Flood warning system in Mozambique – The successful project goes into the second round

The second phase entails installing the warning system on another river in Mozambique, the Save. Proof of replicability is an essential prerequisite to showing that early-warning systems geared to the people at risk will also work successfully in other risk areas.

The work on the Búzi flood warning system in Central Mozambique has been brought to a close. The system was handed over to Mr. Landa, the District Governor, in the autumn of 2006. Trials performed before the rainy season in the autumn of 2005 and 2006 show that the system has been understood and accepted by the people living along the river.

Replication can go many different ways

There are various options as far as replication is concerned:

• Knowledge transfer in a river basin of a different country would prove that the warning system can be used beyond national borders.
• Successful installation on another river in the same country would prove that the warning system can also be implemented on a large scale in other regions. It would also demonstrate that the system is working on the Búzi not just by chance and that it is not a "one-off" success.

Save flood warning system

In collaboration with our local partners, we compared three possible risk areas on Mozambique rivers that are regularly hit by flooding – the Zambezi, Pungwe, and Save. We finally decided in favour of taking speedy action on the Save, because this is the area in which the flood warning system can most likely be realised whilst giving due consideration to international aspects.

Like the Búzi, the Save is in the province of Sofala and made history during the floods in 2000. On account of the flat terrain, the river basin turned into a huge lake, forcing people to hold out on roofs and trees for days on end until help arrived by air. As in the case of the Zambezi, parts of the Save basin are in Zimbabwe. Here, too, it is difficult to influence river regulation in the upper reaches, but these are surmountable obstacles. After crossing the border into Mozambique, the flood wave takes about 48 hours to reach the main risk zone in the river estuary region. This will leave enough time to warn the people of impending floods by means of an early-warning system installed in the border region at the community of Massengena on the upper reaches. The community chosen to be the base in the target area is Villa Franca. Otherwise, the warning system will have the same components as the one on the Búzi.

Vulnerability maps show where the population is in danger

The second phase of the project also involves adding vulnerability maps. In the summer of 2007, methods and maps will be developed on the Búzi in order to give an indication of the vulnerability of the people living along the river. The maps will be compared with existing flood warning and evacuation maps. The techniques developed for these vulnerability analyses will subsequently be used for the Save too. Knowing where the communities have their weak spots will help to optimise the design of the flood warning system.

The second phase of the project to be completed in 2008

The Save flood warning project will start in April 2007 and, if all goes to plan, will be completed before the rainy season in the autumn of 2008. If we succeed in getting a flood warning system up and running on this river in 18 months, we can then consider a further extension and thus gradually improve the risk situation of thousands of people.