Southern Africa faces worst flooding in decades

[Barrett808]

In the coming months, parts of southern Africa may experience the worst flooding in the last 20 or 30 years. That’s the warning Monday from the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

It says the La Nina weather phenomenon has brought heavier than normal rainfall, destroying thousands of hectares of agricultural land and crops so far. The seasonal rainy season is only half over and the cyclone season is expected to peak this month.

FAO Senior Emergency Officer Jean Alexander Scaglia says parts of Botswana, Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia, Zambia, Zimbabwe, South Africa and Madagascar are affected.

“We are just right in the middle of the cropping season in many of these countries. So the impact of the flood damage can be very high in terms of the future harvest,” he says. It’s possible, he adds, that the entire season’s harvest could be lost. ...

Southern Africa faces worst flooding in decades