- 103 people have died since the start of the rainy season in October 2025 and more than 230,000 have been affected
- The Cabinet has convened an extraordinary session to assess the flooding situation and may declare a red alert.
By MOZTIMES
Maputo (MOZTIMES) – Flooding in southern Mozambique worsened on Thursday as torrential rains continued to fall across all the main river basins.
Since the start of the rainy season in October last year, 103 people have died and 231,730 have been affected, according to figures released on Friday by the National Institute for Disaster Risk Management (INGD). More than 10,800 houses have been partially destroyed and over 4,600 have been completely destroyed.
Public infrastructure, including hospitals (15) and schools (223), has also been severely affected, disrupting the education of around 51,800 pupils, the INGD data show.
The Government met today in an emergency session to assess the flooding situation and may declare a red alert.
Of particularly concern is the Massingir dam, on the Elephants River, the main tributary of the Limpopo. For the first time since 1977, all 14 of the dam’s floodgates have been opened.
According to reports on the STV independent television station, in a few hours the amounts of water discharged by the dam rose from 10,000 to 17,000 cubic metres a second.
Public Works Minister Fernando Rafael visited Massingir on Thursday, and insisted that people still living near the river banks should be evacuated immediately.
“It is important that people should leave the low-lying areas at once”, Rafael declared. Not only is the Massingir reservoir completely full, but so are the dams in the Limpopo valley further upstream, in the neighbouring countries.
The authorities are also ordering evacuations downstream, in Chokwe and Guija districts. Here the Limpopo has burst its banks and torrents of water are sweeping through Chokwe town.
Luisa Meque, the chairperson of the national relief agency, the National Disaster Management Institute (INGD), warned that people who refuse to leave flood-prone areas voluntarily, will be moved coercively.
“The time for raising awareness is over”, said Meque, addressing a meeting of the Gaza provincial Emergency Operational Committee in Chokwe. “We have to advance to the compulsory evacuation of the communities who are still in danger areas”.
After she had overflown the Massingir reservoir and the Limpopo Valley, Meque said the situation was extremely worrying, and demanded an immediate response from the authorities and the public.
“We shall take this very seriously”, she promised. “Chokwe has experience of floods and we shall do everything to avoid a repetition of what happened in 2000”.
She was referring to the worst floods in Mozambique’s post-independence history, in which all the major rivers in the southern provinces burst their banks.
The Massingir district administrator, Sergio Costa, said that 80 people have been evacuated out of about 600 who were surrounded by flood waters.
“Rescue operations are continuing with the goal of not losing a single human life”, he said. (MT)
