MAPUTO, 20 February (IRIN) - Disaster officials and aid agencies are closely monitoring tropical cyclone Favio, due to make landfall in flood-drenched Mozambique on Thursday, as it crosses the narrow sea channel from Madagascar.

A major storm hitting Mozambique's central provinces, where more than 120,000 people have already been displaced, could seriously hurt ongoing relief efforts. "It would be another emergency," João Ribeiro, the deputy chief of Mozambique's disaster response agency, the INGC, told IRIN. However, he voiced confidence the government and civilian relief partners would be able to cope.

The exact trajectory of Favio is still uncertain. It could make landfall further south, in Inhambane province, where rains would be welcome to alleviate near drought conditions. It could also strengthen: "we need to keep an eye on it," warned Karin Manente, deputy country director for the World Food Programme (WFP), which is coordinating food supplies for people displaced by flooding along the Zambezi river since early February.

Manente said government officials appeared to be up to the task. "What we have seen so far in relation to the flood response is that INGC has shown quite a high degree of preparedness. The fact that we have had no known deaths due to the current floods is testament to their effectiveness".

Media reports have mistakenly attributed 29 deaths to the recent floods, but those fatalities were a result of flooding in other parts of the country from October 2006 through to January this year.

"The problem [the government is currently facing] is funds," Robeiro said. "We are working together with UNICEF [the UN children's agency], the Mozambique Red Cross, and others. The capacity exists, the problem is the financing." More helicopters are also needed; the only helicopter in use in the entire relief effort has been rented from WFP.

The impact of Favio has already been felt in Madagascar after it scrapped the southern tip of the Indian Ocean island, disrupting relief operations trying to reach 582,000 people struggling to cope with the aftermath of a drought in the south, and flooding that has left at least three dead and displaced 33,000 throughout the country.

The storm caused heavy rains that reduced road access to the southeastern parts of the island, said Gianluca Ferrera, WFP deputy country director for Madagascar.

Madagascar is currently in the middle of a "cyclone season". Six have already hit, with 'Bondo' at the end of December and 'Clovis' in January, causing the most damage.

Fererra said flooding had disrupted agriculture, with ramifications for already precarious food security. The National Office for Risks and Catastrophy Management (BNGRC), estimated the southeastern Vatovavy Fitovinany region had lost 70 pecent to 87 percent of its rice paddies.

The latest situation report by the United Nation's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affair (OCHA) warned of the "high potential" for outbreaks of water-borne disease in the capital, Antanananarivo.

The Malagasy government is expected to make a formal donor appeal for US$ 243 million in aid - mainly for infrastructure reconstruction and agricultural rehabilitation.

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