17 houses and a school in Kamiza Ward of Katete District have had their roofs blown off and some walls razed to the ground by a heavy downpour experienced in the area.
Speaking when he checked on the extent of the damage, Katete District Commissioner Raphael Phiri sympathised with the community and expressed concern at the disaster.
“17 houses and a school had their roofs blown off and in some cases even walls were crumbling down. This again is something very strange because we are talking about the onset of the rains and yet there is so much damage being caused. At the trajectory we are going here in Katete, we can say almost every week we have houses being destroyed,” he said.
Mr Phiri further said there was need for enhanced disaster preparedness at district level, in responding effectively to the disasters that the district was experiencing.
“The Disaster Management and Mitigation Unit (DMMU) at district level should have minimum levels of stocks of materials to assist the affected people. For example a minimum number of tents so that when houses are destroyed you can quickly go to the affected areas and distribute the tents, we can also do at least some quantities of food stuffs like mealie meal, beans, and Kapenta just to help the people.
So there must be a way of mitigating these problems by having some minimum stocks through DMMU otherwise it will be impossible to cope at the rate we are going,” he said.
And Mailesi Banda, one of the residents affected by the rains said she lost three bags of fertiliser and the mealie meal that she stocked up.
Ms Banda further appealed for assistance to help her household in this time of need.
“Because it’s a disaster that just came suddenly we would like some assistance, we do not have food and we don’t have fertilizer because it got soaked,” she said.
And Kamiza Ward Councillor Edward Phiri also appealed for humanitarian assistance for the affected people.
“We are appealing to the government to say people should be helped if they don’t have anywhere to squat. There is a need for tents, foods like mealie meal, and Kapenta,” he said.
