from BBC
Southern Africa swamped by floods
| Tuesday, 7 April 2009 17:12 UK |
Vast areas of southern Africa have been hit by the worst flooding in 50 years, says the Red Cross. With more than 100 people dead, an area 1,500km (930 miles) wide, from Namibia in the west to Mozambique faces rising waters from several rivers. The Red Cross says it has only managed to reach a small fraction of the more than half a million people who have already been affected. It is appealing for helicopters and boats to reach isolated communities. See map of flood-hit region Matthew Cochrane, from the International Federation of Red Cross, told the BBC that if Zimbabwe’s Kariba dam reaches capacity, authorities there may be forced to open the floodgates. If this happens, Mozambique would be hit by a wall of water and tens of thousands more people would be displaced, he warned.
Nearly 100,000 people have already been made homeless, he added. He said the organisation expected the flood waters to remain for at least the next four to eight weeks. Mr Cochrane said the waters had reached densely-populated communities – up to 30km (19 miles) from the Zambezi river – that had never been affected by flooding before. “They’ve been hit with floods and they’ve got no natural reflex to evacuate, to protect their possessions, to find higher ground,” he said. “So the floods have been particularly difficult for them and there’s a huge need for them to receive support.” The Red Cross said it had only reached about 35,000 people across the region with basic humanitarian aid, like mosquito nets, tarpaulins and water purification sachets. It said heavy rain was continuing to fall in the Democratic Republic of Congo and northern Zambia. This would wash more water down the Zambezi basin and could flood east to Malawi and Mozambique, it added.
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Half a million people have already been affected by the floods
They’ve got no natural reflex to evacuate, to protect their possessions, to find higher ground 
from AFP
Southern Africa hit by worst floods in years
JOHANNESBURG (AFP) – Southern African countries have been hit by the worst floods in years, killing more than 100 people and displacing thousands, as a tropical storm threatened to bring more pain on Saturday. As Mozambique braced for the arrival of a strengthening tropical storm Izilda, record river levels across the region threatened to exacerbate floods which have already affected hundreds of thousands of people. Namibia’s government declared a state of emergency last week in areas where floods have affected over 350,000 people, 13,000 of whom were displaced, according to numbers released by the United Nations on Friday. Another 160,000 people have been affected in Angola. The Zambezi river, along Namibia’s northeastern Caprivi Region, rose to 7.82 metres (25 feet) this week, its highest level in 40 years, before slightly dropping, Caprivi Governor Leonard Mwilima said. “We have large areas submerged by water and access to several villages is cut off,” he said. Namibia’s flood coordinator Erastus Negonga said the death toll stood at 112. Nearly 200 schools have closed, while one hospital and 19 clinics remain cut off due to floods. In Zambia, 21 districts have been affected by flooding and the army has been called in to assist the worst affected region of Shang’ombo, where they are also helping reconstruct a bridge connecting it to the rest of the country. “The Zambia air force has been engaged to transport food and fuel to the affected districts,” said Davies Sampa, permanent secretary in the vice president’s office. In northern Botswana, rain has caused the Okavango, Zambezi and Chobe rivers to swell, leaving 430 people displaced and submerging eight villages. The Okavango river which originates in the rain-drenched highlands of Angola empties into the desert north of Botswana, forming the Okavango Delta. The villages of Satau and Parakarungu, with a combined population of more than 1,000, could be swept away by the rising rivers within a matter of days, said district official Orapeleng Modimoopelo. “Water engineers are telling us these are the worst floods here since 1965,” he told AFP. “The last time a similar flood swept past this place those two villages were sunk, so we expect the same thing to happen, looking at the weight and the speed with which the flood is going.” He said the Kazangula, a crossing point between Botswana, Zambia, Namibia and Zimbabwe, has been impassable for two days. In Mozambique, where about 4,000 people have been cut off by rising waters, emergency officials monitored Izilda, which was gaining strength Friday in the Mozambique Channel and was likely to strike on Saturday. Last year, heavy rains in Zambia, Zimbabwe and Malawi caused flash flooding in Mozambique that displaced tens of thousands of people and destroyed almost 100,000 hectares of crops. Mozambique is no stranger to weather-related disasters. In 2000 and 2001 about 700 people were killed in one of the country’s worst floods when torrential rains hit the southeastern African country. Some are blaming climate change for the floods. “We must seriously consider the present floods and those of a year ago as having to do with climate change,” Guido van Langenhove, a Namibian government hydrologist, told AFP.
from The Southern Times
‘Fishing industry will brave global recession’
Southern Times Writer
Windhoek. – Namibia’s fisheries industry, which has over the past years borne the brunt of rising overheads, is breathing a sigh of relief due to sharp decline in the prices of crude oil on the global market.
Experts in the fishing sector said last week low oil prices and a depreciating currency (South African rand) had given breathing space to fisheries but warned that the sector was not out of the woods yet.
Analysts said the fishing industry should carry the benefit of a markedly weaker rand on their exports. Industry players expressed confidence for 2009 saying that despite the global economic slowdown, demand for fish and fish products from emerging and developed economies should bolster profit margins for operators in the sector, which hit stormy waters five years ago.
Daniel Motinga, senior manager research and development at FNB Bank Namibia, said that a drop in fuel prices would erase some of the perils of the capital intensive fishing industry, but warned that depressed markets in major export markets such as Spain and Portugal could work against recovery of the sector.
Motinga said that a depreciating rand would also bolster exports. Exporters in Namibia and South Africa have long complained that a stronger currency was hurting their operations’ profit margins.
The Namibian dollar, which is pegged one-to-one with the South African rand, has fallen to around R10 against the US currency, hammered by risk aversion stemming from the global financial crisis.
Michael Goagoseb, chairman of the Hake Fisheries Association of Namibia, said a drop in fuel prices has brought in some relief to industry players.
“Fuel prices have brought in some little relief, we were strangled but now the signs are improving. We hope it remains like this,” Goagoseb told The Southern Times.
He said there has been an improvement in the size of fish, adding that this season the industry was confident of meeting its export quotas.
There has, however, been a slowdown in the demand for Namibian marine products in major markets such as Spain.
“Spain is one of our major markets but we are looking elsewhere for potential markets in new markets such as Italy, USA, Austria and France.
“For now we haven’t felt much of the global economic slowdown and we are still buffeted by South Africa. But once South Africa is affected, we will also be affected,” said Goagoseb, who also doubles as the MD of Ark Fishing Industries.
Goagoseb also ruled out any chances of retrenchments in the fishing sector.
However, pelagic and pilchard fishermen are still returning from the high seas empty handed due to dwindling stocks.
