Flooding in Mozambique - in depth

This year’s flooding was caused by heavy rains not only in Mozambique but also further up the Zambezi river basin in Zambia, Zimbabwe and Malawi.

What’s needed

The disaster happened less than a year after the same areas were affected by similar floods in 2007. Around 100,000 people have been moved to resettlement centers from their homes in the Zambezi basin and hundreds of thousands more remain at risk from the rising waters. There is an urgent need for food, shelter, safe water and adequate sanitation to prevent outbreaks of diarrhea and malaria. Outbreaks of cholera have been reported in a number of provinces.

Some resettlement centers have been flooded and have had to be moved. As well as the Zambezi, the Save, Buzi and Pungue rivers have also surpassed their alert levels. In the Save valley, 90 per cent of the crops have been lost and water sources have been contaminated.

Poor people are more vulnerable

Although the floods are more extensive than in 2007 and in 2000, when 800 people died, the death toll in 2008 has been drastically reduced as a result of better contingency planning and the implementation of disaster risk reduction programs.

Nonetheless, the impact on livelihoods and food supplies has been severe. Many of the people displaced by the floods have lost everything they had, including their homes and crops. For some, this was the second successive year they had been affected. Around 30,000 hectares of arable land have been destroyed.

The disaster has been exacerbated by poverty, which makes people more vulnerable to natural disasters. In the hope of earning more, people take the risk of living and farming in the more fertile low-lying land near the river. When the floods come, they lose all they have and are forced further into poverty.

Oxfam’s response

In response to the flooding, Oxfam is working with two local partner organizations, Ajoago and Magariro, in Marromeu, Chupanga, Mutarara and Tambara in the Zambezi valley, and in Govuro and Machanga, in the Save valley. In total, we are helping 58,500 people.

In coordination with the local authorities, we are delivering emergency supplies of safe water to displaced populations and building hundreds of latrines. In addition, essential household and hygiene items, mosquito nets and plastic sheeting have been distributed. Dozens of volunteers have been trained to promote good hygiene practices, cholera prevention, the use of latrines and HIV and AIDS prevention among their communities.