Floods have destroyed about 100 houses in Sinazongwe district in Southern Province and hundreds of people have run out of food.
The entire district has also been cut off from the rest of the country owing to continues floods that have destroyed bridges, culverts and turned streams into rivers.
Sinazongwe District Health Director Dr. Kebby Musokotwane said there would be an outbreak of diseases if floods will continue.
Dr. Musokotwane said the situation was getting worse every day and he has appealed for urgent attention from government to save the people in the district.
Sinazongwe District Professional Assistant Officer under Parliament Douglas Mweembe confirmed that 66 houses have collapsed in Maamba Coal Mine Township.
Mr. Mweembe said the affected people are those in the shanty compounds. because their houses were made of mud soil.
Abel Mununka a resident in Siansowa Township where there is the biggest crocodile farm in the country said 20 houses have collapsed.
Mr. Mununka said people were starving as they could not go out to buy food and business people are unable to deliver food owing to the impassable roads.
He has made a passionate appeal to government to urgently send relief food to save the starving people in the district.
“I wish to appeal to government over this worst situation of hunger in this area of Senior Chief Mweemba, people are failing to go out to buy food, business men are not delivering mealie-meal because roads are now streams,” mr.Mununka said.
He said people in areas such as Kanchindu, Sulwengonde, muuka, Nyanga, Syameja, Siampondo, and Kafwambila were in desperate situation and need relief food before they perish of hunger.
Mr.Dodo Sindaza a Business man in Senior Chief Mweemba area said a Helicopter would be needed to air lift relief food to the affected areas because the roads were impassable.
He also said several houses have also collapsed in Kanchindu in Senior Chief Mweemba area.
Mr. Fred Kapampa from Maamba Township said the last flood was witnessed in 1998 in in which a clinic was washed away in Maamba but he has confirmed that this year’s flood were worst.
The rains which started Saturday have continued pouring non stop and it has been raining on the daily since December this year.
The people in the district have been cut off in stages according to the areas where they live in.
In Senior Chief Mweemba area they were cut off on Friday as the bridge along the Maamba/Kafwambila road near the Chief’s palace was washed away and all the streams have burst their banks.
In Chief Sinazongwe area people in Malima and Buleya Malima have been cut off and they could not go to Sinezeze, Maamba, and Choma because of the washed away bridges and culverts along the road.
In MaambaTownship the residents were cut off on Saturday.
[ZANIS]
This is sad indeed and let some one help the people.
Does it mean we do not have Road Inspectors in our country? This would have been avoided if someone was responsible for transport & communication. Now that it has happened, let the GOV. work-up from the comfort zones and do what is experted of it.
Just ask Mugabe to assist us with helicopters as he already did in Kazungula. It’s like we don’t have helicopters. Something must be done urgently.