The Masaiti district Administration has embarked on sensitising surrounding communities on how to prevent occurrences of some natural disasters.
Masaiti District commissioner Patrick Zulu says there is need for communities to be knowledgeable of some disaster preventive measures that can be undertaken in order to help reduce calamities.
He said government such information will help government reduce on the expenditure incurred, each time the area is faced with a calamity.
Mr Zulu added that some roofs that were blown off were not strong enough to withstand a hailstorm, while other structures are too weak, hence collapsing during a heavy downpour.
“It has been brought to my attention that most of the houses which have had their roofs blown off are as a result of using wrong materials when constructing.” Mr Zulu said.
Mr Zulu further revealed that some community schools built by community members were not inspected by the local authority before being handed over to government, hence no assessment done declare the safety of the premises.
“We decided to come up with this workshop to educate our people on the importance of following preventive measures which can help reduce some of these disasters,” he said.
Meanwhile the District Commissioner said government has worked on the school infrastructures which had their roofs blown off.
Mr Zulu added that government did not want learners to miss out on school hours, adding that it was this reason that government decided to provide the necessary materials to replace the roofs.
Meanwhile, Mr Zulu explained that his office is still assessing the total number of affected houses, which have been affected by the heavy rains.
He added that a complete report will be submitted to the Disaster Management and Mitigation Unit (DMMU) once the assessment is done.
About a month ago, Masaiti district had a number of houses damaged after heavy rains experienced in the area.
Masaiti, Mpongwe and Lufwanyama receive a fair amount of rain everyone but have never experienced any serious disasters. This scenario has caused many people to relax. Sometimes it can rain the whole for 3 days and no are will experience any floods, water drains easily and clears within minutes. So the initiative to sensitize people must be commended. People must be aware that what they hear about in the news night happen to them. Go further and teach people how to construct better houses using burnt adobe. This will help mitigate the prevalence of collapsed structures
Lusaka Times reporters, as one of your keen readers I am seeking to know why everytime you post an article on your site it is acompanied by words, “has been published on Lusaka Times.com”? Don’t you think it is a Repetition of what you have already told us? Just wondering.
Yeah please educate them on the preventives