Vice President Inonge Wina has directed the Ministry of Agriculture to quickly assess and rehabilitate all old dams across the country to prevent disasters like in Mumbwa District in Central Province.
Mrs. Wina was speaking in Mumbwa when she visited the area where over 270 people, livestock and agricultural fields were affected by floods after the Kandesha Dam burst.
Mrs Wina said it is worrying that the dam which was constructed in the 1950s has not been receiving adequate maintenance.
She said Government is concerned about the situation because a lot of money is being spent on responding to disasters that could be prevented if measures are taken.
Mrs. Wina noted that with intensified rains, it is expected that the damaged dam will release even more water which would flood people’s homes and cause damage to the infrastructure.
She said people should not go back to their houses yet until the situation is certified safe.
The Vice President has also directed the Disaster Management and Mitigation Unit-DMMU to increase the relief allocation to the affected families most of whom are currently accommodated at the camp at St Edmunds School within Mumbwa.
She further called on the Ministry of Health to provide the needed medical supplies to the affected families to avoid outbreak of diseases such as cholera and other waterborne diseases.
Mrs Wina however thanked the Zambia Airforce and the people of Mumbwa for the prompt response during the rescue of victims.
She said the intervention by the community led to saving a lot of lives that could have been lost if they had not responded.
Earlier, DMMU Assistant Director for Prevention and Mitigation, Lenganji Sikaona briefed the vice President that that more than 270 households were displaced and are currently being kept at a school.
Mr Sikaona said the floods that were brought about the bursting of the Kandesha dam destroyed a lot of properties and Infrastructure.
He said the situation further paralysed government operations because key government installations were damaged.
In Zambia we are excellent at being reactive, seldomly proactive. We had to wait for a day to kill people before reacting, a dam that was built but not completed from as far back as 2002. Shame on us as a nation!
How do they fix dams in the rain season?
Jesus Christ once called Herod Fox. Luke 13:32 ????
When are you going to construct Ndola-Lusaka dual carriageway with all those toll gate collections.
They waited for a disaster to make that call? Very typical.
It’s an old dam built before many of us here were born. Many of these dams were built in during the stability and development boom of the post-1945 era and hv seen their best days. In most cases, they hv silted up and many of today’s officials in local government and MPs don’t even know about this.
The senile old hen Inonge is awake …since when has the Ministry of Agric been allocated a budget to fix all old dams across the country…I am sure even the civil servants are laughing at her pointless toothless directives.
No culture of maintenance. Now trying to mend myriads of holes in a leaking bucket. Catch-22 is buying anew is equally prohibitive after all the borrowing. Ndiye rock, hard place and flooding tides imene timakamba ndiye iyi abale. Happy New Year!
We can do it mother! And we shall. Thank you VP
Blame it on PF government, that is the more reason Zambians want to change. Where has PF been to begin to fix things now? – scheming to kill Zambians instead of focussing in solving national challenges of development. Zambians have resolved PF must go
They have to be directed? Professionals being ordered by mere politicians! The whole country is sleeping
They need to be check from time to time….
Let’s complete works on all dams to avoid future disaster
All dams must be checked from time to time even before the on set of the rain season
Ackim Michelo – PF got prefabricated culverts and bridge components at great expense from China a few years ago that cost the taxpayer millions of dollars …god knows where all this equipment has gone I mean RDA has data on all the bridges and small crossings in the country that needs repair but they do not have an allocated budget because every funds is stolen they would rather wait for the rainy season. You have some morn here calling leaders mother and father do you pay your mother a salary, does your mother lie to you that things are okay when they are not? This country can not develop with such fossils and braindead politicians of yesteryear like this old hen Inonge …we need young people to be in that role of veep not dinosaurs waiting for retirement.
Sitali Simui – you have created a dam upstream for unknown reasons and you want to make it future flood proof without adequate overflow technology …good luck with that!!
Along creating a dam upstream you don’t assess the pro’s and cons, then despite understanding the devastating effects of flooding as per God and Noah, unplanned settlements are allowed to spring up in water catchment areas prone to flooding with no drainage safety! With consecutive Zambian leaderships maintenance on infrastructure has never been a priority as leaders only think development is construction of new edifices is what determines development! For one, just take stock of educational facilities around the country especially rural areas! Action will only follow when pupils get buried under ruble!
But aren’t they supposed to be built solidly the first time? It’s not like we have a shortage of cement in zambia? Arched dams are stronger by the way and not the straight walls like I’m seeing in the captioned picture.
David M Mwanangombe – We have plenty of cement, its just that the number of thieves in PF outnumbers planners and technocrats…just go and look at the AG Report for 2019 and see who were doing works on such projects I mean you have businesses registered as Retail bottle stores to Motor Mechanics being awarded such contracts.
Waiting to exhale.colonist were better off than this opportunist leaders.
Alex Chileshe – Colonists were not better …if you are happy with racist policies then you need prayers….you think colonists would even allow you to step into ShopRite!
They only wake up in an election year. Where have they(PF) been since coming to power to fix the ever aging dams…this is not new mama Inonge, this shows a lack of foresight and proper accountability by the PF government.
We do not need RECYCLED politicians, mama Inonge has no capacity or even strength to function effectively. PF kuyabebele. Make it work guys….vote PF out.
Ministry of Agriculture? Where is ZA IS and the Army under a Disaster Management Unit that is under the VPs office?
Government of directives. From top to bottom everyone directs and no one does the actual work and no one checks routinely if any work is done. Everything comes as a surprise – a disaster.