Heavy rains leaves 30 families homeless in Luanshya

A heavy downpour in Luanshya district has left a trail of destruction leaving over 30 households homeless in Misaka ward one, in Roan constituency.

A spot check by ZANIS in Luanshya district revealed that some houses had completely collapsed, others partially collapsed while others sustained huge cracks and were on the verge of collapse due to continued rainfall for three days.

The affected families have appealed to government to come to their aid and assist them with shelter and rebuilding their houses.

Charity Chanda, 56, who takes care of over 8 orphaned grandchildren said her house partially gave in to the heavy downpour at about 02:00 hours while her family was asleep.

“I was awakened by a loud noise from the cracking bricks around 02:00 hours, that was when I awakened the children as I attempted to unlock the door when the walls fell to the outside and were left in the cold, I managed to seek shelter from the remaining room which we used as a living room but is now our dwelling place,” she narrated.

Another victim Racheal Mwenya, 27, said her house collapsed yesterday morning and she was spending nights with her neighbours.

Mwenya appealed to government to help rebuild their house as they are spending nights at the neighbour’s house.

And Misaka Ward one councillor Simon Kombe said the area has had a consistent pour of heavy rains this year.

“We have had heavy rains continuously for the past three days and this has resulted in most structures that had already been weakened by the heavy rains experienced this year to collapse. This settlement has extended to dumbo areas and the houses here are built from mud bricks therefore they could not withstand the pressure of heavy rainfall”, he explained.

And Luanshya District Commissioner Patrick Maipambe visited the area to appreciate the extent of damage and advised families occupying partially collapsed houses to vacate their areas to avoid loss of life.

“the situation is sad and hazardous, am now appealing to these affected families to vacate the partially collapsed houses because they can give in any time and might result in calamity, I also want to ask friends and families to the affected areas to shelter the victims as we are planning the way forward”, he urged.

The District Commissioner said his office would inform the Disaster Management and Mitigation Unit DMMU of the situation and will wait for a report from the experts.

Mr Maipambe however observed that most of the affected houses were built in a Dumbo and urged the residents of Misaka to desist from building in hazardous areas to avoid the repeat of what had befallen the community.

He further appealed to the area councillors and the local authority to sensitise people close to streams to avoid building houses in unsafe zones.