Mozambique’s National Water Resource Management Directorate has warned of possible flooding in Maputo province as a result of high levels of water in the dams across the borders in South Africa and Eswatini.
According to Agostinho Vilanculos, representative of the Directorate, who was speaking, on Friday, in Maputo, at the eleventh Weather Forecast Forum, Maputo province is at risk of flooding since, as of next week, the Pongola Dam in South Africa will start discharging water, which could reach a peak of around 400 cubic metres per second in the basin of the Maputo River.
“We are predicting that the basins of the Maputo, Umbeluzi and Incomati Rivers are at moderate risk of flooding. Within the framework of the international cooperation we have with South Africa, we have sat down and defined the quantities of water that should be released and we have an indication that we will reach a peak in November of around 400 cubic metres per second in the Maputo basin”, he said.
Vilanculos explained that this is a reasonable peak because South Africa usually discharges around 800 cubic metres a second, “which is double what we’re going to receive now.”
In addition to South Africa, Eswatini also has one of its dams full.
According to Vilanculos, the reservoir behind the Pequenos Libombos dam, on the Umbeluzi river, which supplies Maputo with much of its drinking water, is now around 92 per cent full, a high level for the start of the rainy season.
For his part, Bernardino Nhantumbo, a representative of the National Meteorology Institute (INAM), said there is a forecast of abnormal rainfall in some parts of the country during the coming rainy season, which starts in October.
“The forecast indicates a high probability of normal rainfall with a tendency towards above normal in the southern provinces of Gaza, and Inhambane, as well as in the central provinces of Manica, Sofala, Tete and Zambézia”, he said.
AIM
