Zambia Floods

by Delphine Zulu
– Zambia –

This year, MORE than 4,000,000 Zambian people, especially in rural areas, will be affected by hunger and will need immediate attention from the Government to save them from starvation. Severe flooding in six major Provinces heavily populated by farmers has threatened food security in the country.

The affected people would need over 11,000 tons of maize to avoid death by starvation.

“They are now relying on world fruits as they are taking advantage of the rainy season, once it’s over in March, starvation will be uncompromising,” says Zambian Vice President, Rupiah Banda.

The Vice President also described the flood situation as “alarming” in Zambia.

According to investigations carried out by the Vice President’s office, another 30,000 people, mostly farmers, have been left homeless. They complain of lack of political will from the Zambian Government to assist them.

The country’s disaster management unit under the Vice President’s office has engaged Zambia Air Force (ZAF) helicopters to airlift relief food distribution to affected areas throughout the country.

ZAF also distributes tents to displaced families to be used as their temporal shelter while others were being flown to drier lands.

The affected, now suffering the double tragedy of spending each night in the cold on an empty stomach, accuse the Government of misplacing its priorities. They claim the government rushed to implement policies that benefited people only in urban areas.

“We are sure that Government is not aware of our predicament because even our Government representatives rarely visited us to check on how we are surviving, lack of political will was a major problem,” said a farmer and flood victim, Mr. Nchimunya Munkombwe.

After reviewing a report prepared by the Vice President’s office and the disaster management unit, Republican President, Levy Mwanawsa declared that the floods will adversely affect the country’s economy.

The President recently ordered all 150 Members of Parliament to travel to their respective constituencies and assess the flood situation to allow the Government to decide the next step.