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Moz warns flood victims
11/01/2008 21:07 - (SA)
Maputo - Mozambique's disaster management officials on Friday warned people who slipped back home after evacuating from flood-hit parts of the country they would be forced to return to resettlement areas.
Floods in Mozambique, a feature of the summer rainy season, have claimed three lives so far since December. In neighbouring Zimbabwe the death toll stands at over 30.
Joao Ribeiro, deputy national director of the National Institute for Disaster Management (INGC), accused evacuees who returned home despite the worsening floods in the valleys of four major rivers of undermining state efforts to avoid fatalities.
Officials at the National Emergency Operations Centre said people who had returned home to flood-hit parts of Inhambane province would be moved back to camps on higher ground, by force if necessary.
Mozambique is on maximum flood alert level as continuing rainfall in neighbouring countries such as Zambia, Zimbabwe and Malawi nudged up the levels of the Pungue, Buzi, Save and Zambezi rivers to dangerous levels.
Given the threat of the river bursting its banks, authorities have been releasing water from the Cahora Bassa dam on the Zambezi at the rate of 6 600 cubic metres per second, flooding lower parts of Tete province.
Farms, factories and government buildings have been inundated.
Standing at Samora Machel bridge, in Tete, peasant farmer Aldina Fernando told local television: "I've lost the entire crop. Everything has gone with the water. It's been a waste of time and hard work."
"The water is nearing each time I look around," Marcelino Adriano, a security guard at a local soap and oil factory, said. "Maybe tomorrow I won't be here."
So far 41 000 people had been evacuated from their homes to temporary shelters, Minister of Home Affairs Lucas Chomera told public Radio Mozambique.
Three people had drowned in Sofala province, Chomera said. But authorities fear the casualties may be higher as thousands of people remain stranded in remote water-logged areas.
The INGC has been praised for coordinating an efficient rescue and relief effort, contrasting with the chaotic scenes of 2000 and 2001 when some 700 people died and around half a million were displaced by devastating floods.
Sapa-dpa
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