Government says it is impressed with the comprehensive assessment done by the Technical Committee on Floods to ascertain the extent of damage caused to crops and infrastructure by floods in Western Province.
Deputy Minister in the Office of the Vice President, Guston Sichilima, says the kind of ground work done so far by the Committee will enable government to effectively come up with stringent measures to address the humanitarian crisis caused by floods.
Mr Sichilima was speaking in Mongu today during a briefing by the Local Technical Committee on Floods.
The deputy minister, who arrived in Mongu today to conduct an on the spot check of the flood situation in the province, said government was in a hurry to respond to the desperate situation caused by floods in the Western Province.
Mr. Sichilima said government would like to quickly and effectively respond to the havoc caused by floods in a bid to reduce human suffering.
The floods which have been considered to be the worst since 1969 in Western Province has left 49 schools submerged in water destroyed about 85 per cent rice fields and 45 per cent of maize fields with a total of 1,500 households affected.
Among those on Mr. Sichilima’s entourage include, his Communications and Transport counterpart, Mubika Mubika, Works and Supply Deputy Minister, Mundia Ndalamei, Office of the Vice President Permanent Secretary, Davies Sampa, Disaster Management and Mitigation Unit, DMMU, National Coordinator, Dominiciano Mulenga and other senior government officials.
Meanwhile, Western Province Minister, Adons Mufalali, said the province was still expecting the worst flooding crisis as the water levels were still rising.
Mr. Mufalali said with the continued rainfall pattern in the province, the humanitarian situation could worsen.
He cited Lukulu, Kalabo, Shang’ombo, Senanga and Mongu districts as among the worst hit by floods.
ZANIS/TK/WM/ENDS/SJK.
Hope the Kuomboka ceremeny wont be affected.
Kuomboka ceremony happens when we have floods in the Zambezi plains, so the more the floods the better the paddlers will find it easy to surf the mighty Zambezi channels and rapids **== come 11th April 2009 lwa ya
ooops .. ceremony
Thats what they said about the Chirundu road when the chinese announced completion of construction works and now a huge section has been washed away.
If flooding is a perennial problem in the province, then why is government carrying out yet another ‘comprehensive assessment’ instead of having been prepared to act based on previous experience?
Don’t need a comprehensive assessment on floods, GRZ should have been ever ready to help the flood victims than spending more money on the study before another bill for the need is prepared 🙁
the rain season will always be of the same period for our country and floods are here to stay in the same places. thats God’s plan. its up to you to work out solutions to avoid disaster affecting you. this isn’t rocket science but simple logic. I can see a situation were by every year you spent money on the same people in the same area and they feel comfortable for that. You can give them fish once or twice, but if the problem persist, then, teach them fishing so that incase you are not there, they will survive.
mWjkaU