Thousands wait to be plucked from floods in Mozambique

Jan 18, 2008, 16:42 GMT

Maputo/Lusaka - Thousands of people in Mozambique were still trapped in their homes Friday by rising floodwaters as heavy rains continued to pound southern Africa, heightening fears of a particularly severe flood season.

Mozambique's national disaster management agency INGC said close to 2,000 people were still waiting to be brought to safety by helicopter or boat as the death toll in the flooding rose to 12.

Aid agencies were preparing for a sharp deterioration of the situation as summer rains, arriving earlier than usual, continued to fall on Zambia, Malawi and Zimbabwe, feeding into rivers running through neighbouring Mozambique, particularly the Zambezi.

Up to 250,000 Mozambicans living along the Zambezi, Africa's fourth-largest river, could require food aid if flooding in the valley, caused by the unavoidable opening of floodgates in the Cahora Bassa dam continued, according to Action Aid and the UN World Food Programme.

'We are doing everything we can so save lives. We are prioritizing the removal of people from risk areas,' Joao Ribeiro, INGC deputy national director said.

The Zambezi had meanwhile claimed its first victim. The body of a man, who was apparently fishing in the valley, was seen floating in the water in Caia district bringing the death toll to 12, according to the INGC.

In Zambia, whose President Levy Mwanawasa this week declared a national disaster over the floods, a CARE worker said water levels in the south, where thousands of hectares of farmland, several schools and a key bridge have been submerged, were twice as high as the same time last year.

Three people have died in Zambia and around 60,000 people evacuated their homes in an effort coordinated by the vice- president's office and drawing on the involvement of around 19,000 Zambian Red Cross volunteers.

CARE was preparing for an eventual outbreak of waterborne diseases, such as cholera and malaria, evaluation monitor Michael Schroll told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa. CARE also predicted a 'serious threat' to the maize harvest.

Malawi and Zimbabwe have also been affected by the flooding. In Malawi five people have died and in Zimbabwe, at least 30 people succumbed to flooding caused by record heavy rains in December that appear to have abated.

Devastating floods in Mozambique in 2000/2001 killed 700 people and displaced half a million others.