Heavy rainfall in northern Mozambique: Death toll at nine and damage considerable

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Heavy rainfall in northern Mozambique: Death toll at nine and damage considerable

11:40 CAT | 22 Jan 2018

Notícias

The death toll from the heavy rains and strong winds in Nampula over the past week has risen to nine. The balance of damages, updated last Saturday by provincial governor Victor Borges, puts the number of houses destroyed by bad weather there at 450.

Victor Borges visited Nacala’s ‘baixa’, where infrastructure including buildings and electricity substations were affected. The railway line was silted up with sand washed and blown onto it, and many parked vehicles in various parts of the city were dragged along roads by floodwaters, some for several hundred metres.

Some buildings, where banks, courts, and education and human development institutions operate, are among those that have been partially silted up.

All of central Nacala was rendered impassable by mud, even pedestrians experiencing difficulties over the weekend. Commerce has hardly operated in the last two days.

In the area known as ‘Matola’, one of the worst affected by erosion, the governor noted that if the rains continued to fall with the same intensity, the electrical substation there would soon be buried completely.

The Port of Nacala was affected by the large amount of sand dragged over it, and the Nacala Corridor railway line was still closed to traffic yesterday.

“We are still assessing the damage caused by rain in our province, but the infrastructure situation in Nacala worries us a lot, because some of it is in critical condition,” Governor Borges said.

In Nampula, rain has destroyed 7,935 houses, affecting 68,545 people, along with 150 classrooms, 6 health units and 80 electricity power poles. Bad weather also interrupted traffic on the Meconta -Corrane, Naguema -Mossuril, Monapo-Quixaxe and Mecubúri – Muite roads.

Meanwhile, water at Guruè Station, in Zambézia province’s Licungo basin, has reached its highest level in two years. This increased levels in Mocuba and Nante as a consequence, represent a risk of flooding in the lowlands.

According to data from the National Directorate of Water Resources Management (DNGRH), levels have risen in all the main river basins in the northern region by last Friday, and floods were expected in several villages.

Source: Notícias