A Civic Leader in Mambwe District of Eastern Province has thanked government for the relief maize amid the prevailing hunger situation in the area.

Ncheka Ward Councilor, Benson Phiri, revealed to ZANIS News that his ward received a total of 350 bags of 50 kilogram bags of maize out of the district’s allocation of 2, 000 bags.

Mr Phiri noted that the aid will go a long way as most people in the area were negatively affected by the drought situation.

He has, however, asked government through the Disaster Management and Mitigation Unit (DMMU) in the district to allocate more relief maize to the ward.

“There is need for DMMU to allocate more bags of maize to the ward because some people were left out due to the few allocation,” he said.

He further called on satellite committees in the ward to keep record of beneficiaries to avoid giving the same people in the coming consignments.

Mr  Phiri also noted the need for DMMU, and those in charge of distributing the relief maize to ensure the commodity is taken close to the people for easy access.

“People travel long distances to access the maize as it is usually left at what is deemed as a central place but it is hard for the aged to walk those distances,” he said.

The civic leader observed that there is need for modalities to be put in place so that people, particularly the aged and persons with disabilities have easy access to the relief food.

A total of 2, 000 bags of relief maize were recently distributed across the 15 wards in Mambwe for the month of May.