Torrential rains are lashing Angola, Mozambique and Zambia, killing scores of people, leaving thousands homeless and causing severe crop damage, writes IRINnews.
In the Angolan capital, Luanda, floodwaters are still rising and the death toll has exceeded 75 people, with around 50 others reported missing. About 1,200 families have been displaced and aid workers fear that if the rains continue a wider humanitarian crisis could be provoked.
After 340mm of rain fell in Mozambique within 24 hours on Saturday and Sunday, water levels reached one metre, leaving about 3,000 people homeless in Quelimane, capital of Mozambique’s Zambezia Province. Five people are reported to have died.
The flooding was not 100 percent a surprise for the people. Following continual rain last week leaflets had been distributed, cars with megaphones and the radio to told people to expect flooding and what to do.
However the intensity of the rains was a surprise, and the fact that it happened at night was more problematic.
Mozambique lacks rescue equipment, such as boats, and most of the country’s helicopters are grounded for maintenance.
The rainy season in Mozambique usually lasts until the end of March.
In Zambia, rain has swamped at least 21 of the country’s 73 districts and is threatening to disappoint expectations of a third consecutive year of a surplus on the maize harvest.
Heavy downpours have occurred since the second week of December 2006 in the agriculturally rich regions of Eastern, Northern, Western and North-Western provinces.
In sharp contrast the Southern Province is experiencing drought, while the remaining three provinces have received normal seasonal rainfall.
Analysts told IRIN the ‘feast or famine’ rainfall pattern could drastically reduce food production. The forthcoming harvest season will certainly be affected, Peter Cottan, vice-president of the Millers Association of Zambia, told IRIN.
In 2006, Zambia posted a crop surplus of 1.5 million metric tonnes above its annual requirement of 1.2 million metric tonnes. The state-run Food Reserve Agency [FRA], exported the surplus crop to neighbouring Tanzania and Zimbabwe to pay the thousands of small-scale farmers for their crop.
“We are appealing to the government to immediately discontinue the maize exports because we are not certain of what lies ahead of us. In fact, the small-scale farmers who were selling maize to the millers have since run out of stocks, and we are now having to buy from the FRA at a more expensive price, Cottan said.
Dominiciano Mulenga, co-ordinator of the government’s Disaster Management and Mitigation Unit, said government was yet to audit the flood damage.
Bridges, roads and a good number of crop fields, which are in their early stages of growth, are still submerged in most areas. There’s fear that if it continues to rain in the way it is raining now in these places, the worst may come before it gets better.
– We are not even able to know the number of people affected, but there is no one sleeping in the cold, he said.
Agriculture minister Ben Kapita said although the flooding was expected to reduce this year’s anticipated maize production it was unlikely that food security would be affected.
– With these disasters, I expect that we will either maintain last year’s production or reduce it to 1.2 million tonnes, which is still sufficient for our annual consumption,” he said.
According to a United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) official, who declined to be identified, WFP has not yet been approached by the government to extend assistance to flood victims, so we can’t say anything on the extent of the damage or even the impact of the floods on this year’s harvest.
