Caprivi crop fields flooded

Crop fields in parts of Namibia's northeastern Caprivi region are already under water, and the government is making preparations to move people to higher ground.

Emergency Management Unit (EMU) Deputy Director Gabriel Kangowa told IRIN on Tuesday that he had visited areas in the Caprivi region last week, and found some of them had already suffered losses caused by the rising river levels of the Zambezi and its tributaries.

Heavy rains, which normally fall around March/April, had come earlier than expected. Kangowa said a total of 4,900 people were identified as likely to be affected in the areas visited during last week's flood-threat assessment.

The ministry of agriculture had been asked to forecast the crop hectares under possible threat. "This information is expected to reach us next week," he said. The situation was being monitored "very closely by our people in the region".

"We are busy distributing food in the region, and this programme will run up to May this year. So I'm quite sure these people will be covered for a period of six months," Kangowa said.

The government was also focussing on relocation efforts. "If we start relocating them to higher ground, then we must provide them with temporary shelter," Kangowa explained.

The Caprivi region was badly affected by floods last year, and peoples' ability to cope has also been eroded by the ongoing drought in the country.