Maputo — Up until Wednesday, 186,735 hectares of agricultural land had been inundated in the catastrophic floods that have hit southern and central Mozambique.
According to a Friday statement on the floods from the government, the worst hit province was Gaza, where 110,072 hectares were swamped, in Chokwe and Massingir districts. Serious flooding is known to have occurred in other Gaza districts (such as Xai-Xai and Chibuto), but they are not mentioned by name in the government statement.
In Maputo province, 51,572 hectares were swamped (in Magude, Manhica and Namaacha districts), while in Inhambane province, 20,000 hectares were flooded.
As for the central provinces, the statement only mentioned Sofala, where 4,691 hectares in Buzi, Gorongosa and Chibabava districts were flooded.
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There were severe losses of livestock in Gaza, where 55,835 head of cattle were lost, 7,749 goats and 237 sheep.
In Maputo province, farmers lost 47,109 head of cattle, 23,362 goats, and 7,920 pigs.
In the flood-stricken areas of Gaza and Maputo, health workers set up 49 clinics which had attended to 1,305 patients by Wednesday. 495 of these patients were suffering from acute diarrhoea, 459 had malaria and 351 had acute respiratory infections. Earlier statements had mentioned cholera outbreaks, but this government statement said nothing about cholera.
To cope with malaria, the health workers distributed 40,350 mosquito nets in the accommodation centres set up for flood victims.
The government noted that the floods have caused a transport crisis, with several stretches of the main north-south highway (EN1) impassable. This had contributed to shortages of fuel and basic goods in several areas.
The government is trying to overcome this problem by sending goods to Gaza and Maputo from Inhambane and Sofala provinces, or via the port of Chonguene in Gaza.
The levels of water in the southern river basins is now falling, but they remain above flood alert levels.
But in the central region heavy rains have fallen, lifting the Licungo river, in Zambezia province, to 0.15 metres above alert level. This could cause moderate flooding, and make some Zambezia roads impassable.
The Buzi river basin, in Sofala, remains above flood alert level, with impacts on agricultural land and road traffic.
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