Three children drown in Beira floods – AIM report

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Three children drown in Beira floods – AIM report

6:52 CAT | 01 Mar 2017

TVM

Three children have drowned in floods caused by torrential rains in the central Mozambican city of Beira.

The rain began on Sunday night, coinciding with high tides, and swamped many low lying areas. One of the child victims was a seven month old baby who drowned in his sleep. His parents, also asleep, did not realize that the flood waters had invaded their house.

According to a report carried by the independent television station STV, a four year old boy died while he was playing in the muddy water. He is believed to have fallen into a hole and drowned. The third victim, a 12 year old boy, drowned in ditch as he was trying to make his way to school.

Homes were inundated in outlying neighbourhoods such as Munhava, Macarungo, Manga, Chota, Muchatazina and Vaz. In some cases residents were forced to abandon their homes. Some Beira schools had great difficulties in operating, since the rains kept many of their pupils and teachers away.

Speaking to reporters on Tuesday morning, the mayor of Beira, Daviz Simango, recalled that Beira has special characteristics that make it prone to flooding. Part of the city is below sea level, and the water table is very high.

This made it crucial to maintain the city’s drainage system, and Simango reported that the new floodgates installed at the Chiveve river, inaugurated in January, performed well, as did the older floodgates in the Palmeiras neighbourhood. Municipal staff have been checking on them since Sunday night, to ensure that the storm waters are channeled towards the sea. An emergency floodgate was opened on Tuesday, to strengthen the system.

Simango said that natural factors, such as the rains and the high tides, combined with disorderly construction along the drainage ditches, and the dumping of garbage in the ditches, had produced the current flooding.

From Sunday night to 06.00 on Tuesday, 223 millimetres of rain fell on Beira – an amount that normally falls in an entire month. The forecast is that the weather in Beira will improve as from Wednesday.

Source: AIM