Moz to evacuate 100 000

2008-02-08 07:28

Maputo - Mozambique will evacuate about 100 000 people from areas around the Zambezi after Zambia announced it would open the floodgates of the Kariba dam, said authorities said on Thursday.

Deputy director of the National Institute of Disaster Management (INDC) Joao Ribeiro said the agency was closely monitoring tributaries along Zambezi, particularly the Chire River, which was likely to burst its banks.

"We are beefing up evacuation by boats, initially we had predicted that about 200 000 people could be affected, but half of these people have been evacuated, we need to evacuate everybody before February 11", he said.

Ribeiro said water would take nine days to flow down the Zambezi into Mozambique, swamping already-flooded areas on the Indian Ocean coast.

Heavy rains continue

Ribeiro said: "We are going to involve the army in the operations as we know that some people are reluctant to move... We are also expecting a cyclone and an earthquake in that region, that is why we want everybody out in the next three days."

Zambia said on Tuesday it would release a further 3 000 cubic metres per second of water from the Kariba dam before February 11.

The Zambezi River Authority (ZRA), which controlled the Kariba Dam on the Zambia-Zimbabwe border, said more gates could be opened as heavy rains continued.

In 2005, The Zambezi River Authority opened spillway gates at Kariba North Bank power station on the Zambezi River, causing severe flooding in eastern Zambia and parts of Mozambique.

Zambia, Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Malawi had been lashed by heavy rain for several weeks, causing swollen rivers to burst their banks and forcing thousands of villagers to flee flooded homes.

- Reuters