Four months after floods, Namibia begins clean up

NAMIBIA: As flood waters in northern Namibia subside after nearly four months, residents are slowly repairing their homesteads, harvesting the few remaining crops and sending children back to school.

"At first it was nice not having to go to school, because the floods prevented classes," 12-year-old Tangeni Shivute told AFP. "But I missed my teachers and being with the other children."

He lives in a small village tucked behind newly woven grass walls and in the shade of tall palm trees characteristic of the flat, white-sanded plains around Ondangwa, just 70 kilometres (45 miles) from the Angola border.

Schools are supposed to be on holiday now, but after floods forced closures across the region, thousands of students now sit in class to catch up during the break.

"They must not fall behind with the curriculum and be up to date come June," regional education officer Adam Ngulu tells AFP. More than 200 schools were closed because they were surrounded by water or because young children were too small to walk across the huge flat pans - locally known as oshanas - filled with water one metre (three feet) deep.

These shallow pans have no real river beds. As unusually heavy seasonal rains hit Namibia and neighbouring Angola earlier this year, the waters silently filled the oshanas. Once they were full, even more rain connected the oshanas to form vast shallow lakes stretching for kilometres and taking months to dry up.

At least 102 people have died since January in the worst flooding since 1972, which has affected 600,000 people across northern Namibia.

Namibia's government says it will cost about two billion Namibian dollars (240 million US dollars, 180 million euros) to clean up and repair infrastructure to prevent future disasters.

ONDANGWA, Friday, AFP