WINDHOEK – The Zambezi Regional Council is in urgent need of a helicopter to rescue hundreds of villagers in the flood-prone areas in the Kabbe constituency, who have not received drought relief food since December last year, because vehicles cannot reach them due to ongoing heavy rains in the region.
The affected villagers are now up in arms with their regional councillor over the delayed drought relief food, which they say was last distributed in December last year just before Christmas. Kabbe North and South constituency councillor, Raphael Mbala confirmed the delay in the distribution process. He attributed the delay in delivering relief food to the concerned villages to the heavy rains experienced in the region since December last year to date and that made many roads impassable for vehicles, especially trucks. The affected areas are Malindi, Nsundwa, Itomba, Ivilivinzi, Mbalasinte and Muzii. “It is true, the villagers are complaining bitterly over the delayed drought relief food. But all these areas have mud everywhere and no truck can reach these villagers. For all other areas it is only a helicopter that can help, because no one can reach them with a vehicle. These areas are inland and are also situated in the flood plains far from the Chobe and Zambezi Rivers. For Muzii, the villagers can be reached by speed and banana boats if trucks go through Zambia,” he said. Alternatively, the councillor said food for villagers at Muzii could be transported via Katima Mulilo through Zambia and be offloaded at Mwandi bordering the two countries, but there is no fuel for the speed and banana boats to cross the river into the villages.
Approached for comment yesterday, the Regional Disaster Risk Management field coordinator in the Zambezi Region, Jimmy Simataa denied any delays due to a fuel shortage, saying the distribution process is proceeding as planned in the flood-prone areas. “We are following a programme. We have enough fuel that we received in November last year. And we will only request more if this consignment is finished.
We have already supplied Impalila last weekend. And this weekend, we will distribute to Kafika,” he said. According to Simataa, the remaining areas earmarked to receive food are Ivilivinzi, Nakambolelwa, Lusese, Kabbe, Sifuha, Mumbome, Lisikili, Nfoma and Imukusi. “If the councillor wanted a helicopter, he would have gone through us so we forward such request to the Office of the Prime Minister,” Simataa said. The Kabbe north and south constituencies are among the areas that are the hardest hit by the drought and many villages experienced failed harvests due to the heavy floods experienced over the past three years and that washed away crops and prevented many from ploughing, because they had to be evacuated to higher ground. Heavy rains accompanied by strong winds have been pouring down almost every day since before Christmas in the Zambezi Region, and left many people in the informal settlements of Choto at Katima Mulilo homeless after rainwater submerged their houses. Mbala, who is also the Zambezi Regional Council chairperson, also lays the blame at the doorstep of the Office of the Prime Minister for allegedly failing to supply them with fuel as requested. “We requested fuel from the Office of the Prime Minister, but it has not yet arrived. We send through our request already late last year.
People are complaining and calling me day and night asking for their food rations. I explained to them that trucks cannot reach their areas and there is no fuel for the boats,” he said. Simataa, when pressed as to why they only started distributing the food last weekend if the fuel was ordered and delivered already in November last year, said the process has been slow due to weather conditions in those areas as they are all situated along the river. Nevertheless, Mbala noted that the current flooding is not as severe as last year. The Zambezi River on Tuesday stood at 1.65m compared to last year this time when it reached a level above 4m. “We have less rainfall in the catchment areas of south-eastern Angola, south-western DRC and north-west Zambia, which normally burst the banks of the Zambezi River,” he said. He also reported that farmers in the region are optimistic, because their crops, which almost withered are now flourishing.
By Albertina Nakale