Deadly flooding in parts of Namibia has left thousands of people homeless and in need of food and shelter, aid workers and officials said on Sunday.
In the north-east of the country, next to the border with Zambia and Botswana, the situation was still disastrous, with water levels rising, said the government’s chief hydrologist Guido van Langenhove.
And there were fears that heavy rains in Angola might bring more flooding south into northern Namibia.
“Satellite images are indicating this,” said Van Langenhove.
More than 5 000 people had taken shelter in tents on higher ground at Schuckmannsburg in the north-east Caprivi region, on the border with Zambia. But the floods had covered maize fields in the area.
“We have a shortage of tents to house more people and boats to reach isolated villages cut off by rising waters in the flood plains,” said Leonard Mwilima, the governer of Caprivi.
Water levels were falling in northern Namibia, along the border with Angola, but about 13 400 people had had to flee their homes; and more than 78 293 people had lost both the crops in their fields and those they had harvested.
“These people will need food supplies for the next few months,” said Erastus Negonga, the local flood relief coordinator, in Oshakati, 800km north of the capital Windhoek.
Dozens of gravel roads in the region had also been washed away, he added.
The flooding in the Namibia has already claimed 85 lives, according to the authorities.
Figures released Thursday by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said that 344 000 people had been affected by the flooding in Namibia; 220 000 — and 24 dead — in Angola.
With rains and flooding expected to continue into the middle of May, especially in Angola, the report expressed concern about the risk of water-borne diseases. – AFP