Floods push Southern Africa towards crisis

A family salvages scraps from their flooded home on the banks of the Zambezi river, Mozambique PHOTO: Reuters/Grant Lee Neuenburg courtesy www.alertnet.org

18 January 2008: Southern Africa is teetering on the brink of a massive humanitarian crisis as floods sweep through the region forcing tens of thousands of children from their homes.

At least 45 people in Southern Africa have been killed by the floods caused by some of the heaviest rains to hit the region in recent decades. The wet season is not expected to end until April.

Children in Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Zambia and Malawi are bearing the brunt of the emergency with tens of thousands facing hunger and interruption to their education as flood waters destroy crops and force schools to close.

Many of the deaths have been caused by flash floods which have drowned people and by crocodiles which have attacked victims as they attempted to cross rivers to reach higher ground.

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Plan has launched an appeal to provide blankets, clothing and cooking items to families in Zimbabwe made homeless by the floods. The regions of Chipinge and Chiredzi have been worst affected.

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Plan communities in Zimbabwe, like families across the region, have watched as their crops have been destroyed, prompting fears of famine in the months ahead. In Zimbabwe, many of these families were already suffering hardship as a result of continuing economic turmoil in the country.

Rising flood waters

In Mozambique, Plan is in discussions with the government about how best to help the 59,000 people who have been forced from their homes. A further 100,000 are at risk from rising flood waters.

The United Nations has warned that floods in the country could be worse than in 2000-1 when 700 people died and half a million fled their homes.

Zambia has declared a national disaster as floods have hit southern areas, although Plan communities are so far unaffected. In Malawi, floods have swept away livestock and destroyed crops.

Global warming

The floods, the latest evidence of more volatile weather linked to global warming, are caused by La Niña, a change in the sea temperature of the Pacific that occurs at irregular intervals.

The largest river in the region, the Zambezi, is already more than 2 metres above safety levels in many places and is expected to rise further as the rainy season continues.

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