Children face threat of rising flood waters in Mozambique
Several rivers in Mozambique have reached dangerously high levels, forcing thousands of children from their homes in order to seek safety on higher ground.
Wednesday 9 January 2008
As the waters rise and the threat of flooding intensifies, up to 250,000 people, around half of them children, could be affected.
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We've already built up stocks of plastic sheeting to build shelters, chlorine tablets to purify water and rehydration tablets to treat diarrhoea before the floods hit. These will be distributed to thousands of families made homeless by the rising flood waters. We will also set up emergency schools for children living in camps or resettlement areas.
The current floods come on top of flooding last March. A report published by Save the Children in December found that ten months later, families were still without food and many were unable to find a way of making a living.
Mozambique's government has already declared an alert for several major river basins in the country - the Zambezi, Buzi, Pungue and Save rivers - and estimates that 55,000 people have already been affected, with up to 15,000 displaced and numbers rising.
As well as being forced to leave their homes and separated from their families, the biggest risk for children is life-threatening water-borne diseases such as diarrhoea.
Chris McIvor, Save the Children's Director in Mozambique, said: "The warning bells have been ringing for two weeks. The flooding could get a lot worse very quickly. Save the Children has a great deal of experience in dealing with floods in Mozambique and we know that what children will need most urgently is shelter, clean water to drink and enough food to eat. We will also be working to ensure that children who have been forced to leave their homes are kept safe."
Mozambique is the country most severely affected by floods in southern Africa. But up to half a million people are also at risk in Zambia, and Zimbabwe is badly affected. We're working with governments, other agencies and suppliers, so that we can reach children wherever they need us most.
More information
Chris McIvor, Country Director for Save the Children UK in Mozambique: Last year in April we all drew a collective sigh of relief - the rains had subsided and the rivers had fallen. At the back of my mind I thought: "Mozambique has had a terrible few months; floods that displaced over a hundred thousand people, a cyclone that decimated the tourist industry, explosions in Maputo that killed over a hundred people and injured a thousand more. Two bad years in a row is impossible. The future will be better." But in December we began to get worried... read more on Sky News
What you can do
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