Weather alert: Moderate to heavy rains for Maputo and Gaza on Tuesday and Wednesday

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Weather alert: Moderate to heavy rains for Maputo and Gaza on Tuesday and Wednesday

6:07 CAT | 14 Feb 2023

Image: Noticias

Maputo and Gaza provinces will experience moderate to heavy rainfall, possibly totalling more than 60 millimetres in 24 hours, today and tomorrow (February 14th and 15th), with floods and urban flooding forecast.

According to the National Institute of Meteorology (INAM), some parts of the central and northern regions will continue to register moderate precipitation.

The information was shared yesterday by INAM meteorologist Acácio Tembe, at a meeting that brought together the institution, the National Institute for Management and Disaster Risk Reduction (INGD), the National Directorate for Water Resources Management, the health and roads sectors and Electricidade de Moçambqiue (EDM) for an update on the current rainy season situation.

“In the upstream countries, specifically in South Africa, the Kingdom of Eswatini, Malawi and Zimbabwe, the rains will continue, so we will have a lot of water coming from outside, a fact that will influence the flow of our rivers,” Tembe said.

Also present, head of the Water Resources Department Agostinho Vilanculos said that the Zambeze, Marromeu, Zumbo, Umbelúzi, Incomáti and Maputo river basins are on alert, with a tendency for flows to rise.

He clarified that dams on the Umbelúzi and Incomáti rivers had reached their maximum storage capacity, and the Regional Administration of Águas do Sul (ARA-Sul) was discharging water to safeguard their integrity.

Meanwhile, the INGD continues to assist communities affected by the floods in the districts of Magude, Moamba, Manhiça and Boane.

Luísa Meque, president of this institution dedicated to the mitigation and coordination of responses to natural disasters, said that the conditions had been created to alleviate the suffering of people, most of whom have lost almost everything.

“We will continue to work with our cooperation partners, private institutions and all people of good will so that the victims do not lack the basics. We have health brigades on the ground,” Noticias quotes Meque as saying.

The INGD yesterday evening reported that “search operations allowed the rescue, in the last 24 hours, of 1,403 people marooned in the districts of Boane, Magude and Moamba, in Maputo province, following the floods”.

“While intensifying actions to raise the awareness of people regarding the abandonment of risk areas, the INGD is working to create better conditions to provide assistance to victims. In this context, six more accommodation centres have been opened in the districts of Boane (2), Magude (3) and Cidade da Matola (1), housing a total of 8,679 people.

“The accommodation centre in Campoane was closed and the families there transferred to the new centre at the Filipe Jacinto Nyussi Secondary School in Boane.

“In partnership with the Matola and Boane municipal councils, the INGD continues to provide assistance with food and non-food items at the accommodation centres. Likewise, it has been distributing chlorine and Certeza in the most critical locations, to avoid waterborne diseases, counting, in this regard, on the support of the government’s Health and Public Works, Housing and Water Resources departments.

“It should be noted that the INGD has sent two central level monitoring and support teams to Maputo province. They are led by the president, Luísa Celma Meque, and by the vice-president, Gabriel Monteiro, and are operating in Boane and Magude respectively.

“Meanwhile, one more death was registered, bringing the total to seven, while the number of people affected jumped to 37,000.

“More than 7,000 homes remain flooded. Eight are partially destroyed and two completely destroyed. Alao affected are 15 health units and an equal number of schools, 13,000 hectares of various crops and three electricity transformer poles. On a material level, 73 boats have been registered as having disappeared,” the INGD Monday update concluded.

Source: Noticias / INGD