Floods: Mozambique evacuating 55 000
2013-01-22 17:20
Maputo - Mozambique authorities on Tuesday started emergency evacuations in
the flood-struck south where 55 000 people are said to be in immediate
danger from rising water levels.
"We are asking people to move to
safer areas. We estimate there are 55 000 people affected," a
spokesperson for Mozambique's Disaster Relief Management Institute
(INGC), Rita Almeida, told AFP.
Emergency teams are already in place and motorboats have been dispatched to the area to take people to safe ground.
The
south and the centre of the country have been placed under red alert
after experiencing the heaviest rainfalls seen since devastating floods
killed around 800 people in 2000.
Today's inundations have already
killed 35 people since the start of the rainy season in October and
eight major rivers are above crisis levels.
From Sunday to Monday
almost 185mm of rain poured over the
Limpopo river basin in southern province Gaza, where the most vulnerable
communities live.
Experts predict that the southern town of
Chokwe - which saw water rise to roof level in previous floods - could
again bear the brunt of the floods.
"We are registering very high
water levels in the Limpopo and Inkomati rivers that could flood the
town of Chokwe," said Almeida.
International organisations are preparing for the worst case-scenario.
"There
is a big dyke in Chokwe that is giving problems. They are afraid if
that dyke breaks, all those people will have to move rapidly," World
Food Programme country head Lola Castro told AFP.
The evacuees would be taken to 10 temporary accommodation centres, she said.
Rains
in neighbouring countries also swelled rivers, and authorities opened
the sluices from two dams in the south to lower dangerous levels.
Coastal
Mozambique is home to nine international river basins, making it
especially vulnerable to flooding. Although the rainfall has stopped in
most areas, the risk of flooding remains high as waters arrive from
further inland.
- SAPA
