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DAM-L zambezi flooding and dams/LS (fwd)
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Date: Thu, 1 Mar 2001 15:31:49 -0800
To: irn-safrica@netvista.net
From: Lori Pottinger <lori@irn.org>
Subject: zambezi flooding and dams/LS
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Weather Worsens, Flood Crisis Deepens
February 27, 2001
Posted to the web February 27, 2001
Charles Cobb Jr.
Washington, DC
Hard rains continue to fall as Mozambique's government
urges the more than 80,000 people in the towns of
Marromeu and Luabo downstream from the rapidly filling
Cahorra Bassa dam to move to highland areas. Dam
engineers have already doubled the amount of water
released from the dangerously full dam. More water may
have to be released over the next few days.
Meanwhile, further upstream at the Kariba dam shared
by Mozambique neighbors Zimbabwe and Zambia,
floodgates have also been opened causing a torrent of
floodwater to rush into the Zambezi threatening
Mozambique's northwestern city of Tete, the largest
population center on the river. "We sympathize with
our Mozambican counterpart," the Times of Zambia
newspaper reported Zambia's Deputy Minister of Energy
saying, "but the danger is that if the water is not
discharged from the dam, we fear that the damage to be
done to the dam might result in ... lots of
disasters."
More heavy downpours are forecast for Zimbabwe, Zambia
and Malawi as well as Mozambique.
An official at USAID described the government as "very
concerned" but quickly added that they were "very well
on top of the situation." US$125,000 has been sent to
the embassy in Mozambique as a contribution for
"logistical support," mainly the cost of leasing South
African based helicopters and fixed wing aircraft. "We
are very concerned that the problems of last year not
be repeated," the official said. During last year's
devastating floods in Mozambique and Southern Africa
the United States was sharply criticized for
responding late and inadequately.
Both the National Atmospheric and Oceanic
Administration and the U.S. Geological Survey have
been told by USAID that there may be sudden requests
for rainfall forecasts and analysis of river flows.
"We haven't been officially put on alert," a USGS
official said, "but we are expected to be prepared."
--------------------
Zambezi River Waters Invade Tete City
Panafrican News Agency (Dakar)
February 27, 2001
The waters of the Zambezi River are now flooding
low-lying parts of Tete city, the largest urban centre
on the river.
The Nhartanda valley, which forms part of the city,
was inundated in Monday morning, and the flood is
likely to cut the city in two some time on Tuesday.
Radio Mozambique reported that the high part of the
city is now like an island surrounded by water.
The Tete Municipal Council has been advised to
evacuate people from parts of the city now regarded as
unsafe. Similarly people in the neighbouring district
of Moatize have been told to move away from the banks
of the Revobue, a major tributary of the Zambezi,
which is also in full flood.
The management of HCB, the company that operates the
Cahora Bassa dam, reduced discharges from the dam on
Monday from 7,500 to 7,100 cubic metres of water a
second, according to Tuesday's issue of the daily
paper "Noticias".
But the dam lake is still receiving 11,000 cubic
metres a second pouring in from Zambia and Zimbabwe.
A spokesman for the HCB board of directors told the
paper "Our holding capacity is already at the limit.
We are discharging water in coordination with the
National Water Board in order not to create a
catastrophe in the Zambezi basin, even though the
situation is critical for the dam".
On Monday Tete provincial governor Tomas Mandlate told
reporters that the situation was now "alarming", and
he feared this disaster could rival the 1978 Zambezi
flood, the largest flood on the river in the 20th
century.
But in 1978 all eight Cahora Bassa lower floodgates
were opened, plus the surface sluice-gate, releasing a
massive 13,500 cubic metres of water a second. There
is still a long way to go before the discharges from
Cahora Bassa reach that level.
The district worst affected by the floods remains
Mutarara, at the confluence of the Zambezi and the
Shire rivers.
A total of 55,000 people are affected by the floods in
Mutarara, of whom 15,000 have sought refuge in
government accommodation centres, which are now in
urgent need of more tents, medicines, and chlorine to
purify drinking water.
Further downstream, in Sofala province, there are
about 26,300 people in five accommodation centres in
the district of Caia. The precarious state of access
roads is making re-supplying these centres difficult.
The major challenge to the authorities, however, is to
evacuate perhaps as many as 50,000 people from the
flood plains near the mouth of the river.
According to the Mozambican meteorology office,
rainfall is continuing in the centre of the country,
but is slackening in intensity. However, it is still
raining heavily in Malawi and Zambia, and much of this
rain is certain to be channelled towards the Zambezi.
----------------------
February 27, 2001
Posted to the web February 27, 2001
Johannesburg
A UN spokeswoman in Mozambique told IRIN on Tuesday
that a warning by Zambia that it may be forced to open
spillway gates on the Kariba dam would be "disastrous"
for Mozambique, battling with rising flood waters
downstream in the Zambezi valley.
The spokeswoman for the UN Resident Coordinator's
Office in Mozambique, Frances Christie, told IRIN that
Mozambique's Cahora Bassa dam had reached peak
capacity and had increased its discharge rate into the
Zambezi river valley to 9,000 cubic metres a second,
up from 7,500 cubic metres. If more water from Kariba
entered Cahora Bassa, more would have to be discharged
"and that's just going to make the situation downriver
disastrous", she said.
The 'Times of Zambia' reported Celestino Chibamba,
deputy minister of energy and water development as
saying on Monday: "We sympathize with our Mozambican
counterpart, but the danger is that if the water is
not discharged from the dam, we fear that the damage
to be done to the dam might result in ... lots of
disasters." He added that the Zambian government would
try to help minimise the impact on Mozambique.
Currently two spill gates on Kariba are open to ease
the pressure on the dam as it struggles to cope with
rising water levels as a result of heavy rains across
the region, news reports said. Mozambique had earlier
appealed to Zambia not to open any more, so as not to
aggravate flooding in the centre of the country which
has displaced 77,000 people and affected 400,000 since
January. At least 41 people have died.
Flood waters swamped low-lying areas of Mozambique's
major northwestern town of Tete on Tuesday, 100 km
downstream from Cahora Bassa, news reports said. Tete
is home to around 100,000 people. In the rest of the
river valley, the government estimates that 105,000
people are at potential risk, Christie said. Several
thousand have been evacuated in the past few weeks by
the Mozambican navy and transported to accommodation
centres mainly in Caia and Mutarara. Some 13,200
displaced have been registered in Caia, with 18,400
displaced people in the district as a whole.
Humanitarian relief efforts have concentrated on
evacuating people from around the towns of Marromeu
and Luabo.
WFP said in a report on Monday that food stocks were
ready to supply 80,000 people. The agency added that
reports from the field suggested that the Pungue
river, which crosses Manica and Sofala provinces from
Zimbabwe, had burst its banks, severing road access to
the port city of Beira. Further south, the Save river
is also on alert breaking its banks in several places
and threatening 30,000 people. The level of the Save
has risen and fallen repeatedly over the past few
weeks.
"The situation is expected to worsen with heavy
downpours forecast not only in central Mozambique but
also in neighbouring Zambia, Malawi and Zimbabwe,
whose swollen rivers flow directly into Mozambique,"
the WFP report said.
Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe's Civil Protection Unit told IRIN on Tuesday
that a comprehensive damage assessment of the
flood-hit northeast of the country had been
constrained by swamped roads. CPU deputy Sibusisiwe
Ndhlovu said air force helicopters had airlifted
tents, food and blankets to 16,000 people in the
Guruve and Muzavavani areas of Mashonaland central,
along the borders with Mozambique and Zambia, forced
from their homes by heavy rains and the backwash of
the Zambezi river. The affected communities were
sheltering in schools and public buildings in the
area.
Zambia
People stranded by flooding in Zambia's eastern
Luangwa region have received no food aid for weeks
since access roads to the region were cut, AFP quoted
a cabinet minister as saying on Tuesday. Fidelis
Mando, Zambia's information and broadcasting deputy
minister and an MP for Luangwa, said food destined for
15,000 flood victims had not yet arrived. He added
that water levels were, however, slowly subsiding.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright ? 2001 UN Integrated Regional Information
Network. Distributed by allAfrica.com. For information
about the content or for permission to redistribute,
publish or use for broadcast, contact the publisher.
--
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
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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