A quick internet search brought up over 5000 references to the floods in Owamboland showing me how far and wide this calamity has attracted attention. It is a human disaster of unprecedented proportions, and as we managed to establish a week ago, is not the result of the Angolans diverting the Cunene to complete the Xangongo bridge. It is nature gone haywire. I could not find a single person alive who remembers any similar occurrence or comparable flooding, not in the last 50 years. So, by all standards, for Owambo to flood to that extent, is way out of the ordinary.

The Cuvelai system that covers large areas of the Omusati and Oshana regions is a natural water course that is supposed to flood every year. But this controlled and fairly predictable flooding consists of water slowly migrating south from the feeder areas in southern Angola. This phenomenon is known as the Efundja and without it, life cannot be sustained in the northern regions.
The Efundja replenishes dry soil and brings relief to both humans and animals. It brings with it a wealth of nourishment for the earth as it deposits suspended nutrients into the oshonas or shallow pans which basically are the visible links in the otherwise bone-dry Cuvelai chain. Only once the oshonas start filling up, does one realise it is a vast interconnected system.
The Efundja also bring a bountiful supply of fish and other aquatic creatures, the first which is exploited directly by the residents and the second which sustains a complex web of animal and plant life that supports the region's overall ecology. The Efundja is suppose to flood otherwise the people there cannot survive, but the Efundja is not suppose to turn into a torrent and cover the entire area. Then the people also cannot survive as we have experienced over the past six weeks.
There is a growing consensus that the floods we are experiencing are not a mere blimp on the screen, - a sort of freak occurrence which nature will not repeat for another fifty years - but a direct consequence of Earth in turmoil, and as long as so-called civilised man continues to destroy nature, the backlash will also grow in severity. In simple language it means we must prepare for many more floods.
The economic question is how much this will still cost us in future and what damage we will suffer as a result. The political question, however, is, who is responsible and who will pay for this?
There is no doubt in my mind that the advanced nations and their relentless pursuit of growth and profit, are the reason why we in Namibia now have to suffer. But when I think back when the whole issue of Third World debt became such a hot topic and I compare the amounts we talked about then to the astronomical costs we now face, the disparity slaps me in the face.