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February 24, 2007, 13:15
South Africa will send helicopters and tents to flood-stricken Mozambique and teams of experts are on standby, said the ministry for provincial and local government today, from Maputo. "We are ready to provide the material assistance required by the government of Mozambique," said Zandile Ratshitanga, the ministerial spokesperson.
Sydney Mufamadi, provincial and local government minsiter, and Aziz Pahad the deputy foreign affairs minister, are in Maputo to see what help SA can offer. They were due to return home today.
Mufamadi is responsible for disaster management in SA.
"The immediate needs for humanitarian assistance include helicopters, tents for displaced people who are now living in temporary accommodation centres, roof sheeting for the reconstruction of homes, water treatment plants for the accommodation and resettlement centres," said Ratshitanga.
The helicopters will be used to transport food to the temporary accommodation centres.
More detailed planning
SA will provide a liaison officer stationed in Maputo for the duration of the relief operation and an assessment team for more detailed planning. "We will provide an extra 170 flying hours for the monitoring of activities in the entire affected area," said Ratshitanga. "We are investigating the possibility of providing mobile water purification units."
The SA urban search and rescue team is on standby. "They will be deployed should the need arise."
Mozambique is assessing its health situation and an SA advanced medical team is also on standby.
Southern Mozambique was hit by tropical cyclone Eline on Thursday morning just south of Beira, and by tropical cyclone Favio the same day, at Vilankulo a little further south.
This followed extreme flooding in the Zambezi river basin in the northern region, which was exacerbated by rains in neighbouring countries in catchment areas for Mozambican rivers.
Earlier about 80 000 Mozambicans were reported to have been made homeless by the disasters.
Ratshitanga said three deaths due to the cyclone were reported and 30 from the floods.
Lack of transport
Ratshitanga said the SA team visited Maputo, meeting Luisa Diogo, the prime minister, government ministers and weather service teams. The delegation could not travel north to the disaster area due to lack of transport. The rain is expected to ease off in Mozambique in the coming week, according to the SA Weather Service.
Kevin Rae, assistant manager for forecasting in the Pretoria national forecasting centre, said there would be rain overnight but no further rain systems were expected. "We can expect brief episodes of fairly heavy showers and thundershowers to affect the coastline between Inhambane and Vilankulo later today and overnight," he said.
Inhambane and Vilankulo are north of the capital Maputo and south of Beira. Fairly strong winds of about 50km/h are also expected.
Rae said, "the remains of Favio are barely identifiable anymore; it's just a zone of widespread rain and showers occurring over the eastern parts of Zimbabwe." Last night, Zimbabwe received falls of between 14mm and 25mm.
Further north, tropical cyclone Gamede is northeast of the French-ruled island of Reunion in the Indian Ocean. "At this stage it poses no direct threat to Mozambique," said Rae. - Sapa
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