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PrintFlooding in Mozambique
General supplies being shipped to a town which can no longer be reached by road. Photo: Neil Townsend/OxfamGB
Around 95,000 people have been made homeless by flooding along the Zambezi valley in southern Mozambique.
Most households, still recovering from the 2007 floods, have again lost most of their food stocks and crops due to the floods. We are concerned about the long-term impact this will have on people's livelihoods. It is estimated that 50,000 tonnes of seed will be needed in the recovery phase to support more than 10,000 farmers.
Health risks are also acute. According to Mozambique's Ministry of Health, there are increasing numbers of people with diarrhoea and vomiting. Cholera is a serious threat.
What Oxfam is doing
Oxfam is working together with local partners in the Zambezi and Save river valleys.
In Chupanga, we are already supplying clean water and sanitation facilities to 7,000 people affected by last year's floods in three resettlement centres, and are preparing to help some 2,500 people who have just arrived at these sites. We are stocking hygiene and household kits, plastic sheets to improve shelters, and buckets for 2,000 families to prepare for the arrival of more people in the coming days. Downstream in Marromeu and Nhani, we are preparing to install emergency water systems for 600 families displaced by the flood.
In Mutarara, we are working in eight resettlement centres to build latrines and increase water supplies for 30,000 people. Access to the centres is difficult and some deliveries are done by helicopter.
In Tambara, we are working with local partner Magariro to provide water and sanitation to 10,000 people living on islands in the river. In the Save valley, Ajoago (a local partner) has been running search and rescue operations, using its radio-based early warning system to alert communities about the floods. A joint Oxfam-Ajoago team is preparing water points, buckets and latrines for more than 1,100 people in the Bea Pea resettlement centre.
In pictures
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