Incomati flood laps at edges of EN1

The flood surge down the Incomati River in southern Mozambique on 9 March reached Manhica district, about 80 kilometres north of Maputo, and was lapping at the edges of the country’s main north-south highway.

Water was on both sides of the main road, near the 3rd February village – the same spot where the river has submerged the road during several previous rainy seasons.

Further upstream the flood has completely disrupted communications in Magude district. The bridge on the road from Magude to the neighbouring district of Moamba is under water, and it is not yet clear how badly damaged it is. The roads from Magude town to the other parts of the district have been cut.

Electricity pylons and trees have been swept away by the fast flowing river. Farmers and companies unable to move their equipment in time have seen pumps, tractors and vehicles submerged. Crops are under water, but no preliminary estimate of the costs of the flood has been made.

Death toll

So far, the death toll from floods and storms in the current rainy season (from October 2013 up until March) is 17, Minister for State Administration, Carmelita Namashalua, told the Assembly of the Republic on 5 March.

Seven were killed by lightning strikes, five were drowned, four died when houses collapsed, and one was killed by a falling tree.

Answering questions about the government’s response to natural disasters, Namashalua said that a further 76 people had been injured, 1,665 houses had been destroyed, and a further 5,905 were damaged.

The flooding affected 20,687 hectares of crops, of which 8,034 hectares have been lost, affecting 15,077 peasant households. Namashalua said the amount of crops lost is equivalent to 0.54 per cent of the area sown.

In general, however, the rains have been a blessing for Mozambican agriculture. Namashalua said “there are good prospects for the harvest throughout the country, due to the regular rainfall and its good spatial and temporal distribution, but mainly to the government’s efforts in providing agricultural inputs and equipment”.

Poor sanitary conditions mean that there is always a spike in water borne diseases during the rainy season. In January and the first half of February, 12,995 cases of diarrhoeal diseases were notified, with five deaths.

Some of these cases, in Nampula province, were believed to be cholera. There were also fears of cholera in Tete, Niassa and Zambezia, said Namashalua, but the cholera bacterium was not confirmed in any of the samples taken.

Prime Minister Alberto Vaquina pointed out that the intensity of the rains was not very different from previous rainy season “but the human and social impact has been limited thanks to the government’s work in improving the early warning systems, in repairing protective dikes, and in the gradual removal of people from dangerous to safer areas”.

Major resettlement work was retaken after the 2007 and 2008 Zambezi floods. Vaquina said there are now 110 resettlement areas in the Zambezi, Buzi, Save, Limpopo and Incomati basins “where people are living in relative stability and tranquillity without the risk of losing their property or their lives, or becoming displaced, every year when the rainy season arrives”.

It was in these areas, Vaquina added, that the government has been urging people to settle “abandoning the uncertainty and dangers of zones of risk”.