Tropical Cyclone Idai -- “A Humanitarian Disaster of Great Proportion“

Hello and welcome back! Following the blog last week, I would like to share you with the case study of a flood event in East Africa.

  

Today’s case study is about the scenic country in southeastern Africa -- Mozambique. It is the coast area that separates mainland Africa from the island of Madagascar by the Mozambique Channel, which creates its extensive coastline and natural harbours (figure 1). The great Zambezi River has provided large water resources for irrigation and thus an important basis for agriculture and hydroelectric power in the region. 

Figure 1 Location of Mozambique, Africa

However, climate-related disasters are considered to be one of the most serious challenges in Mozambique (INGC, 2009). It is a country that suffers a lot from tropical cyclones due to climate change and its low-lying location, which brings strong winds, storm surge, and rain-fall triggered floods to the land. The situation becomes even worse with the severe impacts and uncertainties behind climate warming. In March 2019, the country suffered a lot from a catastrophic, usual cyclone event over the western Indian Ocean called the tropical cyclone Idai. 

 

Tropical Cyclone Idai was one of the worst tropical cyclones over the South-West Indian Ocean in history that affected Africa by creating catastrophic damages and deaths, leaving more than 1,300 people dead and thousands missing. In March 2019, it was first developed as a tropical disturbance on March 3 and grew by March 5 into a tropical depression near the coast of Africa, which brought heavy rainfall and created deadly floods in Mozambuqie and Malawi (figure 2). Normally, the storms that developed there don’t strengthen as much as those that form north and east of Madagascar. However, with the impact of climate change, the warmer water temperature in the Mozambique channel contributed to the development of that storm and thus the formation of Cyclone Idai. As a result, the cyclone was further developed into an intense tropical cyclone after it tracked eastward to the Mozambique Channel. On March 14 and 15, it then moved southwestward and back to the coastal city in Central Mozambique, Beira, as a Category 2 storm and brought much more intense precipitation. As the cyclone Idai hit the land during the time of high tide, which then created a huge wall of water ashore (up to 6 meters in some areas) and flooded large areas of flat, agricultural land along the Pongwe River shown in figure 3.

Figure 2 The satellite image of the day over Mozambique, where the floods are
shown in blue 

 

The event has brought severe destruction to the local crop, infrastructure, settlement and human lives. 

Figure 3 The settlement area along the Pongwe river was inundated underwater after the cyclone Idai and flood

 

Figure 3 The settlement area along the Pongwe river was inundated underwater after the cyclone Idai and flood

	Infrastructure and human lives

 

The impact of cyclone Idai was catastrophic to the city. The strong winds have wiped out the infrastructure such as roads, houses and even latrines. Also, the cropland and trees were damaged to a great extent. Unfortunately, the affected area was one of the most densely populated areas in Mozambique. According to the United Nations, it is estimated that this event destroyed more than $773 million in buildings, infrastructure, and crops. 

 

The following floods have killed more than 600 people, and about 1,600 were injured (UN, 2019). In figure 3, large areas of residential land south of the Pungwe River were submerged, making more than 400,000 people homeless -- three-quarters of the city’s population.

 

 

Freshwater scarcity and food insecurity

 

The continued floods made the accessibility to fresh, clean water become a problem. As many farmers and residents rely on the nearby rivers, local pumpers and wells for irrigation and daily water use, they were contaminated by the muddy deposits, sewage and animal waste after flash floods, which affected the quality of drinking water and generate food insecurity. 

This made people vulnerable to disease outbreaks such as malaria and cholera in the city, with a recorded death of 48 cases from Mozambique’s health ministry.

 

At the same time, 16,874 Zambian families were being displaced by Cyclone Idai, followed by the destruction of shelters and tents in the resettlement sites as a result of the continuing floods. The living conditions for them are normally poor, where much of the area consists of slums and some temporary housings with very limited food, water, and sanitation.