Food crisis looms in flood-ravaged Mozambique

CAIA, Mozambique, Feb 26 (Reuters) Thousands of flood victims are pouring into crowded refugee camps in central Mozambique, straining relief efforts and prompting fears of a food crisis, authorities said today.

Weeks of heavy rains have triggered flash floods along the mighty Zambezi river and its tributaries, washing away homes, bridges, livestock and crops in four central provinces in the low-lying southern African nation.

Some 170,000 people have been displaced and at least 45 have died as a result of the flooding, the worst to hit the former Portuguese colony since the 2000-2001 floods that killed some 700 people and drove another half a million from their homes.

Aid workers were battling today to supply food and fresh water to a ballooning refugee population, with an estimated 2,000 people each day streaming into temporary accommodation centers set up by the Red Cross and other agencies.

''We still have some food, but it's not enough,'' said Joao Ribeiro, deputy director of Mozambique's National Institute for Disaster Management (INGC).

Ribeiro said sanitary conditions in the shelters were worsening due to a lack of toilets and poor hygiene, raising fears of potential outbreaks of cholera and dysentery among the estimated 50,000 people living in the makeshift camps.

Mozambican President Armando Guebuza, however, said the relief effort was proceeding smoothly and there was no need for the government to issue a broad appeal for help.

''It's not a declaration on the international front that can help to change the situation. I think we are going in the right direction,'' Guebuza told reporters in Caia, a central Mozambican town that has become a command center for the relief effort.

Earlier today the Mozambican leader flew over parts of the Zambezi valley that were hard hit by the flooding.

The UN World Food Programme (WFP) is already distributing food to refugees in the affected provinces. Neighbouring South Africa and the European Union also have pledged more help for the relief effort.

South Africa will send two helicopters and a mobile water purification plant to its northeastern neighbour this week and could add a field hospital and water and wind resistant tents to its contribution, the SAPA news agency reported today.

But aid workers say the effort to feed and shelter refugees has been complicated by poor roads in Mozambique, which is still rebuilding after a 16-year civil war that ended in 1991.

The struggle to get food and water to flood victims could become more difficult in the coming weeks as more rain falls on the country. March traditionally is one of the wettest periods in Mozambique's rainy season.

''A lot of areas are still very difficult to get through and there are new pockets of disaster areas forming,'' said Peter Rodrigues, emergency relief coordinator for the WFP in Caia.

''The challenge is that these people are spread out, making it difficult to reach them.'' In southern Mozambique, which is home to the bulk of the country's economically important tourist resorts, authorities were assessing the damage from Cyclone Favio, which came ashore on Thursday with winds of up to 270 kph (169 mph).

The cyclone slammed into the coast, knocking down buildings, uprooting trees and killing five people near Vilanculos.

Mozambique's military today was attempting to restore water and electricity in the resort city.

Reuters SAM DB2054