Thursday, March 28, 2024

ZP, Army commended for retrieving bodies of drowned Lake Kariba victims

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Disaster Management and Mitigation Unit (DMMU) has commended the Zambia police and Zambia Army for helping retrieve the 25 bodies of people who drowned on Lake Kariba after an overloaded boat they were in capsized.

And 24 bodies of the victims are in the UTH mortuary awaiting postmortem, while the 25th body was being awaited from Siavonga district hospital mortuary.

Addressing a media briefing this afternoon, DMMU National Coordinator Patrick Kangwa described the operation that lasted 57 hours 30 minutes successful.

Mr. Kangwa has also commended the Zambia Air Force (ZAF) for helping out in retrieving the bodies by providing helicopters.

And responding to a question as to why the bodies are being kept in the UTH mortuary in Lusaka, Mr. Kangwa says Siavonga district hospital mortuary has no capacity to keep all the 25 bodies.

He has since applauded the communities around Gwembe for their tireless efforts in retrieving the bodies.

And a 35 year old man is feared to have died on Lake Kariba when the boat he was travelling on capsized last night owing to strong winds.

Gwembe District Commissioner Alice Mwiinga confirmed to ZANIS in Siavonga this afternoon that Royd Hampande from Chilonde village met his fate in Hamatuba area while his colleague Conard Chilonde 38 managed to swim to the shores of the Lake.

Ms Mwiinga said the body of Hampanda has not yet been retrieved as the villagers are still searching for it.

The incident has come barely three days after 25 people among them 22 school children, two elderly women and a one-year old baby drowned on Lake Kariba in Henga area as they travelled for a jubilee outing.

Choma Police Assistant Commissioner Kashif Mphande has confirmed that the search operation for the 25 has been concluded and that postmortems will be done in Lusaka before the burial on Wednesday in Henga area.

Meanwhile, Education Minister John Phiri has expressed sorrow at the death of the 22 pupils from Henga Primary School.

The Minister said today when he visited the deceased families at Henga Primary School that it was unfortunate for pupils who were being educated to become good citizens to perish at once.

Dr Phiri who also prayed for the affected families thanked them for the unity they have displayed during the period of mourning the children.

“ Some of you have lost several children ,others one, while others nothing but you have managed to come together to help each other and government officers have been with you since the incident happened, let this unity continue,” Dr Phiri said.

21 COMMENTS

  1. Please invest in life jackets for children using boats to get to school. If people at the end of their lives can be evacuated overseas for treatment, why cant the country invest in young lives? #annoyedatsenselesslossofyounglife

  2. Please Invest in life jackets for school children crossing rivers to get to school. People at the end of their lives are being evacuated overseas for expensive medical treatments. Why not invest in young lives?

    Police should not be commended for retrieving bodies of children but for preserving their lives!

  3. Its painful…….I ve nothing much to say. Its a Bad time for Zambia. Soon will be MOURNING Mwango Chalesi Katongo Chilufyanya Sata !!
    Bad for Zambia !!

    • @Chisala Anderson, you know NOTHING about God’s timetable, so it’s not in your power to say who will mourn who… In 1991 anyone would have told you that CHILUBA WOULD MOURN KK, but the opposite happened. So let’s leave it to God…

    • @Nostradamus – it is highly likely he used a boat that was NOT overloaded. Things in Zed are only done properly when it is a dignitary or when some tragedy has just happened. We don’t love ourselves.

  4. I thought it was their job to do it, why recommend them?They were trained for that.Hello?Please,can I see someone being charged for negligence!

  5. Last time I was on a boat ride on this lake (adjoined to the mighty Zambezi river) it was not a pleasant experience due to too many crocodiles and hippos that would show their annoyance that we were invading their territory. It is a commendable job that the police were able to retrieve these bodies and the owners of the lake did not feast on the bodies. It would not be an easy place to regulate because most villagers depend on the lake to fish their kapenta and they do it in the middle of the night. It is good to ask how such tragedies can be avoided in future but those Bawe in that area can undertake any form of risk so long it enables them to get their kapenta to sell to sustain their families but the biggest scandal is that electricity supplying Lusaka is obtained from there.

  6. So in other words this is a UNIP scandal where they displaced villagers who depended on this river for their livelihood to construct the dam which is primarily used to generate electricity to the cities with no apparent benefit for the villagers in this area. Power lines go over these villages. When you read the history of this lake it is fraught with violence because the government literally moved them with force and left them on dry land with no compensation where they cannot grow anything because the land they settled is too arid and dry due to the heat. The only other economic activity is goat rearing. I have been to this area many times and it makes my heart bleed when I see what our own government did to its own people.

    • @Oyaya,
      I am sure you know when UNIP started ruling Zambia, not to mention when the dam was constructed. Go back to your history books.

  7. The mindset of our politicians is really baffling. Someone should be held responsible for this mess. Safety is not only confined to buses or aeroplanes. What happened to life jackets or life rafts for public vessels used on our waters? You guys are not serious!

  8. This country is finished, let’s close it though I don’t know how. They are now printing money and cheating you that we are commemorating jubilee with presidents on the money and you are busy clapping. People dying like that 50 years after independence

  9. Let me quote ‘Final constructon and the addition of th Kariba North Power cavern by Mitchell Construction was not completed until 1977 due to largely political problem for a total $480 million, 86 men lost their lives during construction.’ So you fat chap tell me who was in power when the Kariba North Power station was constructed? I do not deny initial work started in 1955. How the hell would you love your natural resources to be taken from your area and have little or no economic impact in your home village? I do not come from this area but what has been done to its people is a total travesty.

    • Oyaya, the decision to construct the dam was made in 1955 by the federal government and was officially opened by Queen Elizabeth in 1960. By then, the natives on the banks on the Zambezi had already been displaced. How does UNIP honestly come in? even if you use the 1977 completion argument, the lake was filled to its capacity in 1963 and people had already been pushed to marginal lands by then. Unless you can prove that it was in 1977 that the displacement actually took place, you are better off dropping your argument.

  10. i keep on asking myself why a school has never been built on the side of river where these people live. Didnt the govt or area mp think of such????

  11. Whats the reason for doing a POSTMORTEM when the cause of death is clear? is it that mulefwaya ukubatambila? Why commend ZAF when its their Job to do that infact it was so simple as bodies were floating on the water surface? A person only drowns is he or she was a witch .Why one body remained behind? why didn’t met department warn about bad weather? Why pretend they were going for Jubilee? Why not publish names and their photoz? Why clergymen could not see this to happen? Why

  12. Drowning at lake Kariba is not novel. but what we should learn as a nation from this tragedy, is to invest in Risk reduction strategies. 1. all schools surrounding lake kariba must include swiming in their school curriculum! take a leaf from countries liie norway, denmark, sweden where all kindergarden pupils are taught how to swim. 2. establish coast guards at lake kariba. 3.all boats carrying 10 people & above should log in their navigation route and submit names of passegers. 4. Strengthen the maritine law & registration of boats or vessels. take this to traffic police or RATSA? otherwise we shall keep on losing precious lives. RIP

  13. Here is one very simple solution: DON’T OVERLOAD THE BOATS! Is that too much to ask? LT by how many seats/passengers was that hapless boat overloaded? Do let us know. We can engineer all the novel ideas on earth but as long as we disregard ourselves in safety matters these tragedies will continue. The boat operator, if he or she is alive, must be brought to book for this tragedy. Plans for the future? DO NOT OVERLOAD THE BOATS. This, in addition to other standard water transport regulations.

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