The Sunday News
Mthabisi Tshuma, Sunday News Reporter
THE Civil Protection Unit in Matabeleland South has put in place mechanisms to deal with disasters such as floods that are associated with this time of the year.
Some parts of the country have started receiving rains while reports indicate that some infrastructure, such as schools, has already been damaged.
In an interview, CPU provincial chairwoman Ms Sithandiwe Ncube said members of the public should always maintain their structures and see if they can withstand any winds or rains.
“The community should periodically renovate their building structures. This helps in avoiding any casualties in the event of any winds or floods and reduces the cost in the case of a destruction as it is expensive to reconstruct compared to repairing.
“Some have a tendency of ignoring this issue and this is where the problem starts,” said she said
Ms Ncube who is also the Matabeleland South Provincial Administrator, said they have already activated their district CPU teams who are on the ground conducting awareness campaigns.
“We have already activated all our CPU teams at every district and they are conducting awareness campaigns. We are also targeting school children and advise that whenever heavy rains are experienced and school children are at the school, then they should be dismissed only if they are accompanied by older people,” she said.
Ms Ncube said they have mobilised resources through their partners and have dispatched some to the already affected areas.
“We have managed to mobilise resources in case of any disasters through our partners that include Red Cross, World Vision and others. Affected districts such as Beitbridge and Insiza have already received assistance. We have food supplies from Social Welfare Department which are on standby and appeal to other stakeholders and volunteers to help where they can mostly in form of tents,” said Ms Ncube.
Early this year a number of families in Sibhula in Gwanda were stranded for days without basic necessities as the village is at the centre of two rivers, Wovirira and Malema that had flooded with a five kilometre open space radius.
Ms Ncube added that communities should make use of the communications channels in their villages so that action can be taken immediately.
“We urge every member in the communities to play a part by communicating through the easy channels made to them in their villages so that there is a rapid response as we are ready to take action anytime if the need avails,” she said. — @mthabisi_mthire
