The floods are certain to worsen in low-lying areas because the Chicamba Dam on the river's main tributary has had to open its spillways to relieve the pressure of floodwater behind the dam. A United Nations agricultural expert said Friday that thousands of flood victims in Mozambique face famine unless the floodwaters subside enough for fields to dry up and allow planting, which traditionally begins in early April. Authorities in Mozambique reported last week that 123,000 families were in immediate need of seed for planting. Food shortages brought on by the floods forced many farmers and their families to eat the seed they had reserved from the previous harvest. Only 10 percent of the island's original forests remain, resulting in wide swaths of land that are less able to absorb water and which erode quickly.
Deforestation thus worsens flooding in the valleys.
Aerial surveys over the flooded regions have shown hillsides stripped of trees and the revealing gashes of land exposed by erosion. The city of Andapa in the northeast, where forests have been stripped in order to cultivate rice, was especially hard hit. The implications of deforestation run deep in the area that is home to one of the world's most unique and biologically diverse environments. The island is populated by endangered lemur and large meat-eating plants, as well as thousands of species of other plants and animals that are found nowhere else on Earth. I suspect some species were caught in that and died, no doubt.