The level of the Zambezi River has been rising rapidly in the past week after a drop of about three metres in the past months.

The floodplains in Kabbe South and North have started receiving flood waters as the Zambezi River started bursting its banks again.

Over the past years, the annual floods from the Zambezi River started in January and February, and the water started subsiding towards the end of March.

Schools in the flood plains are the only dry areas because they are constructed on higher ground, while all other areas are flooded.

The Senior Hydrologist in the Ministry of Agriculture, Water, Forestry, and Land Reform in the Northern Regions, Leonard Hango, told nbc News on Thursday that not only is the Zambezi River reaching its peak but the Kunene and Kavango rivers as well.

Hango noted that this is because of the heavy late rainfall received in the central highlands of Angola's Kuito bear, which feeds the three rivers.

He says the Ministry of Agriculture is releasing the water from Kunene's Gove, Matala, and Callueque dams.

The senior hydrologist says that though this might be the last wave, the flooding might persist for weeks before the water starts to subside. Satellite images in the catchment area show improvement.

Hango has called on lodge owners, traditional authorities, and people living along the river to be cautious and take all preventative measures to avoid losses of human lives and livestock.

Areas such as Malindi and Luhonono have seen fresh inflows of water crossing the Greenwell Matongo road towards the south, while the far eastern areas of Namiyundu, Nsundwa, Nakuntwe, and Muzii, amongst others, are all flooded.

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Author
Sililo Mubiana