HISTORICAL INFO ABOUT FLOODING IN MANA POOLS
There has been much speculation that since the construction of the Kariba Dam in the 1950s the Zambezi River has no longer flooded annually as it did before - a factor which has resulted in significant changes to the ecology of the Mana Pools floodplain area much of which used to be inundated every rainy season.
We are grateful to Mark Brightman for recently sharing the following interesting historical article written by the late Robin Hughes, who was Park Ranger-in-Charge, Chewore Game Reserve between October 1968 and October 1970.
FLOODING -ZAMBEZI RIVER (MANA POOLS)
The commonly stated fact that the annual Zambezi floods, prior to the building of Kariba, inundated large areas of the Mana flood plain every season appears to be completely erroneous according to my four informants. It seems that in the living memory of all of them (and the oldest must have been well over 80 years old) only three exceptional floods took place, when large areas were under water - and these were as far as can be ascertained in 1916, 1934 and the most recent one was during the construction of Kariba in 1957.
Apparently the Zambezi River, prior to the advent of the dam, had two distinct high water periods during the time of its annual flooding. The first, known as Gumbura, and the lesser of the two, came in about February and the water was dirty and presumably came from the local rainfall within Zambia and Rhodesia and the flooding of the middle Zambezi's tributaries (Sengwa - Bumi - Sanyati -Kafue, etc.). The second and higher flood known as Murorwe arrived in about April. Murorwe brought clean water and must have been the flood waters of the upper Zambezi (Barotseland - Angola etc.) that obviously took longer to reach here - this only lasted a relatively short time, approximately 2 weeks and then the level gradually settled to its normal winter flow.
1915 was a poor rainfall year and a small famine was experienced in the area. However, 1916's rainy season proved exceptional and the Zambezi rose to its highest level in living memory and overflowed its banks driving the relatively few families resident on the flood plain, to abandon their homes and crops and move up into the mopane and jesse areas to the south. Apparently what is now the Zebra Vlei area, was completely inundated with water. Those that lived on the high ground reaped good crops that year. It is during this year (1916) that a small tribal war is remembered as taking place in Mozambique between the Chikundas and a hill tribe known as the Va-mangula. What the dispute was about is forgotten, but songs are still sung recalling the latter's route.
In 1924 poor rains were again experienced throughout the country and this year is well remembered by all as the year of the great famine. Many people died and many of the men, who were then working in the highveld on farms and mines, collapsed in the escarpment area on their way home to the valley and were never seen or heard of again.
In 1934, when Chirundu Bridge was being built over the Zambezi, the river again flooded, but less severely than in 1916 and all the people living on Nyamuomba Island had to be evacuated and those living on the river banks moved up onto high ground. This minor flood ties in with information gathered from the Chewore area that it was during this year, due to heavy rainfall, that the Chigusa River cut a new route through to its junction with the Chewore.
As everyone knows, the big floods in 1957 interrupted the building of Kariba and the flood plain was again subject to severe flooding that year.
Mark Brightman adds that when he himself was based in Mana Pools in 1989, the rains that year were phenomenal. Nyamepi and surrounds became an ‘island’ cut off completely by flooding. The bridges at Long Pool were impassable. The river at Kapirinengu rose 6 metres over that time. More recent flooding occured in January 2022 in the aftermath of Cyclone Ana. This caused major damage to three bridges along the main access road into Mana Pools, across the Marongora, Chimutsi and Ruckomechi Rivers, cutting off road access to Park areas. Supplies had to be brought in by boat along the Zambezi. ZimParks staff had to be temporarily evacuated from Nyamepi to higher ground near the Mana Pools airstrip some 5 kilometres inland of the Zambezi River. Fortunately the authorities acted swiftly to repair the bridges and restore access routes.