AllAfrica.com: Mozambique's relief agency, the National Disasters Management Institute (INGC) has reactivated all 84 Local Disaster Risk Management Committees in the central province of Sofala because of the possibility of serious flooding in the province, reports Wednesday's issue of the Maputo daily "Noticias".The weather forecast for central Mozambique is for normal to above normal rainfall in the second half of the rainy season (January to March). The INGC delegate in Sofala, Luis Pacheco, warned that this could mean floods on the four major rivers that flow through Sofala - the Zambezi, the Pungoe, the Buzi and the Save.
He said that people living in the river valleys, and in the provincial capital, Beira, will be on flood alert and that over six million meticais (about 221,000 US dollars) will be spent on preventive activities. He added that Sofala has all the logistical equipment needed to face the heavy rains that are forecast.
If large scale flooding does occur, said Pacheco, the government will resort immediately to the more than 20 motor boats stationed at the INGC's Central Regional Directorate in Caia, on the south bank of the Zambezi. The boats will be used in search and rescue operations.
Beira is at risk because parts of the city are up to five metres below sea level. Currently the Beira drainage channels are being cleaned, and new Disaster Risk Management Committees have been set up in the city's suburbs....
A NASA image of a 2000 flood in Mozambique
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