Mozambique: Rains isolate 30,000 in Sofala

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Mozambique: Rains isolate 30,000 in Sofala

8:16 CAT | 07 Mar 2018

About 30,000 people are completely isolated, without any road communication with the rest of the country, in the districts of Nhamatanda, Gorongosa and Machanga, in the central Mozambican province of Sofala because of the heavy rains falling in this region, reports Tuesday’s issue of the Maputo daily “Noticias”.

According to the Nhamatanda district administrator, Boavida Manuel, most of the affected people live in the localities of Bebedo and Nhampoca. They are cut off by road because a bridge over the Metuchira river has been submerged.

People can only cross the river by using two motor boats provided by the Mozambican relief agency, the National Disaster Management Institute (INGC), and by the Mozambique Red Cross (CVM), and in seven small canoes. Between them these boats are ferrying about 2,000 people a day across the river.

The rains have inundated about 100 hectares of food crops in Nhampoca, and have swamped six classrooms in a local primary school. About 100 people, displaced from other parts of Nhamatanda, have been resettled in Lamego, on the main road from Beira to Zimbabwe.

These displaced people have been given plots of land to build houses, and have been provided with safe drinking water and access to schools and health units.

According to the administrator of Machanga district, Tome Jose, although the level of the Save river fell significantly on Monday, 2,533 people in Javane locality are still isolated because the roads are impassable and bridges have been swept away by the rains.

Jose said that 346.5 hectares of food crops, planted by 644 households, have been affected by the flooding. He estimated that four tonnes of maize and vegetable seeds are needed so that these households can replant.

In the western province of Tete, the Doa and Mutarara district capitals have been cut off from Tete city since Monday morning. According to Doa district administrator Domingos Viola, the Mcombedzi river rose sharply and submerged a bridge on the bridge to Tete city.

The road is badly degraded, he said, and requires an intervention to repave it. Parts of the Sena railway from the Moatize coal basin to the port of Beira are also damaged, and the transport of coal trains to Beira has been suspended for safety reasons.

Source: AIM