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SOUTHERN AFRICA: Floods Leave Trail of Destruction, Disease

Moyiga Nduru

JOHANNESBURG, Feb 8 2007 (IPS) - Floods have hit a swath of southern Africa, from Mozambique in the east to Angola in the west, causing a marked increase in cholera and malaria cases, say aid workers.

Torrential rains across Angola, Zambia, Mozambique and Malawi since January, have left a trail of destruction and disease, according to the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), which is helping thousands of people in the region.

“More than 120,000 people have been affected; of which some 52,700 have been temporarily displaced (approximately 27,400 in Mozambique, 13,800 in Madagascar, 6,000 in Angola and 5,500 in Malawi), the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported last month.

OCHA estimated that 84 people had been killed, most of them in Angola, and many more were missing. The floods destroyed hundreds of hectares of crop and damaged schools, public buildings, road networks, bridges and communication infrastructure, said the report.

Mozambique in particular has suffered from deteriorated conditions “Mozambique has not yet declared a state of emergency. But the authorities there have asked the people in the affected areas to move to higher ground to avoid the floods,” Tamuka Chitemere, in charge of disaster management at the IFRC, told IPS by phone from the organisation’s regional headquarters in the Zimbabwean capital of Harare.

“The people are vulnerable. They don’t live in concrete buildings. Whenever there are heavy rains their houses get destroyed,” Chris McIvor, programme director for Save the Children UK in Mozambique, told IPS by phone.

As many as 46,500 Mozambicans could be affected by the rising waters, said National Disasters Management Institute director Paulo Zucula, according to the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) Thursday. At least 29 people had died, and 4,600 houses, 100 classrooms and four health centres were destroyed by the storms and flooding, the BBC reported.

The situation in Angola, which is emerging from decades of bloody armed conflict, is no better. “In the Cacuaco region of Angola at least 71 people have died and 184 families have lost all their personal belongings. Roads were submerged and bridges were damaged. The heavy rains also worsened the cholera outbreak that began last year. Since Jan. 1, a total of 3,868 new cases have been reported in 15 out of 18 provinces, with Luanda, Cabinda and Benguela the most severely hit,” the IFRC said in a statement made available to IPS Thursday.

“Our team members on the ground in Angola are distributing emergency items such as tents, chlorine tablets for purifying water and jerry cans to the affected people,” Chitemere said. According to the IFRC, 180,000 households have benefited from the kits as well as from hygiene promotion messages.

A similar health message campaign is planned for Mozambique, which is considered vulnerable to flooding. “Soon we’ll distribute leaflets in local languages and broadcast messages to prepare people for floods,” McIvor said.

The outside world, perhaps, remembers Mozambique through a woman who gave birth in a treetop during the devastating floods which displaced one million people and killed another 700 between 2000 and 2001. TV footage showed traumatised people, including women with babies strapped to their backs, trapped in isolated villages being airlifted by helicopters to safety.

“In Zambia, we have sent shelter materials for fixing roofs which were destroyed by the heavy rains,” Chitemere said.

In general, the rains start in November and end in March in most of the 14-member Southern African Development Community (SADC). Apart from cholera – which has affected Mozambique, Angola, Zambia and Zimbabwe, claiming at least 143 lives -, malaria is also causing havoc in parts of the region. Malaria is carried by mosquitoes, which breed in stagnant waters.

In Mozambique, McIvor says they have donated mosquito nets and blankets to help prevent the disease, which is endemic particularly in Malawi, Mozambique, Angola and Zambia.

This year’s flooding, which meteorologists and aid agencies say began earlier than normal, is far from over. “Major rivers in the region, such as the Pungwe, Lucite, Licungo, Mutumba, Shire and Zambezi, are swollen and, specifically in the Zambezi River and surrounding tributaries, water levels have reached their alert threshold. Further flooding is to be expected,” OCHA said.

Francoise Le Goff, head of the IFRC regional office in Harare, said her organisation had released more than 216,000 dollars to help relief efforts in Angola, Malawi, Mozambique and Zambia.

“An emergency appeal to combat cholera in Angola for 1.2 million Swiss francs (960,000 dollars) has been extended until June 2007. To date, it is only 55 percent covered and donors are urgently requested to increase their support to avoid further spreading the epidemics,” she said in a statement.