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dam-l Mozambique floods continue/LS
Feb. 17, 2000 BBC story:
Rising Limpopo threatens Mozambique
Mozambique faces a new onslaught of floodwaters as rain which
fell in South Africa's highlands rushes towards the coast.
The government in Maputo says more than 200,000 people have
been already been affected by the floods.
Large parts of Mozambique,
South Africa, Swaziland and
Botswana last week experienced
their heaviest rains in 40 years,
which caused widespread
flooding in all four countries.
Although the heaviest storms are
over, rain is still falling over
southern Mozambique, and the
greatest threat comes from
swollen rivers that are carrying more water into the country.
Reports say the normally sluggish Limpopo River is 5km wide in
places, and the rising waters are threating Xai-Xai, the
capital of
Gaza province.
Further up the Limpopo, the World Food Programme is planning
to airlift supplies to some 4,500 people stranded without food,
shelter or water around the towns of Chokwe and Macarratane.
In the town of Sabie, close to the South African border, the
9,000
residents have already been evacuated.
Landmines
In some places, landmines left
over from the country's civil
war, have been washed from the
soil and are an added hazard to
local people.
Some observers have said that
the floods could prove eventually
to be even more devastating than
the 17-year conflict which left
Mozambique among the world's
poorest countries.
Relief agencies are warning of
malaria and cholera epidemics in
the wake of the flooding.
There could also be a need for
food aid because crops have been destroyed in farm areas.
Access difficult
As rain continued to fall in Maputo province, access to
flood-stricken areas by road was difficult, according to a
report by
the UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs
(OCHA).
The northern part of the province remained cut off, the
report said.
In the capital, Maputo, 8,000 people are sheltering in
schools and
a factory.
The municipality said it urgently
needed 400 tents, 40 mobile
latrines, food, milk, clothing,
blankets, construction materials
and generators.
Thousands of people in southern
and central Mozambique remain
cut off, and aid agencies are
arranging airlifts of food and
medical supplies.
South Africa, as the regional
military and economic power,
has been providing logistical
assistance to neighbouring
countries, flying food cargo into
the worst affected areas and
using army helicopters to rescue people from stranded villages.
Makeshift toll bridges
In South Africa itself, officials in Northern Province
estimate it
will cost almost $150m to repair the road network in that
province
alone.
Locals have erected makeshift bridges and are charging people to
make a crossing.
Farmers in the area say their crops have been devastated.
In Botswana, the capital Gaborone has been cut off from the rest
of the country for several days, after road and rail links were
washed away.
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Lori Pottinger, Director, Southern Africa Program,
and Editor, World Rivers Review
International Rivers Network
1847 Berkeley Way, Berkeley, California 94703, USA
Tel. (510) 848 1155 Fax (510) 848 1008
http://www.irn.org
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