Floods in Zambezia: ‘Worse than 2000’

You will have heard that Mozambique is again suffering from floods following heavy rains here. Whilst the whole of our diocese is experiencing very heavy rains this season, the Zambezi is again overflowing, as are its tributaries. Our archdeacon, Bonifacio Finiasse, and Padre Eugenio Mepo of Quelimane and Morrumbala, have reported the floods as being even worse than those of 2000.

One tributary, the Shire River, reaches very isolated rural places, places not mentioned by NGO’s who are working further south. It is remote, being 300 km from Quelimane, and the Mozambican government is concerned, after helicopter surveillance has brought news of about 7 hectares of rice and 8 hectares of maize destroyed in Shire district. Whole villages are fleeing to Malawi, 646 families so far, with 1,300 families predicted by the end of January. The numbers of displaced families are increasing daily: Chiromo has 970 displaced families; Chirombe has 798; Tengane 327.

Whilst, the government is encouraging rebuilding of homes in new, higher places, offering cement and other help as incentives, we have one priest in Shire, Padre Albano, who has been flooded out of his house with his wife and four children – yet his house is on the highest street, 200 metres from the river! The floods are wreaking havoc, and disaster – Padre Albano has reported the death of ten members of one of our churches in a canoe accident, just one catastrophe among many.

Last year, our church supported communities in the Shire district, and we want to do this again. In two years of work, Pd Albano has established 16 congregations there, each with baptized members of about 100. The government post there knows us, and trusts us to respond. Our capacity is limited, especially since the accident of Pd Albano in November which left him with a hip injury, but the diocese of Niassa intends to help next week, through our church in Quelimane and our MU worker, with plastic covers for roofing, mosquito nets, tablets for clean water treatment and capalanas (the cloths women wear and use for every eventuality). We shall focus on three areas: Megaza, Pinda and the Administrative Post of Shire, where Pd Albano lives. We have 12 congregations in these areas who shall help with the distribution and logistics. Later, in March or April, we hope to return with seeds, but the harvests for this year are clearly going to be limited, and the district may even need food later in the year.

This is written to give you news and to ask for your prayers for these communities and congregations, laity and clergy; for all those who are working to help in this situation; and for God to bless, encourage and uphold His people.

Helen Van Koevering