The World Health Organisation (WHO) warned yesterday that cholera from contaminated water could be the next disaster to hit flood-ravaged Mozambique.
Cholera is likely to attack the most vulnerable, crowded into displacement camps after their homes and subsistence crops were washed away.
"We are expecting an increase in cholera cases . . . We cannot predict the dimensions of this," said Mr Carlos Tiny, the WHO's representative in Mozambique.
The government has said the number of cases of malaria and diarrhoea are already increasing, although so far the death toll from cholera, endemic in Mozambique, is no higher than in a normal year.
However, WHO spokesman Mr Andy Seale said cholera cases had increased in the last two weeks in the capital, where the government has set up special clinics as a precaution.
"Cholera is the first major disease to have an impact. It is not an epidemic but there has been a significant increase in cases," he said.
Other aid workers said it was too early to establish a direct link with the flood, but the threat of disease has increased as Mozambicans have begun to return to villages with few health services and limited supplies of clean water.
Some going home for the first time in weeks have become ill after eating maize from crops spoiled by flood waters, aid workers said.
Some maize stocks have also been damaged by fungus, and food supplies are still insufficient despite a major international relief effort.
More than 40 planes and helicopters took to the skies again yesterday carrying food, medicines and supplies to more than 300,000 people sheltering in scores of displacement camps throughout the southern Limpopo Valley.
However, overnight rain forced the distribution of 56 tonnes of food from the second city of Beira to Chitubo and Chongwene to be put on hold after parts of the road from Beira to the Save river basin were washed away.
Ms Abby Spring, a spokeswoman for the World Food Programme, said it would take up to 10 days to repair the road.
To add to the misery, river levels are expected to rise again in the central part of the country as rains continue.
The Paris Club of foreign creditor nations said yesterday it would defer all Mozambique's debt servicing payments until a global accord cancelling the country's debt was agreed.
The announcement came after a number of Western countries called for Mozambique's foreign debt to be torn up to help the southern African state tackle its flood disaster.
AFP adds: About 1,500 people have been displaced by floods in Malawi's southern Chikwawa district, a government official said yesterday.
Mr Lucius Chikuni, commissioner for disaster preparedness, relief and rehabilitation, said the floods had been caused by heavy rains which began on Saturday and caused the Lalanje River to burst its banks. Weather experts said 165 mm (6.6 inches) of rain fell on the flat and flood-prone district in 24 hours.