Source: UN Integrated Regional Information Networks

16 January 2008
Posted to the web 16 January 2008

Bulawayo

After six years of drought, the forecast was that Zimbabwe was set for good rains and a decent harvest this season - and then came the deluge.

The country has been pounded by torrential rains, with December 2007 the wettest month in 127 years, according to the metrological department. Localised flooding has claimed 21 lives, affecting around 5,000 people along the southeastern border with Mozambique, and a further 3,000 in Muzarabani district in the northeast of the country.

At the end of December the government declared a national disaster, with emergency units keeping a close watch on flood prone areas, UN agencies reported.

Farmers in flood-affected districts, who had planted early, trying to take advantage of the predicted good rains, have seen their crops drowned, along with hopes of a marketable surplus.

"We prayed for the rains but the rains have now caused us pain and suffering," said a despairing Esther Chiwodza, a communal farmer in the low-lying district of Chiredzi in Midlands Province.

We prayed for the rains but the rains have now caused us pain and suffering

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