Massive operation to help flood survivors

Large quantities of aid have finally started arriving in Mozambique, where the number of people displaced and made homeless by disastrous floods is now put at over 250,000.

A full week after large areas of the country disappeared under water, Maputo's tiny airport filled up at the weekend as a massive international relief operation brought in much-needed food and medical supplies and shelter equipment.

Huge Antonov transporter planes jostled for position with military and civilian helicopters and a variety of smaller aircraft on the airstrip as the international community's rescue effort stepped up a gear.

The first large-scale Irish aid arrives on Wednesday when a plane chartered by Concern is due to deliver 40 tonnes of plastic sheeting, blankets, medical supplies and other equipment to the coastal city of Beira, further to the north. Goal is delivering 40 tonnes of material to Maputo.

The urgent task now is to co-ordinate this massive inflow of aid and get it to the people who need it as quickly as possible. Up to a million people have been affected by the flooding, most of them in far-flung rural areas cut off from the outside world.

Road and rail links are broken in many areas, and the only means of access is by helicopter or boat, both of which have been in short supply until now. In any case, many flooded regions are out of range for the helicopters and fuel is in short supply outside the capital.

Flood levels continued to drop slowly here over the weekend, but fears of a "third wave" of flooding within the next few days are still high. Continuing massive rainfall in the southern African highlands, where Mozambique's main rivers rise, may send a new surge of floodwater towards the affected areas. Meanwhile, Cyclone Gloria is approaching the country from the Indian Ocean.

The highly effective South African defence forces, whose helicopter crews are credited with rescuing over 10,000 people from the floods, have begun to wind down their operations in the Limpopo river basin. With most of those who clung on to rooftops and trees to escape the floods having been rescued, the emphasis is now turning to providing succour for flood survivors who have lost everything in the disaster.

"These people have nothing now. They have lost their houses, their animals, their tools and their seeds," said Mr Dermot Carty, a Co Wexford man co-ordinating water and sanitation projects for UNICEF. "They are exhausted and dejected. Resourceful as they are, they do not know where to turn to."

As more people are rescued, the numbers in the temporary camps are beginning to grow. At Chacalane, for example, numbers have doubled to 30,000 in a matter of days. Oxfam and Medecins sans Frontieres have built latrines, installed hand-pumps and treated a growing number of malaria cases.

However, other survivors of the floods have begun the long walk home, preferring to be reunited with their remaining possessions, in spite of warnings that the floodwaters could rise again.

Greatest concern is now being expressed about the fate of survivors in the Save river delta, 600 miles to the north of Maputo, where flooding was only marginally less severe than further south and the rescue operation was considerably smaller. The crew of the sole helicopter operating in the area, from Malawi, said people were desperate after eight days without food or proper shelter.