The Pungwe River in central Mozambique gushed out of its banks Thursday, swamping homes and farmland in the Sofala province, as the death toll from floods hit 17, emergency officials said.
While the flooding so far is nowhere near as widespread as last year's devastating floods that killed 700, it has prompted fears of a repeat of the disaster that caused at least 500 million dollars of damage in one of the world's poorest countries.
The latest deaths came when two people drowned after their canoe was swept away by flood waters in Mutarara in the central Tete province, Joao Zamissa, spokesman for the National Disaster Management Institute (INGC), told AFP.
Mutarara is at the heart of Mozambique on the border with southern Malawi.
The situation in Mutarara is critical, with many people stranded by flood waters, Mozambican Prime Minister Pascoal Mocumbi told a news briefing.
"There are still more people stranded in the district, and we fear many others will be in the same situation soon as the Zambezi River continues to rise," Mocumbi said.
But the Pungwe's bursting its banks Thursday threatened up to 35,000 people, and cut off the road from the port city of Beira to Chimoio in neighboring Manica province, WFP reporting officer Inyene Udoyen told AFP.
Water levels on the Pungwe have climbed to 8.2 metres (27 feet), more than one metre (three feet) above its flood alert level, Udoyen said.
Emergency officials were watching to see if the Zambezi River would follow suit.
At Caia, on the border with Zambezia province, the Zambezi has risen almost three metres (10 feet) above its critical level, Udoyen said.
"We are closely monitoring the situation there, because people may have to be moved to even higher ground," he said.
He warned the situation was also becoming critical in Chemba district, further upstream.
"We are now planning to open a special operation with pledges of support being made on bilateral basis," Udoyen said.
Britain has already offered to provide a helicopter, he said.
Efforts by disaster management teams to assess the damage have become seriously hampered because water has swamped roads and left many regions accessible only by air, Mozambican officials said.
"We have problems of transport," Mocumbi said.
"We are using local resources at the moment," he said. Any international appeal for assistance would come after INGC technicians had come up with a precise picture of the situation, he said.
The World Food Programme (WFP) also warned the situation was becoming more serious than expected but still not near the scope of last year's floods.
The WFP said it was still assessing the exact needs in the region, but the loss of road access was making the assessment teams' movement difficult.
Last year, many countries -- notably neighbouring South Africa, plus Britain, Germany and France -- sent helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft to Mozambique in the wake of February and March floods described as the worst in living memory.
South African army helicopters flew here first and helped to save the lives of more than 40,000 people stranded in trees and on rooftops in the southern province of Gaza, after the Limpopo River turned most of the province into a sea.
Last year's floods left a trail of destruction, forcing the Mozambique government to seek about 500 million dollars for post-flood reconstruction from the international community – MAPUTO (AFP)
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