About seven schools have been closed in Shangombo district and about 6,500 households require emergency food due to floods that have hit the district.
This was disclosed by Shangombo district council chairman Mr. Mathew Mabuku during a district disaster management meeting held at Nangweshi farm training centre over the weekend.
Mr. Mabuku named the closed schools as Kaungamashi, Beshe, Nalushulu, Mwanzi Lisilu, Kashukwa, Shilukoma and Kapoola basic schools.
He said that most areas are not accessible and the Matebele-Shangombo road was in a terrible state adding that it will soon be cut off again at Mboiwa.
Mr. Mabuku has since urged villagers living on Sitoti and Mbeta Islands to quickly shift to the upper land before the islands are submerged by floods.
On food security, he appealed to the Provincial Disaster Management and Mitigation Unit (PDMMU) to quickly assist the displaced people and the affected schools.
The chairman ruled out any harvests in agricultural fields along the Matebele and Silowana plains as most of them were totally submerged and destroyed by floods caused by heavy rains.
Shangombo is cut off from Mongu by road and the pontoon at Kalongola ferry point has since been closed until the end of the rainy season.
I have travelled to this remote part of our country, made famous by Vera Chiluba, something I do not look forward to doing again. It is an outpost in the middle of neverland, with no connection to the national power grid, at least the time I was there. The only real sign of life is the army’s presence. Over the last 100 years, I am sure little has changed. Yet, like every rural outpost, it is abound with that word I have grown to hate: “potential” due to fabled mineral wealth. Now it is even cut off from Mongu? Lord have mercy…