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dam-l BBC update on floods/LS
Tuesday, 14 March, 2000, 14:48 GMT
Mozambique debt appeal
Malaria has gripped the overcrowded aid camps
Southern African leaders have called for the cancellation of
all of
Mozambique's foreign debt to enable the country to rebuild
after the
devastating floods.
Southern African Development Community (SADC) heads of state
said the
debt cancellation would allow all available resources to be
channelled into the
reconstruction of the country's shattered infrastructure.
A statement issued after talks in the
Mozambican capital, Maputo,
expressed SADC's gratitude to the
international community for its help to
the Mozambican Government.
They also singled out South Africa for
special thanks for initiating the
international search and rescue effort
that resulted in about 10,000 people
being saved.
Sustained assistance
The SADC leaders also implored donor
nations to continue their assistance to
Mozambique after the emergency phase
of the flood relief operation.
An international conference of donors,
which will focus on reconstruction, is
scheduled to be held towards the end of
April, according to a Canadian
minister.
Western donors have already pledged at
least $150m towards reconstruction but
the government estimates the total cost
at more than $250m.
'We were stunned'
Botswana's President Festus Mogae
told the BBC he rejected charges that
the regional response had been too
slow, but acknowledged that the leaders
and the peoples of Southern Africa has
been stunned by the scale of the floods.
And in an effort to ensure that this
kind of disaster does not surprise
people in future, SADC leaders called
for the establishment of an early
warning system that could prepare
countries for flooding on this scale.
There has already been some discussion
about how countries like Zimbabwe
and South Africa could do more to
manage the flow of water down rivers
running into Mozambique.
It has been suggested that co-ordination
and prior warning of when floodgates
are about to be opened on dams
up-river would give communities in
Mozambique more time to leave areas
where flooding is common.
UN appeal
The United Nations World Food Programme has launched an
appeal for nearly
$30m to help flood victims.
The WFP estimates that 650,000 people who have lost homes
and farmland
will need to be fed for the next six months.
The agency says about 55,000 tonnes
of food will be needed for the duration.
Hundreds of thousands of people are
still living in about 100 temporary
camps but as they seek to return to
their home districts there will be
increasing need for repairs to
Mozambique's devastated road network.
Officials say survivors are leaving aid
camps and heading back to their
villages, despite warnings that it is not
yet safe to go home.
Death toll
The WFP says people in Mozambique are anxious to return to
their homes to
plant their seeds, which must be planted before April if
they are to make the
next harvest in September.
The direct death toll from the flooding is unknown but
latest figures put the
number of dead at 500. Aid agencies said the final toll is
expected to rise as
more corpses are uncovered as the water recedes.
Disease and hunger are threatening many survivors now and
thousands of
people have contracted malaria in the crowded refugee camps
from the swarms
of mosquitoes breeding in the stagnant floodwaters.
There is also growing concern that additional rain could
trigger more flooding
in low-lying areas.
Weather forecasters are predicting three more days of rain
over flood-ravaged
central and southern Mozambique.
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Lori Pottinger, Director, Southern Africa Program,
and Editor, World Rivers Review
International Rivers Network
1847 Berkeley Way, Berkeley, California 94703, USA
Tel. (510) 848 1155 Fax (510) 848 1008
http://www.irn.org
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