RUNDU – The Regional Disaster Risk Management Committee in the two Kavango regions has decided to source additional drought relief food suppliers, because the current supplier is failing to deliver the required amount of maize meal bags needed to feed people affected by the drought.
Some 5 365 households out of of the 31 596 households registered to receive food aid are yet to receive drought relief food. The committee says it needs 35 213 bags to cater for people living in the Kapako, Kahenge, Mashare, Mukwe and Ndiyona areas. The committee blames the contracted supplier for maize meal for not delivering the commodities as per the contract. “The storages are sometimes empty for a couple of days due to non-availability of bags,” the committee said and urged the supplier to do everything it can to deliver the required number of maize meal bags. The committee also revealed that some people are registered in more than one village and there are still lists of unregistered people coming from villages. The committee said the Shadikongoro Irrigation scheme has agreed to supply over 3000 maize meal bags a day. “We managed to talk to the colleagues at Shadikongoro and they can provide us with more than 3000 bags. But now the [Emergency Management Unit in the] Office of the Prime Minister must settle the debt if we are to receive maize meal from Shadikongoro,” said the Kavango Regional Council’s management committee chairperson, Bonny Wakudumo.
Wakudumo also complained about the slow payment procedures of the Emergency Management Unit, saying bureaucracy is one of the reasons why private suppliers do not want to work with government. “OPM did not respond to the request made by council to use local millers. We also did not get any response when we requested the OPM to settle the outstanding amount for Shadikongoro,” he said.
By Mathias Haufiku