SOUTHERN AFRICA: Heavy rainfall claims lives, leaves thousands homeless

Photo: IFRC

After four years of failed rains, southern Malawi has been flooded

JOHANNESBURG, 3 January 2006 (IRIN) - Heavy rainfall and flooding in southern Africa over the past few days has claimed eight lives in Mozambique and left thousands homeless in Malawi. "Incessant rainfall and lightning across the country claimed two lives in the central Sofala province, four in the northern Zambezia [province] and another two in the southern Gaza province in the past few days," a spokesman for Mozambique's National Institute for Disaster Management (INGC), Rogerio Manguele, told IRIN on Tuesday. In an ironic twist of fate, the drought-ravaged Nsanje district in southern Malawi experienced its worst flooding in almost half a century. At least 2,000 people were displaced as the river Ruo burst its banks to flood six villages, district commissioner Toby Solomon told IRIN. "The Ruo flows into the river Shire and when it burst its banks it forced the Shire to change its direction, making it flow into settlements," he explained. "The people had no food because of the drought - now the floods have destroyed maize, millet and sorghum crops along the banks of the rivers. At least 457 hectares of land are under water. People are still being rescued with the help of boats and canoes," Solomon added. In neighbouring Mozambique around 1,600 affected families in the northeastern province of Nampula have been forced to seek refuge in schools, said INGC's Manguele. In the Dondo and Nhamatanda districts of Sofala over a hundred families living on the flood plains of the river Pungue have been left homeless, while at least 500 farmers have lost their crops. According to the INGC, water levels in most of the rivers have stabilised, but heavy rain in neighbouring Zimbabwe and Malawi could cause serious flooding, particularly along the Zambezi, Southern Africa's longest river, which flows through western Angola, western and southern Zambia and into Lake Kariba, then across northern Zimbabwe and central Mozambique. News agencies quoting Zimbabwean health authorities reported on Tuesday that the torrential rains have led to a cholera outbreak in southeastern Zimbabwe, killing seven people. Harare has also suffered hundreds of dysentery cases this rainy season, brought on by collapsing sanitation services and mounting heaps of garbage, according to Associated Press. In southern Malawi heavy rain continued to pelt Nsanje, causing flooding not only along the Shire, which Malawi shares with Mozambique, but in other rivers like Nyamazire and Lalanje in the north of the district. "We need food, drinking water and tents urgently and as the rains continue we will also require medicines to prevent the outbreak of waterborne diseases like cholera," said Solomon. Malawi Red Cross spokesman Francis Musasa told IRIN that the organisation was assessing the situation and would make an appeal for help soon. Food aid agencies have estimated that nearly five million people in Malawi will need food assistance through to April 2006 as a result of the drought.