At least 1 600 families have refused to abandon their flooded homes in the central Sofala province district of Machanga, state radio reported on Sunday.
Radio Mozambique said that authorities in the district — which is located near the Save River — had reported that the affected families were refusing to be relocated to higher ground.
Pita Jojo, district administrator of Machanga district, told the station that the families said they were used to the flooding situation.
Since the beginning of the flooding in December last year, more than 400 families were accommodated in refugee centres in the Machanga district and the area along the Save River basin.
The official current death toll from the floods in the central provinces of Sofala, Manica, Tete and Zambezia — worst affected — is at 10 while more than 70 000 people are in refugee centres.
On January 3, authorities declared a red alert and said they were gearing to evacuate more than 200 000 people.
”Even if the situation is already worrisome, the government, at the moment, has no intention of appealing for international aid,” Minister of State Administration Lucas Chomera was quoted in the local media as saying.
The floods have also affected neighbouring Zimbabwe and Zambia, where tens of thousands of people have been evacuated.
NGOs have predicted that the current flooding could be worse than that of 2000 and 2001.
At that time, torrential rains swept through the country and claimed more than 700 lives and caused $800-million in damages. – Sapa