By RAVI NESSMAN
Associated Press Writer
XAI XAI, Mozambique
(AP)--With months of furious labor, the main road to Xai Xai that
washed away in massive floods earlier this year was finally reopened.
A month later,
it is already in danger again.
The rains
that began several weeks ago have eaten into the red earthen dams
that support much of the road as it spans the Limpopo River. Deep
crevices creep within two feet of the thin layer of asphalt. Sandbags
reinforcing the dirt have burst open.
Incomplete
reconstruction efforts like that one in a region still saturated
with floodwater have left officials and Mozambique residents fearing
more damaging floods this rainy season--though few are predicting
another cataclysm.
``All the
indicators are that we're in for another bad time,'' said Mark
Wilson, head of the local delegation of the International Federation
of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.
Earlier this
year, a series of cyclones caused rivers to flood, flattening
much of southern and central Mozambique, killing 700 people, destroying
tens of thousands of homes and ravaging the farmland many here
rely on for survival.
No one is
predicting rainfall anywhere near that level now. Forecasts for
this rainy season, which runs through March, call for average
or slightly above average rainfall.
But that might be enough to send the rivers over their banks again.
Despite the
seven-month dry season, the ground remains saturated with water.
Several large lakes created by the flood--including one 12 miles
long--have yet to dry up.
``We shouldn't
have any rain for the next two years in order to get rid of all
this water,'' said Silvano Langa, director of the National Disasters
Management Institute.
But the rains
have already started.
Last month,
nine people were killed in renewed flooding after a fierce storm.
And intense rainfall across the border in South Africa has swollen
rivers there.
``Most of
the (South African) dams are almost at full capacity at the moment,''
Langa said.
``Any reasonable
rainfall will mean that they will be releasing the water.''
Releasing
it into Mozambique.
After the
floods in February and March, the government and international
aid agencies scrambled to rebuild before the new rainy season
started in November. But many of those projects could take as
long as two years to complete, leaving the region especially vulnerable.
``The infrastructure
has been patched back together, it's had emergency work, but there
has not been sufficient time to finish work on roads, bridges,
dams and dikes,'' said Cynthia Rozell, the director of the U.S.
Agency for International Development in Mozambique.
The series
of dikes that protected the heavily damaged city of Xai Xai, about
125 miles north of Maputo, and the canals and dam that protect
Chokwe, 80 miles upstream from Xai Xai, were swept away or broken
in the floods. They have been replaced temporarily by earthworks
likely to be worn down in any further flooding.
In Xai Xai,
people who climbed trees to escape the floods have tried to return
to normal life. The town square has been spruced up with newly
planted flowers and newly painted green benches. A bride and groom
wander through with a wedding photographer.
But the scars
remain as fresh here as the water stains that reach up to 15 feet
on some buildings.
Manuel Nvunga's
cane house was swept away in the floods. Nvunga, 55, and his mother
tried to flee through deep water, but she did not know how to
swim and drowned.
Precida Makhave,
37, fled her house with her husband and four children. When they
returned in June, it was gone, along with their pots, blankets
and bed.
``I lost everything
that was in the house, so now I have nothing,'' she said.
Nvunga, who has rebuilt his house on higher ground, and Makhave,
who is still building hers, both fear the new rains.
They are luckier
than some.
Christina
Chivure, like about 10,000 other displaced Mozambicans, still
lives in a tent she was given as emergency shelter after her entire
town of Macaratane was destroyed and relocated two miles away.
One of her five children died of malaria after the flooding, and
she worries that spending the rainy season in a tent will leave
her other children vulnerable.
``I'm very
scared, because the tents are not in good condition,'' she said.
Disaster officials
and aid workers have scrambled to prepare for possible flooding.
They have sent boats to vulnerable areas and distributed thousands
of kits with plastic sheeting for temporary shelter. They are
establishing a radio network to maintain contact with villages
that lose roads and telephones.
``We wouldn't
want to be alarmist, but it's going to be a difficult six months,''
Wilson said.
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