No alarm over flooding

Zambia’s opening of a floodgate at Kariba dam at the weekend has raised the level downstream of Mozambique’s flood-prone Zambezi river, “but it’s nothing alarming at all”, a humanitarian official told IRIN.

State radio reported on Wednesday that the Zambezi burst its banks inundating agricultural land in the districts of Zumbo and Magoe in Mozambique’s northern Tete province following the opening of one of Kariba’s five spillways. An unspecified number of people living in low-lying areas were evacuated to higher ground, said the radio.

But according to the aid worker, it was not unusual for people planting on floodplains to lose their crops. He added that before the flood gate was opened upstream, Zambia had been assured by the Mozambican authorities that its giant Cahora Bassa dam could cope with the extra water. Zambia said it was forced to ease the pressure on the reservoir at Kariba after recent rains.

Meanwhile, the humanitarian community in Mozambique is still feeding 150,000 people affected by last year’s floods that devastated five provinces in the south and centre of the country. Between normal and above normal rainfall is forecast for this season. But some land remains waterlogged, and therefore vulnerable to repeat flooding.