By MOZTIMES
Maputo (MOZTIMES) – The floods on all the major river valleys in southern Mozambique worsened on Sunday as the Limpopo and Incomati valleys took on the appearance of gigantic lake
The Mozambican relief agency, the National Disaster Management Institute (INGD) urged people to evacuate immediately from flood prone areas, but a significant number were reluctant to move because they wanted to protect their livestock and other property.
On Sunday, the INGD used 14 boats and two helicopters, to lift 110 people stranded by the Limpopo flood waters to safety.
In a visit to Gaza In his visit to Gaza, Chapo overflew some of the worst affected areas in Massingir, Guija and Chokwe districts. In Chokwe, he spotted a dozen people, including children, stranded on top of a minibus while the flood waters swirled around them.
He immediately told the pilot of his helicopter to land the aircraft as close to the minibus as possible. He ordered the seats to be moved from the helicopter to make room for the trapped people who had been on the roof of the bus for two days. All the people from the roof of the bus were rescued and flown to safety at the Chiaquelane accommodation centre.
“We couldn’t ignore that situation”, Chapo said. “These were people who had been besieged for days, without food or shelter. It was our duty to save lives”.
Speaking in the Chiaquelane centre, Chapo stressed that material goods can be recovered later, but it is urgent to save human lives right now.
“We have to tell our brothers who are still not leaving flood-prone areas for fear that they will lose their property, their livestock or their crops, that they only have one life, and if they lose it, there is no going back”, said Chapo.
In light of the floods crisis, Chapo has cancelled his scheduled visit to the World Economic Forum, at Davos, Switzerland.
“Mozambique is living through a difficult moment”, declared a statement from Chapo’s office. “As President of the Republic, my place is with our people. We maintain our commitment to investment and to our international partners, but right now the absolute priority is to save lives”.
The flood on the Incomati river cut Mozambique off from the rest of the country. The flood waters surged across the country’s main north-south highway (EN1) between Incoluane and the 3rd February administrative post, about 100 kilometres north of the capital.
As of late Saturday morning, hundreds of vehicles were trapped in Magul, in Gaza province, in a queue that extended for two kilometres. The flood on the Incomati made it impossible for them to move in either direction along EN1.
Passengers who had risked catching buses now found they had nowhere to spend the night other than on board the vehicles.
The flooding in Gaza is also likely to worsen thanks to intensive rainfall in Zimbabwe, swelling the Save river. The Southern Regional Water Board (ARA-Sul) warned that within the next 48 hours the Save will reach flood alert level, as it poured across the border into Mozambique.
Flooding is expected to follow at the towns of Nova Mambone and Machanga, near the mouth of the river. (MT)
