A heavy downpour leftover 42 houses, three bars, and four shops roofless in Baluba ward in Luanshya district.
Acting Luanshya District Commissioner, Kasemuka Mwalo confirmed the incident and described the incident which happened on Thursday evening as unfortunate.
“We received information that a heavy downpour on 4th November left a trail of destruction and immediately, a team consisting of the local authority, police, and other relevant departments rushed to assess the extent of damage caused.” Mrs Mwalo said.
The storm further affected Baluba Police post whose roof was partially blown off and also a number of ZESCO electricity poles that fell down.
“Fortunately, no injuries were sustained although some household property was affected, as first respondents, the District Disaster Management and Mitigation Unit upon assessing the vulnerability of the people, we moved in and food rations was taken in to mitigate the situation” she explained.
Mrs Mwalo disclosed that her office was compiling a report that will be forwarded to the DMMU region office and ultimately the national office for further action.
She however noted that much needed to be done in terms of construction of houses in unplanned settlements, attributing the damage to poor infrastructure.
“ I would like to appeal to the people to seek assistance from the local authority when building their houses so that people use appropriate materials when building so that they meet the minimum required standards to prevent the recurring damages every rainy season, ” she observed.
Mrs Mwalo further appealed to the residents of Baluba to avoid building substandard structures to avoid loss of property.
ITS ALWAYS ROOFING
WHY DONT PEOPLE UNDERSTAND IF ROOFING IS NOT PROPERLY SECURE THIS WILL CONTINUE TO HAPPEN
NOTHING TO DO WITH HEAVY DOWN POUR
GETTING UNSKILLED CHEAP LABOUR TO SECURE ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT COMPONENTS OF A HOUSE
IS GOING TO CONTINUE
REMEMBER BUY CHEAP BUY TWICE !!
Construction standards aren’t enforced by local authorities in Zambia. Will things change now? I doubt it. Perhaps it’s because we do not lose many people.
It is okay for the bars to be destroyed. Just sorry about the houses though.
And LT, it is not “first respondents”, rather “first responders”. Muleishiba utuntu.
People seek guidance or the local authorities impose guidelines on how structures should be built in a given area? The authorities are supposed to tell people how they can build in a given area and issue a fine if someone does not follow the guidelines. People will not willingly come to the local office to seek guidance on how they should build. You have to FORCE them to follow the stipulated guidelines, and a hefty fine imposed on guideline violators. Anything else is incompetence on the party of the so called authorities.
We didn’t put HH in power to cause damages with heavy pouring of insults at airport.
Nalumango need take that in that cabinet meeting of “clique of thieves”.
The Patriot @4, that’s good thinking. I like good thinking.