Mozambique considers aid appeal as floods worsen
Source: Reuters
(Adds WFP comment) MAPUTO, Feb 9 (Reuters) - Floods that have killed 29 people in Mozambique have worsened and the government may call for international help to rescue more than 500,000 people threatened by the rising water, Prime Minister Luisa Diogo said on Friday. She said there was a need to intensify rescue operations, mainly in the provinces of Zambezia and Sofala, where she described the situation as "getting out of hand". "People have to be moved ... the number (of the affected) have to be re-evaluated, and the capacity to rescue the people has to be re-evaluated to see if the government can continue handling the situation on its own contingency plan or we need additional support and appeal for international emergency aid," Diogo told Reuters. The United Nations World Food Programme said floods across southern Africa were wreaking havoc for tens of thousands of people. "WFP is responding to the localised flooding across southern Africa but we are particularly concerned about the worsening situation in Mozambique which has yet to hit peak levels and is still being fed by rains in neighbouring countries," said Amir Abdulla, WFP Regional Director for Southern Africa. "We have been using pre-positioned stocks to respond to the floods across the region but the severity of flooding in Mozambique will require urgent additional funding," he added. Diogo said this year's floods could be worse than those of 2000 and 2001 which killed more than 700 people, displaced 500,000, damaged key economic infrastructure and forced the former Portuguese colony to solicit $500 million in foreign aid. This time around the floods had so far crushed or partially destroyed 4,677 houses, 111 classrooms and four health centres serving 46,500 people, in addition to the 29 dead. The country's water authority said it had opened a third floodgate at the huge Cahora Bassa Dam in northern Mozambique to secure it, but doubling the water discharges to 8,400 cubic meters per second could endanger people on the ground.
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