Other countries

One million DKK to floods in Africa

© Reuters/Grant Lee Neuenburg

Hundreds of families have already fled the waters in central Mozambique. The photo is from 13 January 2008.

Around 80,000 people have been affected by the floods in the three countries since mid-December last year, UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reports.

Worst case is Mozambique, where approximately 72,000 people are affected. Especially the areas along the rivers Zambezi, Buzi, Pungue are hit.

The floods are spread like this - click on the map to see a larger section

The floods have destroyed houses, roads and bridges and not least the crops on the fields. Together with emergency aid organisations the governments in the affected areas have evacuated more than 50,000 people and are now establishing provisional camps or houses where the displaced families need food, water, blankets and kitchenware.

The emergency aid work is progressing

In Mozambique ACT members are purchasing goods to be delivered to the affected families. Food, water, kitchenware and other necessary things like blankets will be distributed and psychosocial support offered.

DanChurchAid’s cooperation partner Christian Care, which works in some of the most severely hit areas, says that the floods have overflown their banks and that the crops on the fields in the low-lying areas have been destroyed.

Several places are impossible to reach because bridges and roads have been destroyed.

Together with UN’s World Food Programme, WFP, Christian Care has already distributed food to more than 8,000 people. ACT partners are now estimating the need for additional help.

In Zambia the southern province is the one most severely affected. The heavy rain has created floods in 34 districts.

Here as well, fields, road, bridges, wells and artesian boring have been destroyed. Schools have also been smashed. Humanitarian organisations fear that water borne diseases may spread within a few days.

All ACT partners, including DanChurchAid, are preparing emergency work in the Southern province which will consist of clothes, blankets, provisional housing, mosquito nets etc.

Heavier rain

Seasonal floods in southern Africa are not unusual but the rain has been heavier and has started earlier this time, the UN reports.

The Zambezi River is the fourth longest river in Africa. It takes its rise in Zambia and among others it runs through Zimbabwe and ends in Mozambique, from where it runs into the Indian Ocean.

The water level of the river is approaching 7.6 meters which is also reached back in 2000 where 700 people died due to the floods in Southern Africa and half a million people became homeless.