Heavy rains and floods continued over large parts of southern Africa this week. On Thursday the UN Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, said in a statement that he was "deeply concerned at the rapidly deteriorating flood situation in".
"Mozambique is inches away from a humanitarian disaster. Despite the continuing efforts of the Government, United Nations agencies, and other humanitarian partners, some 50,000 people may need urgent evacuation," the statement said. "The Secretary-General appeals to governments and the private sector with the capacity to position marine and helicopter assets in central Mozambique to respond urgently."
Earlier in the week the UN in Mozambique appealed for US $10.7 million to help Mozambique deal with the floods. "The objective of the United Nations Inter-Agency Appeal is to raise funds for the immediate emergency relief for people affected by floods in Mozambique," the UN said in its appeal document. "The appeal concentrates on providing emergency relief to the most vulnerable, particularly those left homeless and destitute. It covers the needs for immediate emergency humanitarian relief and prevention of secondary problems in health, water, sanitation, food and shelter." The UN said US $2.4 million was needed for health care, US $1.8 million for water and sanitation needs, US $200,000 for shelter, US $2.4 million for food and agriculture and US $514,000 for education. It added that a further US $2.6 million was needed for transport and logistics and US $684,000 for coordination purposes.
In Malawi, an estimated 335,000 people have been affected in 13 of the country's 25 districts. In response to the situation the UN said in a statement this week that it was "mobilising logistical and emergency support" to assist the Malawi government. In a press release on Friday, WFP said that it would this weekend begin distributing food to about 60,000 people. "Tens of thousands of people who have fled to higher and dryer ground have only managed to take enough food to sustain them for a few days," said Adama Diop-Faye, WFP Country Director for Malawi. "The number of Malawians displaced by the floods pounding the region is growing every day and we are moving in food as quickly as possible to prevent a humanitarian disaster."
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WFP said that an assessment mission to the four most-affected districts of Nsanje and Chikwawa in the south, and Salima and Nkhotakota in central Malawi, reported that nearly 280,000 people have been negatively affected by the floods in one way or another in these four districts alone.
In Zimbabwe, the floods have hit the northeastern province of Mashonoland Central, near the Mozambican border and to a lesser extent the southeastern province of Masvingo. In Mashonoland Central the worst hit districts were Muzarabani where an estimated 10,000 people had been affected and Chadereka where 5,700 had been displaced.
In Zambia, an estimated 5,000 people had been left homeless. Zambian news reports said this week that the situation in the eastern Luangwa valley had worsened as authorities at the Kariba Dam had been forced to keep two of the dam's four spill way gates open because of the heavy rains. "This has been very disastrous," Deputy Information Minister Fidelis Mando was quoted as saying. Mando said most villagers in the region had lost their crops and the situation would likely get worse when the rains peaked around April.
For more reports on IRIN's coverage of the floods please go to: http://www.reliefweb.int/IRIN/sa/safp.phtml
