WARNING OF FLOODS ON MAPUTO RIVER

Mozambique’s relief agency, the National Disasters Management Institute (INGC), has warned that flooding may be imminent along the banks of the Maputo river in the far south of the country.Discharges from dams on the South African side of the border have raised the level of the river. According to INGC director, Joao Ribeiro, cited by the independent television station STV, on Wednesday morning the river was measured at 3.48 metres – just two centimeters below the flood alert level of 3.5 metres.Ribeiro said there would be no serious risk until the river burst its banks. “That’s when we would be come concerned”, he said. “But we are monitoring the situation as it develops”.The Maputo basin is heavily used for agriculture, he said, and there are few people actually living in areas at risk of flooding.“The resettlement of people on higher ground has greatly helped reduce their vulnerability to floods”, he pointed out.Asked about the current situation of hunger, Ribeiro said that about 200,000 people are receiving food aid in the Zambezi Valley. At the same time last year about 450,000 people were in need of food aid.