The Sunday News
Vincent Gono, Features Editor
THE tale of communities in flood-hit Sipepa area in Tsholotsho is one that only a fool can make fun of.
But amid the ravaging of homes in villages such as Hlobi, Mahaba, Sipepa, Mele, Mbamba and Mbanyana by a tropical storm that had downgraded from a tropical cyclone recently, the Government has set in motion plans to ensure the communities are settled on higher ground in the district as a permanent solution to the perennial flooding problem in Tsholotsho.
However, the plans to relocate people from perennial flood areas, to other areas in or out of their district is one that is usually not met with open minds despite the troubles that the people are always facing.
But a number of socio-political and economic dynamics should be taken cognisance of that may hinder the smooth progression of the noble idea to relocate people.
Socially the structure of the community is broken where villages will be destroyed as subjects are moved to other areas. And politically if people are moved to other areas far from their traditional residence the demographic structure of the constituency is also affected.
Economically too, if people are moved, it means those who were owning businesses have to follow the market and it exerts pressure to the areas moved to in terms of resources but the Government says it will deal with all the technicalities that are involved.
Although no human life was lost owing to quick interventions by the stakeholders, a lot of livestock was lost while foodstuffs, clothing items and other valuables including personal documents were destroyed.
Villagers were made to watch the battered vestiges of their homes in grief as they moved to shelter themselves temporarily at schools, clinics and churches on high ground.
“We are happy that we have been evacuated. Most of us have never been in a helicopter before. The experience is historical but of course it is overshadowed by the thought of having lost everything in the rains,” said one villager, Ms Sihle Ncube.
Most of their crops too were a complete write-off as they were washed away by the rains. With bitter reluctance and evidently not wanting to let go of their rain ruined homes in the biblical Lot’s wife fashion, the villagers gradually resigned to a castaway life at the various points where they were evacuated to by helicopters from the Air Force of Zimbabwe as cars were of no use as the water was reaching adult waist level.
“We lost everything. Clothes and foodstuffs are all gone, as for our small livestock such as chicken and goats we have accepted it — we have lost them,” added a tearful Ms Ncube.
To most villagers it is therefore an agonising tale of tearful pain, difficulty, more poverty, misery, and any other superlative that one can think of that is an antonym of everything that the word joy means. In fact it is a tale that can best find expression and meaning in the word tragedy.
Like so many other villagers coming from a season so much devoid of plenty, the communities were basking in the bliss of a promising farming season with predictions of above normal rainfall. They were praying that the rains might be the right tonic for them having a bumper harvest. And so they determinedly worked hard.
Deriving their hope and inspiration from their promising crops, the villagers were all too eager to achieve food self-sufficiency and laugh off the El Nino-induced drought whose consequences most parts of the country were struggling to live with.
They did not know that it only needed a day for the rains to place a begging bowl in their hands once more, which they thought they would forgo for a while.
Fate had dictated their destiny and it was of course God’s case that they have no power to appeal against.
Tropical cyclone Dineo which shyly downgraded to a tropical depression as it entered the country from Mozambique was surely fate’s rod of anger to the Tsholotsho communities. The tropical depression made sure to leave the communities as poor as church mice as little if any of their belongings were salvaged.
Minister of State for Matabeleland North province Ambassador Cain Mathema said in an interview that there were more than 1 000 people who were directly affected by the floods in Tsholotsho district. He said the situation in the district, particularly in those areas like Sipepa was quite dire and appealed for donations in any form from individuals, institutions, NGOs and churches.
“The affected families will be moved to other areas, they need to construct new structures so we are appealing to well-wishers for assistance in cash or kind,” he said.
Minister Mathema reiterated that the problems in Tsholotsho were far from over as many might be believing as the teams were still on the ground trying to work out modalities on how best the affected communities could be assisted.
“The work is very far from being over. We have teams on the ground and we met Government departments where we looked at the situation and intervention measures that we can take to ease the problems facing those that have been evacuated.
“There are more than 1 000 people from almost ten villages in Sipepa area in the district who were directly affected by the floods. Although no lives were lost the villagers lost a lot of valuables including their livestock, foodstuffs, clothing items and many other important things while the loss in times of time to schoolchildren cannot be quantified as most of them are still not going to school,” said Minister Mathema.
He added that plans were at an advanced stage to ensure that the affected villagers were not going to be taken back to their destroyed homes but were going to be resettled on identified land along the Tsholotsho-Lupane road where the ground was high.
Minister Mathema said he had engaged the chief — Chief Mathuphula who he said was in agreement that the people be moved. He however, said their fields were going to remain.
“We honestly can’t be doing this each and every time. We are aware that parts of the district lies in a low lying area that is susceptible to floods and after every three years we run around doing this. My point is why can’t we just sit down and find a lasting solution to this by settling people in areas where there are no such problems.
“The people are willing to move because they no longer want to continue witnessing this year in and year out. They are also tired of it. Fortunately we have identified land in the district. We have enough land in Tsholotsho where the villagers will be taken to. We are sorting that out as we speak. We want DDF to drill boreholes in the area while we also have plans to take up projects such as the Gwayi-Khami Dam construction and Gwayi-Umguza Dam so that water is made available to the communities,” he said.
Minister Mathema said the time had come when people should rise above “retrogressive traditional beliefs” of staying in an area that was problematic for the purpose and fear of leaving graves of the departed family or clan members.
“People should not resist moving to better areas because they want to keep family graves. It is high time people abandon some of those trivialities and focus on more important things. The burial sites will always be lost to history and the memory cast to the winds that whip tirelessly down the mountains and the slopes. You may also find out that the graves are also washed away by the rains. The good thing however, in this particular case is that people are willing to move,” he said.
The Civil Protection Unit (CPU) acting director Ms Sibusisiwe Ndlovu said Tsholotsho was the worst floods affected district in the country where a considerable number of families lost their homesteads.
She said communities in the Sipepa area were displaced by flooding and subsequently evacuated to Sipepa Primary School and Hospital by the Zimbabwe Defence Forces. The local school, she added, also flooded and children cannot access the school. Flooding in the area reached waist level.
Ms Ndlovu added that a plan of action for response was in place whose key components were to ensure provision of critical basic needs which includes food, water and sanitation, shelter and protection, health services and continuity of schooling, logistical support to the sub national structures with the attendant operational resources.
Part of the key components, according to Ms Ndlovu, include livelihoods study to consider scope of relocation and scope of living with the flood risk inclusive of the attendant risk reduction priorities
“Efforts are ongoing to mobilise the necessary resources for response with some measure of success where air rescue (helicopters and personnel) were done by the Zimbabwe Defence Forces while utensils such as clothing and shoes, school bags, blankets, mosquito nets and toiletries have been provided by the Department of Civil Protection, Zimbabwe Red Cross Society and IOM,” she said.
Chief Mathuphula said although the situation was uncomfortably that of the meat in a sandwich, he was happy that the CPU responded to the communities’ plight with a sense of urgency.
He said the situation was dire and people needed assistance in provisions of food and other basic needs. The traditional leader called on the Government to pursue all possible avenues to put a permanent end to their problems.
Tsholotsho district is one of the seven districts in Matabeleland North province. It is famed for the production of timber apart from some of its part being a perennial flooding area. The soil is bountiful and subject to rainfall, cultivated crops may produce a fairly good harvest.
In Masvingo province there were incidences of floods in Mwenezi, Chivi and Bikita but the province’s Minister of State for Provincial Affairs Cde Shuvai Mahofa said the situation was not very bad.
“We only received one death in Bikita but otherwise the situation is not very bad. Yes, crops were affected, some infrastructure destroyed and people need assistance in provisions of food and clothing but the situation is not as bad as is portrayed,” she said.
She added that the all the Government departments have been activated to provide all the necessary help.
Senator Chief Chitanga of Mwenezi where Lundi High School that was affected by floods dutifully belongs said the situation at the school was now normal and classes had resumed.
“We were affected, yes, but the situation was blown out of proportion by social media. The school suspended classes for just two days and resumed thereafter. The only loss that we can talk of is that of crops where most of them have been affected but otherwise there isn’t much damage to infrastructure as has been reported by social media,” said Sen Chief Chitanga.
The floods have since been declared a national disaster and have so far claimed 246 lives in the whole country.
