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Continuous floods on the Zambezi river have detached over twenty three thousand (23, 000) people on the West Bank of the ç constituency in north western province .
The floods which have stretched across Chavuma and Zambezi districts has disrupted the normal operations and living standards of the people on west bank as they cannot access basic services from the eastern side.
The people living on the west bank are cut off from accessing fuel, food supplies, education for school going children and health services until April when the rain subsides.
ZANIS reports from Zambezi District that the area District Commissioner Catherine Mukuma confirmed the development at her office today.
This was observed when north western permanent secretary Amos Malupenga visited the district on his familiarization tour.
“The pontoon has also temporally stopped operating until April or May when the rain stops. Our officers that side may have food at least because by October they start storing to cover up but my worry is the rest, I’m not sure what the situation is like,” Ms Mukuma lamented.
And Mr Malupenga says the situation in the two districts is a challenge that needs concerted efforts of stakeholders including members of parliament.
He noted that a lasting solution has to be found considering that the problem is not new but has existed from the time of creation of God, “political will has been missing otherwise it would have been sorted a long time”
And the district education board secretary Ms Trifornia Tembo told the permanent secretary during a meeting that a number of schools have collapsed in the west bank while nine schools have their roofs blown off in the district since 2006.
She said teachers at the affected schools have been relocated to other schools to continue teaching but most pupils are not learning at the moment because of the floods.
“ we want our roofs repaired just like we have heard that a school in Katuba with the same problem will be roofed soon as announced by the vice president last week”, Ms Tembo added.
While the acting head teacher at Zambezi secondary school Mr. David Simau lamented that the school infrastructure has become inadequate due the increase in population.
Mr. Simau said the entire district has only two secondary schools a situation which has forced the school administration to introduce afternoon learning in order to accommodate every pupil.
He cited the inadequate desks and classrooms as major challenges that have come with growing population at the school.
“to accommodate everyone, the school will have 15 classes for grade 10s while the grade 11s will have nine classes that is the situation sir, Mr Simau said.
Mr Malupenga noted that though infrastructure is key in the district provincial administration may not manage to provide the required funds but of limitations in the budgets.
He said the province has only K42 million allocated for developmental projects. ‘what my office can do is to facilitate through your line ministries funding for infrastructure.
