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DAM-L Moz. dam balancing act/LS KARIBA DAM (fwd)
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Date: Mon, 26 Mar 2001 11:06:12 -0800
To: irn-safrica@netvista.net
From: Lori Pottinger <lori@irn.org>
Subject: Moz. dam balancing act/LS
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Interesting note at end of first article about looking for funding to build
people houses outside of the floodplain.
High Commissioner praises Zambian restraint
Maputo, 23 Mar (AIM) - The Mozambican high
commissioner in Zambia, Cristofa Jamo, has praised the
Zambian authorities for their cooperation in the
current flood crisis, affecting the Zambezi valley.
According to a dispatch from the Zambia News Agency
(ZANA), Jamo on Thursday expressed Mozambique's
gratitude for Zambia's restraint in not opening more
floodgates at the Kariba dam.
He was reacting to a statement earlier in the week
from the Zambian Deputy Minister of Energy, Major
Celestino Chibamba, who said that Zambia had taken
steps to protect the people of Mozambique from further
flooding by just maintaining two floodgates open.
Thr Kariba dam has four floodgates, and had all of
them been open, much more water would have poured down
the Zambezi into Mozambique, putting greater pressure
on the Cahora Bassa dam to release more water.
Jamo said Mozambique was "overwhelmed" by the positive
response and cooperation it has received from Zambia.
He said the Zambian government's positive response to
pleas not to open all the floodgates showed how much
Zambia was prepared to bear the sufferings of the
Mozambican people.
On Tuesday, the Zambezi River Authority (ZRA) had said
it was because the company was mindful of the
situation in Mozambique that it had only opened two of
the Kariba floodgates.
Inside Mozambique, Cahora Bassa continues to release
less water than it is receiving - and there is a limit
to how long this can continue.
On Thursday, Cahora Bassa was discharging 6,651 cubic
metres of water a second, but the amount entering the
dam lake (not merely from Kariba, but also from the
upstream Zambezi tributaries) was 11,703 cubic metres
a second.
With heavy rain continuing in Tete province, the level
of the river has risen again at the provincial
capital, Tete city. The river, measured at 7.24 metres
on Tuesday, rose to 7.41 metres early on Thursday
morning, falling back to 7.35 metres a few hours later.
Nonetheless, Tete provincial governor Tomas Mandlate
regards the situation as reasonably calm.
According to Friday's issue of the Maputo daily
"Noticias", Mandlate told a meeting of the provincial
government on Thursday that the immediate emergency of
evacuating people from dangerous areas was now over.
"Now it is urgent to find funding for building houses
in safer areas for resettling the population", he
said. "We have already presented donors with the kinds
of construction we want to use to build new
neighbourhoods in Mutarara, Zumbo and Changara
districts".
--------------------------------------------------
Flooding in central Mozambique worsens
Maputo, 26 Mar (AIM) - Flooding in central Mozambique
worsened again over the weekend, as the levels of the
two major rivers, the Zambezi and the Pungue, rose
sharply.
The rise of the Zambezi was largely due to the opening
of a further floodgate on the Cahora Bassa dam.
For several days the dam had been operating with just
three of its eight floodgates open, which meant that
it was releasing about half as much water as the dam
lake was receiving, a situation which could not
continue indefinitely.
Last Thursday, Cahora Bassa was discharging 6,617
cubic metres of water per second, but the lake was
receiving (from the upstream Zambezi tributaries, and
from the Kariba dam) 12,327 cubic metres a second.
For many days the lake had been holding more water
than its theoretical maximum (reached when the height
of the lake at the dam wall measures 326 metres above
sea level). Thus on Saturday, the Cahora Bassa
operating company, HCB, opened a fourth floodgate,
increasing the discharges to 8,300 cubic metres a
second.
As a result, reports Monday's issue of the Maputo
daily "Noticias", the Tete provincial government met
on Sunday and decided to resume evacuating people from
danger areas, particularly in the locality of
Inhangoma, at the confluence of the Zambezi and Shire
rivers. The evacuations had ceased last week, when the
level of the Zambezi was dropping.
A sharp rise in the level of the Pungue led, for the
fourth time in less than two months, to the closure of
a key stretch of the Beira-Zimbabwe roads.
The waters of the Pungue swept across the road,
between the small towns of Tica and Mutua, some 60
kilometres west of Beira, on Saturday.
Sections of road that had been repaired just a week
ago were damaged again, and the Sofala Provincial
Public Works Directorate closed the Mutua-Tica stretch
to all traffic.
This means that it is once again impossible to travel
by road from Beira either west towards Zimbabwe, or
south towards Maputo. (AIM)
---------------------------------------------
Mozambique News Agency
c/o 114 Stanford Avenue
Brighton BN1 6FE
UK.
--
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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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