Electricity supplies have been disrupted and towns have been left without clean water supplies after their pumping stations were swept away. Flooding in Sofala has made Mozambique's main north-south road impassable in several places, cutting transport links between the capital and the second city, Beira. The impact of this damage on a desperately poor country, where seven out of ten people already live on less than one dollar a day, is immense - now and in the long term. Save the Children is distributing emergency kits to families in the worst affect areas of Maputo and Inhambane, and suppling essential medicines to provincial government authorities. We are also supporting the government's national response effort by seconding a health advisor to the Ministry of Health.
Thousands remain cut-off by flood waters.
More than 70 people have been killed. The provinces most affected by the floods are Maputo, Gaza, and the northern part of Inhambane. This downpour came on top of seasonal flooding and has been compounded by Tropical Storm Eline, which swept in from the Indian Ocean. Heavy rainfall in neighbouring South Africa, Zimbabwe, and Swaziland further exacerbated the situation as rivers in these countries feed reservoirs in Mozambique. Food is the most pressing problem at present.