Limpopo river nearing alert levels

The level of the Limpopo river, in the southern Mozambican province of Gaza, has been rising over the past few days, and in places is nearing the flood alert point, Mozambican news reports said on Thursday.

The increase in water levels is mainly due to heavy rainfall in countries upstream, such as South Africa. In recent weeks parts of South Africa's eastern Mpumalanga, which borders Zimbabwe, and the northern parts of the Free State have been experiencing heavy rains.

"We need to remember that in Mozambique's case, even if they do not receive heavy or above normal rainfalls, any heavy rains in countries like South Africa and Zimbabwe will have an impact on water levels in Mozambique. Most of the regions major rivers flow into Mozambique," a South African disaster management official told IRIN.

He said that officials would continue to monitor the situation in Mozambique and in South Africa. "Experience has shown that disaster management in the two countries are very much inter-linked," he said.

Meanwhile, humanitarian sources in Mozambique told IRIN that one of their biggest concerns at the moment was in convincing local people to leave their homes and move to higher ground. "It is not easy telling people to leave their homes behind and move on, even if it is just for a short period of time. And the trick is convincing people to move before rivers burst their banks, in this way we can prevent potential disasters," one aid worker said.

Mozambique has suffered two consecutive years of flood disasters. At the beginning of this year, some 500,000 people were affected by flooding after heavy rains deluged the southern African region.