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Moz floods 'expected to worsen'
16/01/2008 15:27 - (SA)
Maputo - The National Disaster Management Institute (INGC) of Mozambique said on Wednesday that the flooding situation in the central provinces could be worse than it was in 2000.
Deputy director of the INGC Joao Ribeiro, told the daily Noticias that the teams working in the flooded areas were encountering difficulties in moving people out of the flooded zones of central Mozambique.
He said shortages of helicopters and boats were worsening the situation. The most affected areas were Mutarara, Chirembwe and Jardim-Sede districts in Tete province along the Zambezi River.
The INGC had resorted to mobilising the local population to use their canoes to help in moving people from flooded areas.
On Tuesday, at least 2 112 people - out of an estimated 9 000 people - were rescued from their flooded homes in the Samarucha, Mutarara district, the paper reported.
Official figures indicated that by Monday, 53 982 people had been affected by floods since the beginning of the rainy season and some of them had been accommodated in refugee centres in Manica, Sofala and Tete provinces.
Meanwhile, the discharge from the Cahora Bassa dam on the Zambezi River was reduced on Monday from 6 600 cubic metres per second to 5 500 cubic metres per second.
Weather authorities predicted that more rain would fall in neighbouring Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe said this could worsen the flooding in the Zambezi basin.
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