According to the Thursday bulletin from the National Water Board (DNA), the worst hit area remains Caia, in Sofala province, where the river was measured on Thursday morning at 6.73 metres.
The flood alert level at Caia is just five metres.
The river has continued its inexorable rise further downstream at Marromeu where, on Thursday, it stood at 6.12 metres (flood alert level here is 4.75 metres).
But the DNA could take some comfort from the fact that the river has ceased rising at Zumbo, where it enters the country.
The river is still way above the Zumbo alert level of five metres, but it fell from 6.62 metres on Wednesday to 6.43 metres on Thursday morning.
A fall in the amount of water entering Cahora Bassa lake may ease the pressure on the Cahora Bassa dam, which was forced on Wednesday to increase the discharges from its floodgates from 5,170 to 6,770 cubic metres a second.
But if even if the dam management company, HCB, now finds it safe to cut the discharges, the level of the lower Zambezi will continue to rise thanks to the flood surge already traveling down the river from Cahora Bassa.
The DNA also warned that heavy rains in the northern province of Cabo Delgado had swollen the Montepuez river, with the consequent risk of flooding along its banks in the districts of Montepuez, Meluco, Quissanga and Ancuabe.
SOURCE: AIM
