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Northern Namibia swamped as river bursts banks
Written by: Matthew Cochrane
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"Why would people live so close to the river?" We were standing at the water's edge looking across at a small collection of mud huts now in a metre of water. "Actually, it's not close," said Julietta, regional manager for the Namibian Red Cross. She pointed across the body of water to a tree line about 400m away. "The river is normally on the other side of those trees." The Kavongo River in northern Namibia has broken its banks in a way that hasn't happened in more than 45 years. Heavy rain here and in the Cuvelai basin of southern Angola has sent torrents of waters through communities that weren't prepared in the slightest. We estimate that more than 400,000 people have been affected on both sides of the border. And that number will definitely rise as reports from remote areas continue to trickle in. Just outside Rundu, a large town in Kavongo province, almost 600 people from the small village of Sikondo, are now living in government-issue tents on the side of the road. The stories we heard are what you sadly come to expect. The water kept on climbing, washing away crops, stores of food and finally houses. That community is now living six families to a tent, relying on the help of the Red Cross and local authorities for the basics - food, water, sanitary materials and mosquito nets. It'll be months before life for them or the people living in the half dozen or so other camps begins to return to normal. And now there are concerns that Namibia and Angola are an early taste of a late but severe flood season across Southern Africa. The water here will head east to the Caprivi Strip, emptying itself into the already flooded Zambezi River. There are also reports of heavy floods in Zambia, the worst there in 30 years, according to the government disaster management committee. Much of this water will inevitably find its way down to the Zambezi. From there the water can only head east, hitting towns and communities in Botswana and then threatening Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Malawi. It's too early to say if the scenario will definitely play out, and fingers crossed it won't. But work must start now to warn communities hundred of kilometres away from Namibia. We're now heading to the Caprivi Strip, to see first hand just how bad the situation there is. The Namibian government has already declared a state of emergency and the International Federation of the Red Cross has launched an emergency appeal.
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