Mozambique on red alert as flooding worsens

MAPUTO, Mozambique: Mozambican disaster management authorities have declared the highest level of alert and put full emergency operations into place as severe flooding affects 55,000 people.

Minister of State Administration Lucas Chomera, who is deputy chairman of the Disaster Management Coordinating Council, made the announcement on state radio and television Thursday night.

"Aware that the situation may get worse before the end of the rainy season, we have decided to declare a red alert," the highest, he said.

Chomera said the 2007-08 rainy season began earlier than normal in the south and center of the country.

In October and November, "some areas received as much rain as they would normally receive in six months," he said.

Torrential rains also fell in Zambia and Zimbabwe, which contributed to a sharp rise in water levels in the main rivers of central Mozambique.

This week the Zambezi, the Pungue, the Buzi and the Save rivers were all above critical level, Chomera said.

The Save was about two meters (more than six feet) higher than the alert level, and not far from levels reached during the massive floods in 1976, while flooding on the Buzi is expected to be worse than the catastrophic flooding of February 2000.

The situation on the Zambezi River is a cause for concern with the operators of the Cahora Bassa dam forced to increase its discharges from 4,500 to 5,100 cubic meters a second.

The main road between Mozambique and Zimbabwe has been cut off and several rescue operations have been launched to take people clinging to rooftops and to trees to safety.

Chomera said that so far about 13,000 people have been evacuated from critical areas and moved to higher ground or to government-run accommodation centers.

He said the government's contingency plan for natural disasters this year amounted to about US$3.4 million.