Mozambique floods

Heavy rains hit southern and central Mozambique in January 2013, affecting over 150,000 people, flooding farmland and pastures, damaging houses, roads, drainage systems and electricity supplies.

Five major rivers in the region, including the Zambeze and Limpopo were precariously above their alert levels, and by the end of the month, the city of Chokwe in the Limpopo basin was completely submerged. At least 70,000 people fled to higher ground, as water levels in the city reached over a metre. An older woman and her grandchild affected by the Mozambique floods. Many older people were forced to flee their homes due to flooding. (c) Jose Mazozo

How older people are affected

Many up-river communities west of Chokwe were also cut off by the flooding, including several communities with older people's associations that work with our Affiliate, Vukoxa. The estimated number of older people affected by the emergency in Chokwe district alone is over 4,500.

Many older people in rural farming communities were isolated from services or external support and lost their crops and animals. These communities were provided with some food rations, such as rice and beans dropped from aircraft in the first weeks after the flood, until the water subsided and cars could reach them.

Older people in temporary accommodation centres were also extremely vulnerable due to overcrowding, lack of shelter, fresh water and sanitation and felt vulnerable to violence and theft. The water receded more quickly than when flooding happened in 2000, but left the city and surroundings covered in waste, full of mud and in danger of a cholera outbreak.

How we're helping

HelpAge worked with local Affiliate Vukoxa, to respond to the flooding in Chokwe district and to provide almost 3,000 older people with the practical support they needed:

  • We conducted advocacy work to ensure older people and other vulnerable groups were included in the humanitarian response.
  • We supported our Affiliate Vukoxa to carry out a full assessment of older people's immediate needs and to continually monitor their progress.
  • Vukoxa volunteers in temporary accommodation centres and in isolated communities visited older people in their temporary homes and linked them up to available services such as healthcare.
  • Older people were quickly provided with seeds and tools to plant again in the humid soils left by the floods and help them recover from having lost their crops and farmlands.
  • 2,904 older people received practical and durable goods such as mosquito nets, blankets, water containers, solar torches and solar panels.
  • Activists supported older people to access food distributed by other agencies and Vukoxa lobbied for older people to be prioritised in these distributions.
  • 250 people attended an eye health campaign, of which at least 225 were older people.

Six months on and older people are rebuilding their lives. Health and social services have been re-established, some crops have grown and older people's groups in each village have renewed their solidarity by having worked together over this difficult time.

The response was financed and supported by HelpAge's Global Emergency Fund, the International Organization of Migration, Egmont Trust and Childfund.

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