OWN CORRESPONDENT, Maputo | Saturday
THE Zambezi river has risen to worrying levels, prompting fears of severe flooding in central Mozambique, an official said Friday, about a year after devastating floods in the southern African country.
“We are now getting worried with the latest developments in the Zambezi river”, said Joao Zamissa, head of planning in the National Institute of Disaster Management (INGC).
Some agricultural land around Zumbo and Mutarara in the northwestern Tete province and at Morrumbala in the central Zambezia province is already under water, Zamissa said.
He could not confirm a report in the daily Noticias which said on Thursday that more than 600 people had been displaced by stormy rains in Zambezia province in recent days.
However, he said “at least 63 families are known to have been displaced”.
Zamissa said that by Thursday morning, the level of the river had risen to between four and five metres as measured at various hydrometric stations along the river which cuts through Mozambique from the northwestern Tete province.
The flood alert level in the two most vulnerable districts of Zumbo and Mutarara districts is six metres.
Zamissa said the rise of the Zambezi was due to local rains, discharges from the Kariba dam in neighbouring Zambia and Zimbabwe, and large quantities of water coming down from Malawi on the Zambezi river’s tributary, the Shire river.
Zamissa said the INGC has placed relief aid and boats on standby.
Meteorologists are predicting between normal and above normal rainfall in the region, which could result in floods in Mozambique.
The floods that hit Mozambique last year claimed more than 700 lives and caused massive damage estimated at $600m. – AFP