Zambia declares flood disaster as raging rains lash region
Pastor Dale Morgan
*Zambia declares flood disaster as raging rains lash region*
18 Jan 2008 09:27:42 GMT
Source: Reuters
By Shapi Shacinda
LUSAKA, Jan 18 (Reuters) - Zambia has declared a national disaster after
floods swept through the southern African nation and several
neighbouring countries, killing at least 45 people and destroying roads,
bridges, crops and livestock.
"This is a national disaster and it requires concerted efforts of all of
us to solve," Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa said on state television
late on Thursday after inspecting flooded areas in southern Zambia.
Zambia, Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Malawi have been lashed by heavy rains
for several weeks, causing swollen rivers to burst their banks and
forcing thousands of villagers to flee flooded homes.
Panicked residents have drowned or been killed by crocodiles as they
attempted to cross rivers for higher ground.
With no sign of a let-up in the rainy weather, there are growing fears
the flooding could worsen in the coming weeks and devastate the largely
agricultural-based economies of the region in the middle of the critical
summer growing season.
Heavy downpours are common in southern Africa in the rainy season, which
runs generally from November to April, but the relentless rain is
unusual and has caught officials off guard.
Zambia's government has appealed for $13 million in emergency funds from
Western donors to cope with the crisis.
Authorities have closed schools, converting them into shelters for those
displaced. Some refugees are living in tents provided by the government
and relief agencies.
Mozambique, which has resisted asking for foreign assistance, was
bracing for more heavy flooding one day after the amount of water in the
Limpopo river, one of its largest, rose to alarming levels.
The government is evacuating people from areas initially deemed safe but
now considered dangerous. U.N. agencies have warned the flooding there
could be worse than in 2000-2001, when 700 people died and another half
a million became refugees.
Concerns also are high in Zimbabwe, which has struggled to feed itself
amid a deep economic slide that has been marked by chronic shortages of
food and fuel, rising poverty and inflation over 8,000 percent.
(Additional reporting by Charles Mangwiro in Maputo; Editing by Paul Simao)