampula provinces, have caused "a worrying, but not a serious situation", according to a source in the Mozambican government's Disasters Management Coordinating Council, cited in Wednesday's issue of the daily paper "Noticias".
The number of known deaths caused by last weekend's storms now stands at five, and 5,000 people have been "affected" - most of these were rendered homeless when the rains swept away their flimsy homes.
The storms damaged the Nacala-Malawi railway, cut the power supply to most of Nampula province, and severely affected road transport. The main road north has been interrupted at the Meluli river, some 20 kilometres south of Nampula city, where a bridge is down.
So vehicles and people heading for Nampula are stranded on the south bank of the river. Food for them, at the nearby town of Murrupula, may run out if the road is not reopened soon.
Three Nampula districts - Memba, Mogovolas and Lalaua - have been cut off from the rest of the country. A bridge over the Monapo river, in Ribaue district, is in danger of collapse: if that bridge goes, so does the road link between Nampula and the neighbouring province of Niassa.
In Zambezia, the road between the coastal districts of Maganja da Costa and Pebane is unusable, because the bridge over the river Xipiode is under water. Further inland, the road linking the districts of Ile, Namarroi and Lugela is also impassable.
A team from the Disasters Management Coordinating Council, led by Defence Minister Tobias Dai, visited Nampula on Tuesday to observe the damage caused by tropical depression "Delfina", and the subsequent rains.
So far the government believes it can cope by using Mozambique's own resources, and is not planning to launch any international appeal.
Meanwhile the tropical depression that was threatening Zambezia on Monday has changed course, moving south down the Mozambique Channel. It was expected by Wednesday to bring stormy weather to the coasts of Inhambane and Gaza provinces.
