Zambesi flood makes 285,000 homeless
Pastor Dale Morgan
Zambesi flood makes 285,000 homeless
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Chris McGreal in Johannesburg
Monday February 19, 2007
The Guardian
The Mozambican government is appealing for food and other aid for tens
of thousands of people driven from their homes by the worst flooding for
six years.
At least 30 people have been killed in Mozambique after torrential rains
across southern Africa caused the Zambezi river to burst its banks.
Although the government learned the lessons of the 2001 floods, in which
about 700 people died, and swiftly launched missions by boat and
helicopter to evacuate about 90,000 people from affected areas, it is
now rapidly running short of food for those collected in 33 temporary
camps, and lacks tents and other essentials for many of them.
The World Food Programme said it had begun airlifting supplies but it
planned to launch an appeal to donors to keep the food coming for at
least three months because many people had lost their harvests. Up to
285,000 people living along the Zambezi valley have been affected by the
flood waters.
The director of Mozambique's national institute for disaster management,
Paulo Zucula, said some of those in the camps were facing extremely
difficult conditions. "The people have been there for over a week
without proper feeding ... they are isolated and we can't go there by
road and we have to airlift some of them and drop food," he said.
Caroline Hooper-Box, an Oxfam worker in Mozambique, said about 1,000
people a day were arriving at some of the camps but for many there was
no shelter except the trees.
Mozambique's prime minister, Luisa Diogo, said there was also an urgent
need for clean water and she urged people not to return home.