OSHAKATI – While the government is aware of the demand for drought relief, the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM) has cautioned against mass registration for drought relief food, which the programme may not be able to cater for.
Deputy Director for Support Services under the Directorate of Disaster Risk Management at OPM Flory Ashipala said drought relief affects everyone, but there are those who are critically in need of food, and those are the people the programme intends to serve.
“As much as we want to include new beneficiaries, we should also be cautious not to register more people or a lot of people that we will not have enough to cater for under the programme,” said Ashipala.
According to recent statistics, Oshana has over 83 600 people in need of food. Ashipala was speaking at a recent meeting with the Oshana regional leadership, including the disaster risk management team.
The meeting, spearheaded by Deputy Prime Minister John Mutorwa, sought to exchange views and assess how the drought distribution is progressing in the region. He advised the committee entrusted to deal with the distribution of food to always apply the law. He also called on the regions to be always prepared, as “disasters do not warn people”.
“When disasters come, they don’t warn anyone. So let us have these structures in place so that people can be on alert when a disaster strikes,” Mutorwa said.
Other issues raised at the meeting by the constituency councillors include less food being delivered to the region in comparison to those in need of food, orphan-headed households with no extra income, and larger households receiving the same number of meals as those with fewer beneficiaries.
He also called for proper coordination between all government programmes assisting vulnerable communities so that they can be better assisted.
*Nusita Ashipala is an information officer at MICT in Oshana.