Maputo — Mozambique's Southern Regional Water Board (ARA-Sul) on Wednesday urged the immediate evacuation of people and their goods from flood-prone areas, and the observance of precautionary measures, due to the projected increase in discharges from the Corumana and Massingir dams over the next 72 hours.
Corumana is located on the Sabie river, the main tributary of the Incomati in Maputo province. The Massingir dam is on the Elephants river, a tributary of the Limpopo in Gaza province.
The statement from ARA-Sul explained that continued inflows of water from the neighbouring countries (Zimbabwe, South Africa and Eswatini) have obliged the Mozambican authorities to increase discharges from the two dams. It warned that Corumana will gradually increase its discharges from the current 500 cubic metres a second to 800 cubic metres a second, and perhaps even more, depending on how much water reaches the Incomati basin.
Such levels of discharge from Corumana threaten to cut roads throughout much of Gaza and Maputo provinces. In particular, the Incomati is likely to pour across the country's main north-south highway (EN1), in the area of the 3rd February village. This could easily cut the overland connection between the south and centre of the country, as happened during other major floods over the past couple of decades.
As for the Massingir dam, ARA-Sul warns of a gradual increase in discharges from 500 cubic metres a second to 1,000 cubic metres a second. The discharges could be larger, depending on how much water enters the Limpopo basin from upstream.
ARA-Sul fears that the Limpopo, at the major agricultural centre of Chokwe, will rise above flood alert level within the next 48 to 72 hours. Roads in much of the Limpopo valley are likely to be cut.
According to the daily hydrological bulletin issued by the National Directorate of Water Resource Management, the country's largest river, the Zambezi, is flowing at above flood alert level on its lower reaches (Caia and Marromeu districts), but this is not yet regarded as posing a threat.
As of Tuesday, the reservoir behind the Cahora Bassa dam was 91.3 per cent full, and the dam was discharging 3,560 cubic metres of water a second into the Zambezi.
