Voldsom regn i et ellers tørkepræget område af Zimbabwe har fået Præsident Mugabe til at kalde situationen en ‘national katastrofe’. Regeringen beder nu de internationale samfund om hjælp, fordi man frygter at en ikke-fuldført dæmning vil bryde sammen.
HARARE, 13. February 2014 (IRIN): The Zimbabwean government has appealed to the international community for nearly 20 million US dollar (henved 110 mio. DKR) ( to help evacuate and assist 60.000 people at risk of being swept away by rapidly rising water in a partially constructed dam, following heavy rainfall in the normally drought-prone (tørke-udsatte) Masvingo province in the southeast.
The region has received 850 mm of rain, nearly double the annual average according to local officials, and there are fears that the unfinished Tokwe-Mukosi Dam, which is being built with government funding by an Italian company, Salini, will not withstand the volume of water.
National katastrofe
President Robert Mugabe declared the situation in the Tokwe-Mukosi Dam Basin a state of national disaster after water levels came within five metres of overflowing the dam wall on 4 February.
Communities downstream from the dam and along the Tokwe River and its tributaries were instructed to “take necessary precautions to avoid danger”.
60.000 mennesker i risiko
However, the government’s emergency appeal noted that as of 9 February, only 36 families out of a targeted 2.230 had been moved because only 20 trucks were available to carry the families and their belongings to relocation sites.
According to the appeal, “About 20.000 people within the dam basin are at high risk, while another 40.000 downstream are at medium risk of flooding.”
Manglende indsats fra regeringen
The unfinished wall of the dam consists of compacted rocks, which has yet to be covered with a layer of concrete. Enough water to flood several villages near the dam basin has already escaped through the wall.
The flooded villages are among those which should have been resettled by October 2013 as part of the government’s phased relocation plan, which aims to eventually move 32,000 people and their livestock to make way for the dam.
Tasara Wamambo, director of the Tokwe-Mukosi Rehabilitation and Resettlement Trust, which represents families affected by the dam and advocates their rights, blamed the government for failing to warn villagers about the flood risk:
“The Meteorological Department should have issued an early warning to the villagers, and this could have assisted towards earlier relocation. A lot of livestock have been lost and this will further worsen the livelihoods of the villagers.”
Store skader
Heavy rains around the country have resulted in flooding in many areas, leaving communities stranded.
Six people are known to have died, and homes, crops and livestock have all been washed away. Roads and bridges have also been destroyed in Mashonaland West province, Mashonaland Central province and Tsholotsho district in southwestern Zimbabwe.
Læs hele artiklen her: http://www.irinnews.org/report/99641/villages-flooded-as-heavy-rains-weaken-zimbabwe-dam
