Concern over new Caprivi flooding

As the level of the Zambezi river continues to rise, Namibia's disaster management agency, the Emergency Management Unit (EMU), has conducted a flood-threat assessment. There's mounting concern that Namibia could face the kind of flash flooding that devastated the northeastern Caprivi region last year. The region is one of the least developed in the country and, at 42 percent, has one of the highest HIV prevalence rates. In June 2003 some 12,000 people in 22 villages required emergency assistance, after a period of prolonged torrential rainfall in the Democratic Republic of Congo caused the Zambezi river to burst its banks downstream in the northeastern part of Namibia. Floodwaters covered more than 40 square kilometres, destroyed large tracts of farmland and drowned many livestock. The impact on the coping abilities of households was severe, as the country had been experiencing a drought, which has continued into 2004. EMU deputy director Gabriel Kangowa told IRIN on Monday that he had just returned from the northeast of the country and had submitted his flood-threat assessment report to the deputy president. The news agency, Inter Press Service, reported on Monday that the Zambezi river, usually the main source of overflows in the area, was rising. Vincent Simana, a senior research technician in the northern town of Katima Mulilo, had said the situation was worsened by the fact that most streams had not dried after last year's floods. "Major floods are expected and people living in the flood plains have to start making arrangements to relocate to higher ground, so that they will not be caught unawares like last year," Simana was quoted as saying. The World Food Programme (WFP) responded to a government appeal for assistance last year, distributing some 127 mt of food aid to those affected by the flooding.