KATIMA MULILO – Urban and rural development minister James Sankwasa has called for a complete rethink of how flood relief is distributed.
According to him, the government must stop counting households and instead focus on the actual number of people affected.
He also criticised the practice of allocating relief according to households rather than the number of individuals living in them.
“People don’t eat as a household; they eat individually,” he said.
Sankwasa made the remarks on Monday during a briefing with the Zambezi Regional Council’s disaster management team on the worsening flood situation in Kabbe North and Kabbe South constituencies, where thousands of residents have been affected by submerged homes, flooded fields, closed schools and disrupted health services.
“When a flood comes, it displaces people in many ways. Schools are affected, so teaching is disrupted. Health services are affected when the sick do not have time or means to get to the nearest health centre,” Sankwasa said.
He said agriculture had been hardest hit, warning that the destruction of fields and crops would trigger severe food insecurity in the region.
“This flood creates a very high food insecurity in the region because the fields and the crops have been submerged, and people will not have a harvest,” he said.
The minister stressed that flood relief should not only consist of clothing and temporary food parcels but must also sustain affected communities until the next farming season.
“When we bring flood relief, it should cover not only garments but also food throughout until the next flood season,” Sankwasa said.
The minister said the government now needs a detailed register of every affected person, including those who have lost household goods, blankets, bedding and farming equipment.
“We shall need proper statistics as to who are affected, how many people are affected, and in which way,” he said.
Sankwasa insisted that he did not want to rely only on reports from Windhoek but wanted to inspect the damage personally.
The worsening flood crisis has already forced the closure of three schools in Kabbe North and Kabbe South, leaving hundreds of learners stranded.
Double disasters
Regional director for planning and rural development Beaven Walubita said the region is facing two disasters at once: flash floods caused by heavy rainfall and seasonal flooding caused by rising river levels.
The flash floods have displaced families in Katima Mulilo and the Sibinda area, where residents have been moved to temporary shelters.
“We started with the flash floods because of rainfall. That affected our communities in Katima Mulilo town, where we relocated some people to two points,” Walubita said.
However, he said the more severe crisis is now unfolding in Kabbe North and Kabbe South, where seasonal flooding has made several schools inaccessible.
The worst-affected schools are Muzii Combined School, Mpukano Primary School and Nankutwe Combined School.
“Teachers had to walk through water before they went into the classrooms. All the learners had to come with canoes or banana boats, where snakes and rats had been a problem,” Walubita said.
The three schools have now been closed.
Muzii and Mpukano will be relocated to Lusese, while Nankutwe will be moved to Schuckmannsburg after the Easter weekend. The ministry of education has already removed food, mattresses and blankets from government warehouses in preparation for the relocation.
Walubita said boats and ferries will be critical to transporting both learners and school equipment.
“The ferry cannot go up to the school. There should be boats that we call interceptors. The interceptors will carry the learners and bring them to the ferry. That includes chairs, desks and books,” he said.
A skipper team has already been dispatched to identify where ferries and smaller boats will dock.
Authorities expect learners to resume classes immediately after Easter, with the affected schools remaining open longer later in the year to make up for lost teaching time. The flood crisis has also left many villages cut off from clinics and food supplies. Communities in Namiyundu told officials they urgently need food and emergency transport boats to act as ambulances.
“They only need food, and they only need boats in the form of ambulances,” Walubita said.
OPM
Hellen Likando from the Office of the Prime Minister said a national disaster risk management team has been activated to coordinate the response.
“Disaster risk management requires a multi-stakeholder approach,” Likando said.
She said all relocation camps must immediately begin registering displaced people and appointing camp leaders to monitor daily needs.
“As people come, they must be registered. As they go back, they must be de-registered,” Likando said.
According to her, people staying in relocation camps must be prioritised for food, mattresses, blankets and tents before assistance is extended to flood-affected villagers still living in their communities.
Likando also addressed complaints from residents about rice distributed to flood victims, some of whom claimed it was “plastic”.
The Office of the Prime Minister has already dispatched food, tents and mattresses to the region, while more trucks carrying aid are expected to arrive next week.
Taking to his own social media accounts, Prime Minister Elijah Ngurare said:
“Floating bridges have arrived in the Land of the Brave. Some are already delivered in Ondangwa, Rundu and Katima Mulilo. Well done honorable minister [Sanet Steenkamp] and your team.”