Tropical depression: Flood alert issued for riverside areas in southern Mozambique

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Tropical depression: Flood alert issued for riverside areas in southern Mozambique

8:34 CAT | 12 Feb 2021

Photo: Noticias

About 45,000 people could be affected by the flooding in the Maputo and Inhambane hydrographic basins, due to the rains associated with the tropical depression expected to hit the southern region of the country tomorrow.

The National Directorate of Water Resources Management (DNGRH), warns of flooding in the Maputo, Incomáti and Umbelúzi rivers in Maputo province, as well the Mutamba and Inhanombe in Inhambane. These rivers are about to receive more rain, at a time when they already have high levels of runoff.

An alert issued by the National Institute for Disaster Risk Management and Reduction (INGD) emphasised the need for communities in the three southern provinces of the country to remain calm and attentive to information being provided by the authorities.

Speaking on Thursday in Magude, Maputo province, while monitoring the situation, INGC president Luísa Meque said that there was so far no indication of the need to open accommodation centres, though flooding was already making some roads impassable.

In Manhiça, for example, the approximately 8,500 inhabitants of the administrative post in Calanga can only reach the headquarters village through Praia do Bilene, and in the province of Gaza. In Magude, Mulelemane was already isolated from the rest of the district.

Meque said that attention was focused on ensuring people and essential goods could move around, through boats whose allocation was still in progress, emphasising that supplies were pre-positioned for families that may eventually be besieged due to the overflow of the rivers.

Extensive agricultural areas are already submerged, with a survey currently being undertaken to ascertain which areas were affected. It is known that, in Calanga alone, 1,500 hectares of lands were flooded. Head of Post Juvenal Sigaúque, has said this will generate hunger pockets of about 1600 families.

Urban floods

Not only riverside communities are at risk. The DNGRH’s Isac Filimone warned that flooding may occur in the cities of Maputo, Matola, Xai-Xai, Maxixe and Inhambaneas a result of to the rains intensified by a cold front.

As for Gaza, Filimone said that rainfall would not have a significant impact on the Limpopo, despite it being already under pressure from rain upstream.

In the an update issued at 4:00 p.m. on Thursday, the National Institute of Meteorology reiterated that the low pressure system formed in the Mozambique Channel on 7 February, continues with a strong probability of evolving, on Friday, to a tropical depression and reaching the country on Saturday via the province of Inhambane, with winds of up to 70 km/h and rains of up to 100 mm in 24 hours. The system will affect weather in the region until Sunday.

Source: Notícias