The ground, still waterlogged from last year's floods, is unable to soak up the rains of the current monsoon season. Making matters worse, heavy rains in neighboring Zambia forced authorities to open the Kariba Dam on the Zambezi river, sending even more water flowing into northwest Mozambique. Officials have given no estimates of the number of people affected in the flood-stricken area of the Zambezi River Valley, which has a population of some 150,000. Thousands of people who live in the flood-stricken area have fled to safer locations.
Floods threaten to destroy crops, which are finally growing again following last year's disaster.
The waters potentially could destroy a total of 84,000 hectares of cropland, Orlando Francisco, of the Agriculture and Rural Development provincial directorate in Zambezia province told the Mail and Guardian . The crisis could worsen food shortages caused by last year's floods, which left whole communities with damaged farmlands and dependent on food aid more than a year later. The new flooding is destroying some of the progress made since last year's disaster, authorities say. The latest rains already have damaged dams built to protect roads that were washed away last spring. In Tete, the current floods swept away a bridge linking the districts of Macanga and Angonia.