Maputo, Mozambique — Much of the town of Marromeu in Mozambique's central province of Sofala was Thursday reported under water as the level of the Zambezi River, fed by increasing discharges from the Kariba and Cahora Bassa dams, continued to rise.
Marromeu was now cut off by road from the rest of the country and essential supplies were running short.
Local news accounts there was no food for patients in the Marromeu rural hospital, adding that contacts were underway between health authorities and the World Food Programme to salvage the situation.
The recently rehabilitated Marromeu sugar mill, by far the most significant economic undertaking in the area, was reported still holding out against the flood.
A spokesman was quoted as saying that the factory's protective dikes were holding the waters at bay. Neither the mill, nor the sugar plantation, nor the company's residential area had yet been affected.
Although the weather in neighbouring Malawi has improved, hence less water was flowing into the Zambezi from its major tributary, the Shire, the situation was reported compromised by increased discharges from the Cahora Bassa dam.
Rescue workers trying to evacuate scattered settlements in Marromeu district that are now regarded as high risk areas, were meeting resistance from local residents.
Mozambican Television (TVM) showed footage of families who did not wish to leave their homes, even though the water was lapping around them.
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In Tete city, the largest urban area on the Zambezi, low- lying areas are now flooded, and some of the city's industries are paralysed.
At Cahora Bassa, officials insist they must continue to release large quantities of water since the holding capacity of the dam (66 billion cubic metres) was almost exhausted.
Dam manager Fernando Cunha flatly denied rumours that the water pressure from the dam was now so great that its wall was beginning to suffer structural damage.
"This is just speculation", he told reporters, asserting that "there are over a thousand sensors in the dam wall that would alert us of any problem."
Cunha added that in March last year an assessment by a team of American engineers put Cahora Bassa among the best dams in the world in terms of safety.
Further south, the Pungue river remains in flood, but the levels have fallen sharply, and there is no longer any water on the Beira-Zimbabwe highway. The ban on night time use of the road has now been lifted.
A spokesman for the Sofala Provincial Public Works Directorate said that emergency repairs had been made to damaged parts of the road, allowing the restoration of normal traffic.
