Maputo — The reservoirs behind the major dams in southern Mozambique are 60 per cent or more full, which guarantees water supply, notably for the Greater Maputo Metropolitan Area, for the next two years, according to a report in Wednesday's issue of the Maputo daily "Noticias".
There were heavy rains in the main southern river valleys over the rainy season (October 2021 to March 2022), and much of that water is now stored in the reservoirs. The reservoir at the Pequenos Libombos dam, which feeds the Umbeluzi river on which Maputo depends for most of its drinking water, is now 99 per cent full.
The Corumana dam, on the Sabie river, in Moamba district, about 60 kilometres north of Maputo is 61 per cent full, while the Massingir dam, on the Elephants river, the main tributary of the Limpopo, in the neighbouring province of Gaza, is at 74 per cent of capacity.
In the central region, the two dams crucial for electricity generation are both at healthy levels. The lake behind the Cahora Bassa dam, on the Zambezi River, is 91 per cent full, so that the company that operates the dam, HCB, should have no difficulty in providing its clients with power. The Chicamba dam, on the Revue river, in Manica province, is at 71 per cent of capacity.
In the northern region, the Nampula, Chipembe and Nacala dams are all completely full. Nonetheless, the National Directorate of Water Resource Management (DNRGH) is advising continual rationalization of water use in Nampula city.
The head of the River Basin Department in the DNRGH, Agostinho Vilanculus, explained that the city needs 24 million cubic metres of water a year, but the Nampula dam can only store four million cubic metres.
"Nampula has a small dam", he said. "It can only make water available for four months in the year for 700,000 people. We need 24 million cubic metres a year, and the dam does not guarantee that amount".
In the second half of the rainy season, there was too much, rather than too little water. Heavy rainfall in a short period caused flooding, damaged roads, and swept away bridges, particularly in the Licungo basin, in Zambezia province, and along the Revubue, in Tete.
Severe climatic events meant that the average rainfall for a period of six months, could be concentrated into just three or four days, said Vilanculos, which was precisely what had happened in the Licungo basin, and in the coastal basins in Zambezia and Nampula, "where we registered 600 millimetres of rain in three days".
