he Meteorological Department says the current weather conditions over the southern part of Zambia are likely to continue for some days until the Inter-Tropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) moved northwards.
Currently, the country is experiencing a lot of rains over Southern, Lusaka, Western and Eastern provinces because the ITCZ, which is causing a lot of rainfall activities, was hovering over the southern half of Zambia.
This condition has caused consistent heavy rainfall, especially in the four provinces, causing damage to infrastructure such as bridges, roads and houses in Southern Province.
A few days ago, two main roads in Southern Province, the Lusaka-Siavonga road and the Maamba-Batoka road, had one bridge each damaged by heavy rains, cutting Maamba and Siavonga from the rest of the country.
Meteorological Department Deputy Director, Jacob Nkomoki said in an interview with ZANIS in Lusaka today that the current weather pattern of heavy rains over southern Zambia would continue for some time.
He said the department did not expect any reduction in the rainfall activities in southern Zambia until the ITCZ moved northwards.
“For now we expect these rains to continue for sometime until the Inter-Tropical Convergence Zone moves to the north, that is when we will have a reduction of rainfall in the south,” he said.
He could however, not predict when the ITCZ would move away from the southern half of the country.
Mr. Nkomoki said although Luapula and Northern provinces were receiving a lot of rain currently, the amounts were not as much as those experienced in southern Zambia where the ITCZ is strong.
He, however, said it was currently difficult for the department to provide accurate predictions because of power failure at the head office in Lusaka, a situation that lead to the department losing important weather forecasting data.
Meanwhile, Southern Province Permanent Secretary, Darius Hakayobe, has disclosed that efforts are underway to ensure that Sinazongwe district, which has been cut-off from the rest of the country due to heavy rains, is accessible by road by this coming weekend.
Sinazongwe district has started experiencing an acute shortage of food and other essential commodities as the district relies on supplies from Choma district which is currently cut off due to the collapsed bridges.
Mr Hakayobe had a tough time to reach Sinazongwe district to assess the magnitude of the damage caused by the heavy rains as he and other members of his delegation had to abandon their vehicles to meander down hill to cross a stream where a major bridge has been washed away to reach the other side where motor vehicles had been mobilized to transport them.
The visibly astonished PS who was accompanied by Choma District Commissioner, Mungoni Simulilika, was helped to cross the Muziyo stream by Sinazongwe District Commissioner, Laiven Apuleni, who tightly held onto him and struggled to pull him up on a muddy and slippery path to safety uphill. This was amidst ceaseless rainfall.
Sinazongwe district cannot be accessed by road and all commuters have to disembark at the point where the bridge has collapsed and cross the dangerous spot to reach the other side in order to board alternative transport to reach Sinazongwe, Malima, Maamba mine and other areas of the valley district.
Mr Hakayobe visited another spot where the road leading to Maamba coal mine has been extensively damaged, restricting motor vehicles to only one unsafe lane which was also heavily eroded underneath by strong under currents of fast running water.
The visibly shocked PS who was also accompanied by provincial police chief, Lemmy Kajoba and other top provincial security personnel who are members of the regional disaster management committee, said government had all the necessary resources and equipment to normalize the situation in the valley district before this coming weekend.
Speaking to journalists after inspecting the collapsed bridges, Mr Hakayobe said the Namibian contractor known as RCC currently engaged by government to work on the controversial bottom road, has been re-assigned to reconstruct the damage section that had been cut off.
He said the Namibian contractor had all the necessary equipment and logistics to reconstruct the damaged bridge and normalise the situation
However, work by the contractor is being hampered by incessant rains which have continued to pound the valley district, causing rock falls and mudslides.
Mr Hakayobe said government has no immediate plans to air lift relief food and other supplies to Sinazongwe unless the situation dictated so.
The PS pointed out that he would rely on advice from the district commissioners who are on the ground, working with their disaster management committees as well as counsel from the provincial disaster management committee to competently respond to the emergency.
The PS conceded that airlifting relief food would be too costly but hoped that the situation would not deteriorate to such levels as government was hopeful that the damaged area would be repaired by this coming weekend.
He said Government was concerned that Maamba coal mine which had just started picking up in coal production following initiatives by the Zambia Consolidated Copper Mines Investment Holdings Company should not suffer another set back due to problems of no road to transport coal to market.
Mr Hakayobe said government will do everything possible with available resources to ensure that the road is repaired and normal traffic restored.
However, engineers who are on site from the Road Development Agency hinted that the Namibian contractor was likely to encounter serious hurdles to repair the collapsed portion of the road due to adverse weather conditions.
He said the ground has been extensively weakened by the incessant rains to support any structure.
An excavator and a tipper truck mobilized to repair the damage are currently stuck at Sinazeze Road Development Agency quarry after the equipment attempted to haul earth material to fill up the sunken portion of the road.
They suggested that the engineering squadron of the Zambia Army was better placed to deal with the Sinazongwe situation by putting a temporary beily bridge to allow only light motor vehicles to pass.
